Capicola advice

[Sherri]

So 8 days ago, I decided to try my hand at making capicola and used your 2013 capicola video for guidance. The following is the dry cure mixture recipe:

Video dry cure ingredients:
4 ½ lb meat
3 Tb kosher salt
2 Tb sugar
1 tsp cure #2
2 Tb coarse ground pepper
1 Tb juniper berries
2 bay leaves
½ tsp nutmeg
2 – 3 spring fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves minced

I followed the curing instructions in the video. An hour ago, I carried out the washing, rubbing with paprika, bagging and putting in refrigerator for the drying process. I sat down to write down what I had done (for future reference) and came across the UMAi written capicola instructions and now I am worried. There are two significant differences and I am hoping to get some feedback on what I should expect.

The written instruction emphasize the significance of the weight of the meat that was not in the video. My pork butt is slightly bigger at 5 lb. But even if my meat was at 4 1/2 lb, the video required 3 TB while the written requires 6 TB. Specifically, I used 3 TB of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt with a net weight of 32g. The other difference is the curing time. The video states one week while the written states 2 weeks. Mine was cured 7 1/2 days.

Please give me any feedback on what I should expect to happen and is there anything I should be doing different at this time – 2 hours into the drying stage.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

[Michael]

I just bagged mine today…I let my cure for two weeks, but went back to the video to see the remaining procedure and noticed it said cure for one week. I was worried I left it cure to long…wasn’t really worried about anything other then it being to salty. I knew I saw “cure for two weeks” somewhere…no I’m not so worried.

Kinda the opposite of your issue.

[Sherri]

rebeltruce – what did you do on the salt?

while I wait for feedback, I am working on homemade mozzarella 😛

[Ron Pratt]

quote edukimi” post=6603:

while I wait for feedback, I am working on homemade mozzarella 😛

I too love my home made mozzarella! Ron

[Sherri]

Ron – From that photo, it looks like you are ahead of me. I have attempted mozzarella 4 times previously with only one true success. Fingers crossed for today’s batch. But if it does not work, I think it is my rennet and that I need to replace it (long story). BUT, I make paneer very well (super easy).

[Ron Pratt]

Sherri, are you using tablet or liquid rennet? I prefer the liquid but even when kept in the refrig it has a shelf life. I should get this back on topic so I will say I keep the liquid rennet in the same refrig I dry age my meat in! 🙂 Don’t want to get the mod angry with me! :laugh: :laugh:

[Sherri]

I use liquid but I made the mistake of taking it to florida with me as I planned to show my italian mother-in-law how to make mozzarella (she makes a different fresh cheese). The rennet was out of the fridge for that week and I had not realized that was likely a bad idea.

As for the UMAi, hubby and I have our forth batch of Fincchiona drying in the fridge (one week in and half regular and half hot) at the moment. Making another 5 lb batch this week. We want to start having a rotation of drying salami available. They have been a HUGE hit and everyone wants them from us. Thanks UMAi. The Capicola is our next venture.

[Sherri]

yup, rennet failure

Hoping to hear something about my Capicola 🙂

[Ron Pratt]

quote edukimi” post=6608:

Hoping to hear something about my Capicola 🙂

Be patient – either the “nepas” or “Jim” streetcars will be along in time. I’m just the dry age streetcar! 😉

[Sherri]

perfect 🙂

[Michael]

I don’t remember, and I can’t find my notebook. I weighed the two Capi’s and used that total weight to come up with my cure. I have to find my notebook…… 🙂

[Jim]

Sherri,
The salt amount should be about 2-3% of the actual meat weight, so for 6 lbs (2,700 g) it should have 54-80g of salt.
Diamond Crystal is about half the weight of Morton Kosher salt. Our mistake was that initially we indicated salt amount using tablespoons and we were using Mortons and not actual weight which is the best way to measure salt.
Here is a useful article about this subject:

If the salt amount that you put in is lower than 2%, the meat will dry a bit longer and may have a more bland flavor. Anticipate drying time 8-10 weeks.
As for the curing time, one week is enough, two weeks are better. Curing time is the function of the size of the piece of meat, the salt has to migrate to the center of the meat to provide uniform flavor and good shelf life.
Hope this helps.

[Sherri]

Thanks for the detailed response. I am understanding the process better. So as I see it, I have two possible options and I would love your input.

1) Leave things as they are and continue to let the coppa dry, monitor the weight and expect the drying time to be significantly longer.

2) Take the washed, paprikaed, bagged copa from the refrigerator. Cut the ties off and wash back off the paprika. Mix up a second batch of the seasoning mix per the recipe above. Apply this second batch of cure to the meat, place in fresh ziplock and throw back into the fridge for another week+. For comparison, I noticed from a post by Nepas about his coppa. His mix on a 5 lb roast was 5 Tb non iodized salt, 5 TB sugar, 1 teas cure #2, 1.5 T black pepper, 2 tsp garlic powder, 10 juniper berries, 1/2 tsp ground mace. He applied half the mix as a first application and on day 9 applied the remainder with a total cure time of 18 days. My big concern would be the application of a second tsp of cure #2 to the meat.

Thoughts on which route I should take and how I should approach this? Coppa is less than 24 hours in UMAi bag.

[Sherri]

So, I just got off the phone from speaking with “the voice” from the UMAi videos. I called since I felt my two options above were only options for a limited amount of time.

Her position was identical to Jim’s and affirmed the likelihood of less flavor and longer drying time. She also did address what I considered to be options and stated that both options above are open to me. She also did address, if I mixed up a second batch of the cure which would then contain a second tsp of insecure #2, this would not be a health concern.

In the end, we concluded that I am going to go forward with my coppa exactly as it is and use the feedback from the results for my next coppa. So, that is the plan for coppa #1, but I am thinking that I will start a second coppa in third week of april using salt based on weight and curing for 2 weeks. This way, I will have a better chance of comparing the results from the two methods.

Hope these notes help someone else with the same problem. 🙂

[Jan Ooms]

I use now 2.5% Salt plus spices to equilibrium cure almost anything, from bacon to coppa etc etc. Cure the meat with 1/2 the total amount of the cure for 9/10 days. Than apply the other half of the cure and go for another 9/10 days.
Over salting is virtually eliminated and accidentally letting the meat cure a few days longer is no problem anymore.
All my dry curing is done in plain vacuum bags with some vacuum applied, double sealed all around for obvious reasons.
No leakage whatsoever when you massage the meat.
Good Luck,
Jan.

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