# how to make capicola



## schoch79 (Nov 21, 2014)

Hi guys. I'm new here and I want to try my hand at capicola/coppa. After looking all over the internet I'm turning to you guys to help me out since I cant find the answer elsewhere. So I went out and bought a whole boneless pork butt that weighs about 10 pounds. I'm curious if I can cure/age the whole thing and still come out with something darn close to capicola, which I understand is made from just the "coppa" muscle cut out of the butt. Mostly I would rather do it this way because for one I'm not really confident in cutting out the coppa muscle and two I don't really have a use for the rest of the butt. I bought the butt for this purpose alone and getting a maybe 3 pound piece of meat out of it to make capicola leaves me with a lot of leftover meat that I now need to make something else out of. I don't really care if technically I could call it capicola/coppa as long as it will turn out essentially the same. Any opinions?


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## daveomak (Nov 22, 2014)

Using the whole butt won't work....  Too much fat and too many separate "whole muscles".....   Remove the "coppa" muscle as best you can....    take your time to trim it out of the butt....   do the cure thing....    With what's left, I like to slice it for pork steaks or country spare ribs.....   or grind it for sausage...  If you like Cajun, make Tasso.....     I think the butt is one of the best cuts from the pig... lots of fat and that means flavor...


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## diggingdogfarm (Nov 24, 2014)

@schoch79

The collar is easy to cut out of the butt.
I'm trying to get photos that show the process updated on another forum ...the formatting there is currently screwed up.
I'll post here as soon as it's updated.



~Martin


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## DanMcG (Nov 24, 2014)

A 10 pound butt is a pretty large piece of meat to be doing your first dry cured  product. But there's no reason you can't cut it up into "coppa" size pieces and do a few experiments with different spices.


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## schoch79 (Nov 25, 2014)

I have been looking at how to cut the collar/coppa off of the butt and its not that it looks hard so much as there doesn't seem to be a clear seam that people are cutting from. I've looked at videos, pictures, descriptions...everything I could think of. Anyway, one technique I have seen is what was described as a straight cut, which instead of trimming along a seam just has you cutting straight down and making a square cut. While I still don't know if I know what I'm doing or not I think I will go with that and like DanMcG was saying just do it in 2 five pound sections. That would allow me to get a somewhat normal coppa section and do it properly and then another less than perfect piece of cured meat. For that matter I'm not completely against turning the other half into something like buckboard bacon. Ideally I would prefer to dry cure/age it but either way would be ok.


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## diggingdogfarm (Nov 25, 2014)

There is somewhat of a seam.
Turns out getting the pics updated in the following thread isn't going to be easy as I'd hoped but if you copy and paste the URL of the pic into a browser they'll display correctly.
Maybe I can get BriCan to update the pics.

Anyway here's the thread......

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=8603

There's one pic missing but it's still fairly easy to tell what's going on.
I do make some coppa and  a heck of a lot of cottage and pocket ham  (all are the same cut...collar is what the call it in these parts) and that's the way that I break them down.
I typically cut out the collar and use the rest for sausage.


HTH


~Martin


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## schoch79 (Nov 26, 2014)

Ok. So here's an update for you. I cut open the bag it came in and surprise....it was actually 2 5ish pound butts, lol. Everything makes more sense now. I knew 10 pounds sounded a little high for only 1 boneless butt. Anyway, after looking at them (this was my first time ever using a whole butt) I realized quickly I wasn't going to be able to do anything like what I thought. The portion that held the bone was all but in pieces due to the deboning process. That left me with a nice solid piece (the collar/coppa) and a loose cut up piece that I decided will go into the grinder and await further decision on what to do with it. And just as diggingdog said.....it was actually quite easy to cut it out. I'm sure I didn't do it perfect but it turned out pretty darn good if you ask me. Thanks for helping me along guys.


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## bigbuck (Dec 15, 2014)

i too am wanting to try capicola, I want to do a spicy rub on it though any suggestions? I have been reading and watching videos a lot and it seems everyone has a different take on the process,can anyone help me? I have seen people do it in sealer bags in fridge for 6 months hang in beef bung,collagen paper as well as leave it hang in butchers netting,i need a surefire recipe as easy as possible,thanks for any help


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## roller (Dec 15, 2014)

http://www.drybagsteak.com/


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## ak1 (Dec 15, 2014)

Easy way. Buy a coppa cut of meat. weigh it. 3% of that weight in salt plus about 2% weight in other seasonings you like. I prefer 70/30 black pepper/ ground fennel seed with just a pinch of ground chile. Mix the seasoning well with the salt and then rub it evenly over the meat. Put the meat in a ziploc bag big enough to hold it. Dump any remaining rub into the bag as well. get as much air out as possible before sealing the bag. Stick it in the fridge. Massage it every day for 4-6 days to help distribute the cure.  1 day before the meat comes out of the cure, prepare a good beef bung. in water in the fridge changed 3-4 times to get rid of the salt. 

Once the meat is done curing, rinse it well to get rid of the salt mix. pat it dry, then wash it down with some white wine. Pat it to dry again then rub some black pepper over it. Now stuff it in the beef bung, tie it up nice. Hang it in a nice suitable place that is between 50-65 degrees & about 70-80% humidity, leave it until it loses around 30% of it's weight.. Peel off the casing, slice it nice & thin and enjoy.


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## ak1 (Dec 15, 2014)

OOPS. Forgot to add. If you have some spray it with some mould solution. It'll help with the drying & will give it a nice flavour. Hopefully once it's done there will be a nice covering of white mould all over.


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## bigbuck (Dec 21, 2014)

thanks ak,in process of curing as we speak!


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## jerkysam (Dec 10, 2016)

6 loins hung for 8 wks, just unwrapped one.  Green mold covering it, no smell, dry


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