Capicola (also spelled Capocollo, Coppa, Ham-Capocollo) is a dry cured whole muscle meat typically made from the coppa muscle of pork. Located between the head (capo) and ribs, this cut is the "money muscle" inside a shoulder and butt that is well-marbled and perfect for dry curing. In this easy version, it's rubbed with a homemade seasoned cure then aged for about 5 weeks in the dry aging cabinet.
Capicola (also spelled Capocollo, Coppa, Ham-Capocollo) is a dry cured whole muscle meat typically made from the coppa muscle of pork. Located between the head (capo) and ribs, this cut is the "money muscle" inside a shoulder and butt that is well-marbled and perfect for dry curing. In this easy version, it's rubbed with a homemade seasoned cure then aged for about 5 weeks in the dry aging cabinet.
Ingredients
15 LB – Pork Coppa “Money Muscle”
150g – Kosher Slat
108g – Sugar
28g – Red Pepper Flakes
28g – Fennel
16g – Granulated Garlic
18g – Pink Cure
Directions
Trim the pork to have an even surface with no holes or pitting.
Mix the ingredients of the cure together and split in half. Save ½ of the cure for later (next week)
Rub the pork with ½ of the cure so that all sides are well coated, and all the cure is adhered.
Weigh the pork and mark with starting weights.
Place in a sanitized Reserve 50 with the UV light on.
Set temperature to 40 degrees.
Set relative humidity to 75%.
Age for 1 week.
Remove the pork from the ager and rub all the meat with the remaining ½ cure mixture.
If the cure/rub isn’t sticking well, you can lightly spray the meat with apple cider vinegar to help it adhere.
Place the muscles back in the ager.
Age for an additional 3-4 weeks. Once the meat has lost 35-40% of its weight, it is done.
Thinly slice the capicola and store in vacuum sealed bags.
