Capicola – Round 2

[Phil]

This is my second attempt at Capicola. In previous posts I indicated how disappointed I was with mold and putrid odor the first attempt. This time there was no odor and a little white mold. It was in the bag for 74 days and lost 33% of green weight. I’m sure my fridge is hampering the drying process as getting to 35-40% weight loss seems impossible.

[Jan Ooms]

Hi Phil,
Your Coppa looks very good, what’s the taste and texture like?
I’ve never had any bad smells and mould on any Coppa’s, Loins and Bresaolas.
All the above have been put in fairly strong elastic netting on top of the UMAi bag. Personally I think it could make a difference in drying time by putting pressure on the whole muscle.
As an example: Loin. Green weight 1546 gr. Now 1007 gr.
Starting Date: 1/4/15 Date 21/5/15 539 gr loss over 51 days.
The next 14 days will tell the difference.
Jan.

[Phil]

Greetings Jan
The taste is fine. The texture is a bit soft but that might change in time. I really like your idea of putting the dry bag into elastic netting.
Phil

[Jan Ooms]

Phil, if you buy any netting, buy some extra strong netting. I’ve seen elastic netting that wouldn’t mark a marshmellow. In Australia some super strong netting is available through Italian retail stores that import it themselves to cater for salami making time. You need a bazooka to apply it.

[Sherri]

shuswap,

Sorry that I have not gone back and looked at the previous posts for your capicola attempts. I guess the questions I would ask you (basing these on input I got on my one attempts) is 1) what was your cure i.e. amount of salt? 2) how did you chose to apply the cure (there is varying advice on time and how)? 3) size of cut of meat?

For my first attempt, it has been identified that my salt was low, my cure time was short and my meat was large. I was told that both of these would impact the drying time, flavor, and i would speculate final % loss. Mine was drying 13.5 weeks vs 6 – 8 weeks with a final loss of 31%.

So, if you are unhappy about your result, you could investigate the about factors and see if there is a variable you want to change.

BTW, it looks like a beautiful result!

[Phil]

Edukimi, here is the recipe I used adjusted for 1650g meat:
• Pork coppa muscle 4 1/2 lbs. (2kg)
• Kosher salt (3% of meat weight) 6 tbsp (60g)
• Sugar 2 tbsp (30g)
• InstaCure #2 (0.25% of meat weight)1 tsp (6g)
• Black pepper, coarsely ground 2 tbsp (4g)
• Juniper berries, crushed 1 tbsp (4g)
• Bay leaves, crumbled 2 (2g)
• Freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp (1g)
• Fresh thyme 2 or 3 sprigs (3g)
• Garlic, minced 2 cloves

[Sherri]

Looks like we followed essentially the same recipe except that mine was 3 TB salt and not by weight so yours looks spot on.

Looking at your other posts, I am guessing that that you did the cure for the 18 days that was discussed on your other thread or at least the 14 days of other recipes?

The weight of your meat is less than the 4.5 lb, so I don’t think that is an issue either.

So I think you could try the suggestion of the elastic net. The only other suggestion I have (but have not done) is from my notes/reading from a few months ago. Take from it what you will. This is a cut a paste from my notes:

“Drying comments: “Troy” prefers 38-40% loss, a butcher won’t sell before 50% loss, another member mentioned that % number as well. if open too early, wrap in parchment and open ziplock in fridge to dry more or white paper towel in brown paper bag (parchment from 40% to 50% a positive?)”

I am speculating that I meant to type “in open ziplock” not “and open ziplock”. I am also not certain about what I meant with “parchment from 40% to 50% a positive?”. I think I need to write clearer notes for myself. 🙂

[Phil]

I will be opening a bresaola next week with 30% weight loss and, taking your suggestion, if it isn’t dry enough I will hold in the fridge wrapped in paper towel and a paper bag. I have found that this method dries my pepperoni if left too long so I know that works.
thx

[Sherri]

I am very interested in attempting a bresaola soon. My question for you is are you using the eye of round per the Umai recipe. Yesterday, I was searching “how to make Bresaola” on the internet and I have also seen reference to top round or tenderloin instead of the eye of round. Comments/thoughts?

[Phil]

Edukimi – I used eye of the round. Advice from others is don’t waste a tenderloin on bresaola – use it for steaks or roasts – Umai has several recipes. This morning I put down a herb & garlic tenderloin for Saturday’s steak dinner.

[Sherri]

Perfect. Good to know that using the less expensive cut is appropriate. I’ll have to take a look at recipes and cure time and figure out how to fit is around my vacation.

What is it you are doing for your Saturday dinner? Is that some sort of dry aged steak?

[Phil]

dry aged herb & garlic tenderloin which will be 1-1/2 fillet mignon steaks

[Jan Ooms]

Curing times are not very important if you “Equilibrium ” cure your meat. The maximum I use is now 2% including the cure. This percentage suits me just fine. If you aim for 40% weight loss, the salt is increased anyway.
With EQ curing I forgot to take a Coppa out on time due to some travelling commitments. Total curing time was about 6 weeks. The final result was as good as all the others with no noticeable increase in salt.

[Phil]

Hi Crusty, I take it you don’t have any trouble reaching the weight loss target

[Sherri]

shuswap – your tenderloin sounds great

crusty – I did some quick reading so I now know what equilibrium curing is. That method does sound ideal.

[Author]

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