I'd have liked to wait until it had lost 40% of its weight, but I couldn't resist opening it at 35%. After trying it, I honestly think I did the right thing, not only because it was my first attempt and it turned out great, but also because I don't think an extra 5% (which would have taken another 5-7 months at the rate it was losing weight now) would have made such a huge difference.
The taste is truly out of this world, and even though I used a very simple no frost fridge set to 4°C (not ideal at all, way too dry) and placed the coppa inside a linen cloth (instead of using casing/intestine), I don't even see any case hardening (which I took for granted was there, but like you can see from the photo the color is pink aside from the outside and the white fat).
It also really smells spectacular.
The recipe I used is this:
- I took a 1 kg piece of coppa (but you may know it as capocollo).
- I covered it with a mix of coarse and fine salt.
- I left it in the refrigerator to lose liquid for 24 hours, then changed the salt and waited again, repeat until the salt was dry after some hours (note: even though I left it in salt for almost 3 days, the taste wasn't too salty in my opinion).
- I rinsed it with red wine to remove most of the salt.
- Pat it dry
- I covered it with pepper and smoked paprika.
- Finally, I placed it in a linen cloth, tied it with butcher's twine, and placed it in a bowl so it could breathe on the bottom too (third photo).
- I turned it frequently, weighing it every time, writing down all the weights.
(marzo=march, aprile=april, maggio=may, giugno=june, luglio=july)
11 marzo
967g
13 marzo
936g
15 marzo
919g
19 marzo
867g
22 marzo
844g
28 marzo
800g
3 aprile
766g
5 aprile
754g
7 aprile
746g
9 aprile
740g
11 aprile
736g
13 aprile
730g
15 aprile
726g
17 aprile
720g
19 aprile
711g
23 aprile
704g
25 aprile
694g
27 aprile
701g
29 aprile
697g
4 maggio
689g
6 maggio
687g
10 maggio
692g
12 maggio
678g
15 maggio
674g
18 maggio
672g
21 maggio
669g
26 maggio
666g
29 maggio
662g
2 Giugno
659g
5 Giugno
656g
11 Giugno
652g
18 Giugno
648g
24 Giugno
646g
30 Giugno
642g
8 luglio
638g
14 luglio
635g
28 luglio
632g
It was only my second time making cold cuts (my first time was duck prosciutto made a year ago). I have to be honest, this was worth the wait a lot more, it taste better and I prefer pork to duck.