Spicy Porcelet Coppa

This recipe is for a beautifully cured pork neck that combines the flavorful meat with the inter-lying fat marble. Here we add hot paprika to contrast the pork's flavor.

The following recipe is made from a small pig collar. I am able to get Porcelet Collar from dartagnan.com. A link to purchase is given below.

Buying your own Porcelet Collar

If you want to purchase from D'artagnan I recommend getting on their mailing list and then waiting for a 40% off sale. They only come around a couple of times of year, but its worth the wait. Everything I have purchased from the website has been top quality.

Curing the Coppa is quite simple. My recipe is adapted from book "The craft of Italian Dry Curing, Salumi" by Ruhlman and Polcyn.

Ingredients:

1 Porcelet Collar

Martin's Bar-b-que Season'd Salt

Toasted cracked black peppercorns

Dry White Wine for rinsing the meat

Hungarian Hot Paprika

Steps:

1. Weigh your collar so you know how long to cure it.

2. Dredge the coppa/collar completely in seasoned salt and put into a zip-lock bag. Add cracked peppercorns (about 1 tablespoon) and seal the bag removing the air from it as best you can.

3. Place the bag on a baking sheet and put a second baking sheet on top of the bag. Place about 8 pounds of weight on the top baking sheet to compress the coppa. Put it all in the refrigerator for 1 day for each 2 pounds. If your coppa is less than 2 pounds, cure it for less than 1 day. Timing is fairly important if you do not want an overly salty end result. For my weights, I use 3 cast iron pans.

Putting weight on the Coppa during Salting stage

4. Remove the coppa from the bag and give it a good rinse under cold water. Dry the meat with a paper towel and then rinse it with white wine.

Wine used to wash the coppa before drying

5. Weigh the coppa once again. This weight will be the baseline so you can tell when it has hung to dry long enough.

6. Completely coat the coppa with the hot paprika. If your coppa is not tied, tie it up like a roast for hanging in the drying chamber. The D'artagnan porcelet collar comes pre-tied.

7. Hang in the drying chamber for 4 to 6 weeks, or until it has lost 30% of its weight.

My drying setup with the Coppa

8. Slice thin and enjoy!