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This gourmet dish is honored to be placed in a row with the best Iberian jamon.
It’s not too hard to prepare a homemade coppa even if you do not dispose of special climatic chambers and other expensive kitchen equipment.
The cooking process is simple enough but the aging (cure) takes a long time, from three to five months. But it’s worth going into it.
We need pork neck to cook coppa — the cut which is characterized by noticeable muscle structure and is full of fat lines.
First the meat is salted.
Salt — 2%
CUR#2 (sodium nitrite) — 0,25%
Sugar — 0,5%
Granulated garlic — 0,5%
Peppers mix (black, coriander, red, allspice) — 0,8%
Mustard seeds — 0,5%
Smoked paprika (sweet o spicy, at your taste) — 0.2%
Thyme, rosemary, oregano — a bit, at your taste to create extra flavor.
The piece of meat should be thoroughly coated with the mixture for salting, massaged well and finally packed in a bag to cool in the fridge for 5−7 days. I’d recommend turning the meat over and massaging it daily to balance the taste.
After salting the meat is washed over, dried with a kitchen towel and packed in an elastic meat netting to go further for cold smoking for 5−12 hours.
For the homemade cure I’d recommend to use special UMAI bags because they solve the problem of mold control.
You can also use a climatic chamber.
The pork loin is sealed in a plastic bag UMAI and should be placed in the fridge for 3−5 months until it loses 38−42% of its proper weight.
When the desired level of aging is reached you need to take the meat out of the bag and seal it in an ordinary plastic bag at least for a week so that the taste is balanced enough and the product could be long-time stored.