The Hirshon Koji-Enhanced Homemade Italian Coppa

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3.6 from 16 reviews

Total Time: 0 hours

Ingredients

Heritage Pork Collar – 100%
Trapani Sea Salt (preferred)or Kosher Salt – 2.50%
Potassium Nitrate, Food-Grade KNO3 – 0.04%
Black Peppercorns, ground – 0.3%
Calabrian Chili Powder – 0.1%
Dried Rosemary, ground – 0.2%
Dried Thyme, ground – 0.2%
Calabrian Fennel Seeds, ground – 0.6%
Garlic Powder – 0.4%
Bay Leaf, ground – 0.1%
Juniper Berries, ground – 0.1%
Nutmeg, grated – 0.1%

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Instructions

Combine all the cure ingredients. Rub cure on all surfaces of the well-dried pork collar, then cure for 15 days in the fridge inside a sealed plastic bag.
Let the Koji dry in a bowl at room temperature during the same 15 days.
After the 15 days curing, reduce the koji into a powder (use a spice grinder) and after a quick rinse of the pork collar, simply roll the loin into the koji powder and shake off the excess.
Encase the meat in a proper-sized collagen sheet, and tie it up per the video instructions. Once the casings are stuffed, use a sausage pricker or sterilized needle to remove as many air pockets as you can, poking holes all over the coppa.
Prior to hanging the coppa, document its weight with a calibrated food scale. When you hang it up for drying and aging, the final weight of your product should be at least 40% less than it was at the initial weigh-in.
Transfer the coppa to your curing room and ideally, hang first at 58F and 85% humidity for two days. This extra humidity will encourage the koji to grow and cover the surface of the coppa in a protective mold layer.
Even if the mold has not shown yet, cool it down to between 50-55F and 70-75% humidity until it reaches 30-45% weight loss, depending on how cured you like your meat. Hold at this setting for the rest of the recipe, which could be anywhere from 30 to 45 days.
For short-term storage, keep it in a plastic bag and refrigerate. If you have a vacuum sealer, this would be the best time to slice, pack into vac-bags, seal and refrigerate for at least six months in storage (as long as the vacuum seal holds).

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Cook Time: 0 hours