Local Food Heroes Blog

Wednesday, 21 10 09 - 16:05

The Coppa Finished

I took the Coppa out of the drying fridge yesterday and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed; the flavours fine, not much sign of the paprika, but there's a nice warm aftertaste from the chilli. However, the edges have hardened far more than I would have expected from the higher humidity that I dried this one in. I'm sure it'll be fine though when sliced thinly by the slicer, so far I've only sliced it by hand so the pieces are not as thin.

The recipe was:
(Percentages are of the meat's weight)

Salt 3.1%
Cure #2 - 0.27%
Cloves 0.04%
Cinnamon 0.04%
Paprika 1%
Cayenne Pepper 0.7%
BP 0.2%
White Pepper 0.2%

This cure was applied to the meat and left to cure in the fridge for 20 days. The meat was then dusted with more paprika and cayenne pepper and put into a collagen casing and tied. After hanging at room temperature for 12 hours in was kept at 12 - 15°C with a humidity between 70 and 80% for until it had lost 37% of its original weight; 40 days in this case.

Comments

Scott (URL) - Saturday, 24 10 09 - 23:55 - :

Hey Phil, how much did it weigh intitially? Was it cased in collagen? Reason I ask, mine's been hanging since about August 21, only at 32% loss. Just curious if there's a weight/time correlation.

Phil (URL) - Sunday, 25 10 09 - 01:07 - :

It was quite small because I messed up the cutting, so I didn't use the outer muscle. It weighed 1817gm. I started it on 18 August and cured it until 9 September (I'd forgotten it was there!). It dried for 39 days until 18 October when it weighed 1152gm.

After allowing for the collagen casing, the weight loss was 37.7%.

I kept the humidity high for this one, 75% - 80%, so am baffled by the outer hardening.

I may vac-pac it for a week or so to try and equal things out a bit.

Scott (URL) - Tuesday, 17 11 09 - 06:26 - :

Pulled mine last week. Not sure if you saw it, looks good. Go have a look.

Phil (URL) - Tuesday, 17 11 09 - 16:14 - :

I'm still sulking because yours looked better than mine!

scott - Tuesday, 17 11 09 - 21:16 - :

I just got lucky, Phil.

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