Meats and Sausages
Coppa
Coppa or Capocollo are Italian cured pork butts. Two well known Italian coppas are: Coppa Piacentina (Piacenza region) and Capocollo di Calabria (Calabria region), both have Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status, which ensures that only products genuinely originating in those regions are allowed in commerce as such.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| pork butt, boneless. Pork butt weighs about 2.2-2.7 kg (5-6 lbs). | 1000 g | 2.20 lb. |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| salt | 39 g | 6-1/2 tsp. |
| Cure #2 | 5.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| black pepper | 8.0 g | 4 tsp. |
| sugar | 25 g | 2 Tbsp. |
| garlic powder | 2.5 g | 1 tsp. |
| cumin, ground | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| cloves, ground | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| cinnamon | 0.5 g | ½ tsp. |
| paprika | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| red pepper | 1.0 g | ½ tsp. |
Instructions
- Trim excess fat all around the butt. Keep the butt in refrigerator to keep it cold.
- Mix salt, Cure #2, sugar and all spices together. This is your spice mixture. Rub the meat on all sides with half of the spice mixture. Place the butt for 9 days in refrigerator. Keep it covered with plastic wrap or a cloth to prevent drying. You can place it in a zip lock bag too.
- After 9 days, rub the butt with the remaining spice mixture and keep in refrigerator for an additional 9 days.
- Remove from refrigerator, rinse the surface with tap water to remove any crystallized salt. Let it dry on the refrigerator’s screen for 3 hours.
- Make another flavoring spice mixture:
1 Tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground fennel. Rub into coppa. - Stuff the butt into beef bungs or 100 mm collagen casings. Prick air pockets to allow entrapped air to escape. Do this especially at the two ends, and anywhere you see pockets of air.
- Hold butts for 21 days at around 55° F (14° C), 70% humidity to dry and mature. Do not go over 59° F (15° C).
Notes
Original coppa is not smoked. If you like smoky flavor, you may apply cold smoke (< 65° F, 18° C) at any given time.
