Whether you know it as coppa, capicola, cappicollo or gabagoo, these names all refer to roughly the same thing. We're talking about a cured whole-muscle usually spiced with red pepper flakes, chilies, cayenne or the like. The other ingredients vary quite a bit by region and taste. These cured meats are typically made from the neck (capo=head, collo=neck in Italian) muscle, extracted from a whole pork shoulder. My recipe was a combination of what I thought would be best after having looked at about 5 or 6 recipes. Here it is:
| lbs | grams | % | |
| pork shoulder | 2.84 | 1288.2 | |
| salt | 45.09 | 3.50% | |
| Instacure #2 | 3.22 | 0.25% | |
| sugar | 19.32 | 1.50% | |
| white pepper | 12.88 | 1.00% | |
| clove | 1 | 3.22 | 0.25% |
| coriander | 10 | ||
| juniper berry | 3 | 1.42 | 0.11% |
| Smoked paprika | 7.09 | 0.55% | |
| rosemary | 8 leaves | 0.55% | |
| cayenne | pinch | 42.77 | 3.32% |
For the cure process, I added all the ingredients to a large zip-top bag and massaged the meat. I set it in a baking dish in the fridge and flipped it once a day for six days. After it was all done, I removed the meat and rinsed it and patted it dry. Since I didn't have a casing big enough, I decided to use some caul fat that I found at the butcher shop. I figured it would serve as a protective membrane to prevent the meat from case hardening, or drying out on the outer surface too quickly.
After a good wrapping in a couple of layers and a quick wrap up in butcher twine, I set it in the fridge at 50°F and about 75%RH to start. A tray of moistened sea salt is key for maintaining the proper humidity level. And for a low-tech solution, it works quite well.
| Date | 3/7/2015 | 3/26/2015 | 5/11/2015 | 6/3/2015 | 6/14/2015 |
| Weight (g) | 1287 | 1033 | 886 | 850 | 834 |
I waited until the weight had dropped by 35% before cracking into the Coppa, a little over 3 months later! I was rewarded with a beautiful rosy color and aroma when I first cut into it. I cut it up into 4 equal pieces, one to enjoy for brunch and the others were vacuum packed and put into the fridge.
Tasting notes: I find the salt level to be quite perfect, it's not too salty, but it's also not under salted. The flavor is pleasant and mild but the spices don't seem to come through very strongly, I would up all of the aromatics significantly for a more pronounced flavor, there is also no heat felt from the cayenne.
If and when I make coppa again, I'd probably make the following adjustments:
Double the cayenne and juniper berry, and triple the paprika. Consider adding red wine also.
