In the southern part of Italy what’s “coppa” in the north is called “capocollo”. That’s where the American term “capicola” or “gabagool” comes from. Most of the Italian immigrants to the US were from Southern Italy, bringing with them the term and product “capocollo”
I’ve already gone through the whole coppa making process in a previous post, but this one is slightly different. My buddy Scott at Sausage Debauchery, who’s family is original from Calabria, is a Calabrian FREAK. He’s so obsessed with the place that he opened a store to source and resell Calabrian chili pepper and other goodies. All I hear from him is how Calabrian cured meats are the best, tastiest, blah blah blah. Mostly in an effort to shut him up, I made a capocollo following the Calabrian DOP production methodology.
Capocollo di Calabria is pretty interesting in how it’s made. As you can see above the cure is done very simply with just salt and Cure. After its salting period it’d then rinsed in vinegar and rubbed in peperoncino/chili powder (Calabrian please! Cayenne is not an acceptable substitute!)
I’m guessing the rinsing in vinegar is an old world remnant when it was done to make sure the meat surface was as “clean” from bacteria as possible before entering its long drying phase. Now days I think it’s just done as part of tradition as i can’t imagine a rinse in vinegar could impart that much flavor.
 | Nice whole coppa muscle. Big one too, 2688g! Didn’t do much trimming to this |
 | Salt, cure and that’s it. I’ve been putting stuff to salt cure in vacuum bags. I like how it keeps everything clean, no leaks and makes sure all the salt is in contact with the meat during the cure. |
 | After cure. Meat looks pretty similar. Rinsed and dried. |
 | Vinegar rinse and then heavily rubbed with Calabrian peperoncino. |
 | The muscle is cased in “pelle di sugna”, which is a casing made from the lining of the inner walls of the pig organ cavity. You can’t get it here, as far as i know. I don’t even know the name for it in English. I suggest a beef bung as a substitution. |
 | Tied and ready for the fermentation box for 48 hours at 75 deg F. |
 | A quick 3.5 months in teh curing chamber and the capocollo had lost about 45% of its weight. The chamber was running around 75% RH at 55 deg. F. |
 | Sliced thin, it’s delicious! |
24 comments:
Add flakes as well next time. I've had similar problems. What happens is, while casing, the wet casing rubs a lot of powder off.
thanks scott, i'll add some flakes next time too
Good to see a new post, dude!
Looks great Jason
How do you store any left overs?
Mike
long term storage i vac pack. short term just plastic wrap and zip lock
Looks Great!! How long did you leave it in the salt, cure?
Mike M
Good question Mike...i have to look at my notes, but i think about 20 days
Looks great! I will try to do it with spanish paprika (Unfortunatedly, calabrese products are not available here in Colombia)
A nice flavorful spanish or hungarian HOT paprika could work nicely as a forced substitute.
really any nice flavorful pepper powder will work, but the calabrian is particularly tasty.
Really looks great. May I ask why this went through the fermentation stage? I did not see any starter culture added in your recipe.
Al, i believe it helps kick start the lactic bacteria on teh meat which then help break down the nitrates to nitrites.
It also helps adhere the casing to the meat.
How would this turn out without the casing?
I don't know. Why not use a casing?
Thanks for your blog entries Jason! Very inspirational. I'm new in the craft and loving it. As well as your blog.
Could I have one question please? Why did you place the capocollo in your fermentation box for two days? I would think that such step make sense only when some fermenting cultures are involved to boost their activity.
Thanks,
David
David, i answered this exact question 2 comments above:
"i believe it helps kick start the lactic bacteria on teh meat which then help break down the nitrates to nitrites.
It also helps adhere the casing to the meat."
Jason-
I ordered pig bladders from Butcher and Packer for my culatello. They sent me "laminated pig bladders" which do not appear to be at all the same as the pig bladder -- judging from that video on your culatello post. The laminated pig baldder (after it is soaked) ends up very thin, so thin in fact that you can not sew it like the pig bladder si sewn up for culatello. It looks a lot like the “pelle di sugna” you used in this coppa. I used the laminated pig bladder for the culatello but if you are looking for something similar to the “pelle di sugna” you should check them out if you are not familiar with them.
Any idea where to get a regular pig bladder?
Check with Scott Stegen at Sausage Debauchery. HE had some bladders for sale.
Have you ever used a flavor/color enhancing fermentation culture on a solid encased muscle, such as cs 299 or cp 277? I thought this would be the appropriate place for this question since a couple of people asked the reason for the fermentation chamber for a solid muscle.
Last week I opened a small coppa that I cured and encased the regular way, except that I used cs 299 on the outside of the meat in liquid form before I encased it.
The coppa was delicious and the texture was phenomenal.
The interesting thing is that it has a slightly yeasty hint in the background.
I see no reason why the flavor enhancing bacteria wouldnt penetrate the muscle and do their magic, just curious if you or anyone else has done this as well.
Thanks!
hotsauce, i haven't heard or know anything about the cultures you mention. Where are they available?
I've only used mold sprays on the outside of muscle meats.
Butcher and packer, but you have to ask for them, they do not list them.
One is c-p 77s, one is cs 299, the third is T-spx which you already know about.
Basically read about the bacteria in Marianski's book "Art of fermented sausages". There are basically three classes of beneficial bacteria used for curing meats: lactic acid producing, color and flavor enhancing, and one other kind that kills the bad guys, can't remember the details.
These 3 classes are present in the 3 formulas above.
Yes they are for fermented sausages, but I thought why not try them on solid muscles as well, under the casing?
So I have 3 big spella's hanging right now, all cured the same, except they each have one of the different cultures above, so I'll be able to tell a difference when they are aged should be 3 mo or so more, they already have been hanging for 2 mo.
This way we will see what the effects are of the different cultures.
Interesting experiment. Never thought to add cultures (other than the penecillium mold spray) to solid muscles.
Clearly different strains of mold have different flavor properties which is why the same salame made in different places will taste different.
Let us know!
Sure thing!
Ciao scusa per le domande in italiano pero ho piu dimestichezza con i termini di norcineria in questa lingua. Voglio fare il capocollo pero e impossibile trovare nel mio paese il budello adatto. Si puo fare altrimenti? In un blog ho letto che si lega con la carta da macelleria e poi con la carta paglia prima di stagionarlo. Grazie in anticipo
carta da macelleria direi di no. So che c'e' gente che usa i teli per fare il formaggio.
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