Capicola advice

[Sherri]

Phil,

Yesterday, I was searching on rubs to make hot capicola (cure and rub looked tasty) and interestingly came across the following instructions on an non-UMAi site:

“Start by mixing the dry cure ingredients together in a medium-size non-resistant bowl. Divide the mixture in half and place one portion into in a covered glass jar, set aside. Rub the surface of the meat on all sides with the dry cure mix. It’s important that you cover every square inch of the product .

To prevent the meat from drying out, place it in a ziploc bag or a covered non-reactive container. Store at 36-38°F (2-3°C) for 8-9 days during which time the salt will begin to penetrate the meat and force out the fluids (turn the meat over every other day). When the allotted cure time is up, rub the surface of the meat with the reserved cure mixture and refrigerate an additional 8-9 days.

Once the 18 day curing process is over, remove the cured meat from the refrigerator and rinse away any crystallized salt that may have accumulated on the surface of the product.”

I would speculate that I would not take my coppa from a bag, redress it with cure and stick it back into the bag with the fluids. I instinctively, would dump out those liquids. Curious what Jan will say.

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On another note: here is the hot capicola cure and rub ingredients that I came across. Does anyone see an issue with my using those ingredients for my next coppa? To my eye, the salt sounds high and I would lower it to 60 – 65g and is sugar ok in a cure?

Hot Capicola Recipe
5 lbs pork butt (2.27 kg)
1/3 cup pickling salt (102 g) (
1 tsp pink curing salt #1 (5.7 g)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (1.1 g)
1 tsp cloves, ground (2.7 g)
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (3.3 g)
2 1/2 tsp garlic powder (7.75 g)
1 tbsp paprika (7.2 g)
3 tbsp black pepper, coarse (23.4 g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (116 g)

Capicola Rub:
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (3.3 g)
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar, packed (22 g)
1 1/2 tbsp paprika (10.8 g)
#10 elastic netting