Coppa

Back on May third I blogged from Spain about the Iberico pigs and here sits the collar from one of those pigs. The collar or coppa is the top of the back of the neck. It is one special cut. Of all the Italian style cold cuts once cured this is my favorite. It's rich flavor comes from the well marbled meat and seams of fat that run through the cut combined with curing salt and seasonings. We are going for hot coppa here so chile flake is included in the mix. Also, this being a Spanish pig one of the central flavors will be Pimenton de la Vera, sweet smoked paprika. Basic curing mix, ground cinnamon and ground clove finish up the mix.

This second hunk of pork is good ol' USDA commodity pork from downstate somewhere. Why is this here, in the rarified company of La Pata Negra? Because of a challenge that was issued by a Lake street pork butcher. I went to Grant Park Packing to get a bung casing to hold the coppa for the drying stage. Joe Maffei the owner, likes to break stones so when I asked for the casing of course his response was "What da hell are ya doin' now?" When I told him, he asked after the cut of pork I was using. Thus prompting the challenge. "Whadya payin' fifteen dollars a pound for? I bet you can get just as good from the regular stuff." So of course he had a ct butt brought out from the back. He handed it to me and said, "I want to taste them when they're done."
And so here they are about five minutes into the cure. In bags and massaged once daily. As this is written they are halfway through day eleven. The meat is firming up nicely. Only a few more days for the Iberico. The commodity will take a little longer because of it's different configuration. The drying stage will take weeks. The objective is to dry gradually so the flesh and the fat do not separate. The casing helps with this also. Keeping the whole muscle/fat package tight.