Text 10866, 61 rader
Skriven 2007-01-23 14:22:58 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Making Capicola
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Right now, I have 20 pounds of cured pork hanging in my cold dry attic -
four five-pound masses, stuffed into natural beef casings, bound tightly,
dangling from a portable clothes bar. In a few months (with a little luck)
they will have turned into delicious capicola.

My brother-in-law's parents immigrated from Italy in 1962.  Although their
lives changed in many ways when they crossed the Atlantic, they brought
with them many of their traditions, one of which is making various
hams and sausages.  I had expressed an interest in learning the techniques,
so when they decided to make capicola I got a phone call.

I started with two whole boneless pork loins (about 8 or so pounds each.)
The first step is quite simple:  The loins are thickly coated in a layer
of natural sea salt and allowed to stand for about 48 hours in a chilled
area.  (I put them in a cooler out in the mud room, where they could stay
cold without freezing.)  Every so often I would open the cooler and turn
the loins - the salt draws out blood and juices from the meat, and 
turning the loins ensures that each of them spends some time in the 
brine.

On Monday night, we removed the loins from the brine and rinsed the
salt from them using white wine.  Good, cheap white wine: gallons of
Carol Rossi California chablis.  After the salt was rinsed off, we
rubbed the loins thoroughly in coarsely cracked black pepper, crusting
them thoroughly. I did three of my loins with cracked black pepper and
one with crushed red pepper, a bit of cayenne, some paprika, and more
black pepper.

The coated loins were then stuffed into large beef casings and bound.
In the old country, I was told, they would tie the capicola with
string, and every few days the string would be removed and retied
as moisture evaporated from the meat and the ham shrunk.

Nick's dad is a tinkerer and an engineer.  He decided a few years
ago that having to retie the capicola every few days was a waste of
time, so he started splinting the hams with strips of wood lath
and binding them with plastic wire ties.  That way, every few
days all you have to do with take a pair of pliers and tighten
the wire ties.

Now all I have to do is let time do the work.  If all goes well, 
I'll be bringing some capicola with me to the picnic.

= =

Side note: "capicola" comes from the Italian words "coppa" (cured
meat) and "collo" ([pig] neck).  When the family butchered their
hog in December, the muscles of the neck and at the base of the
head would be salted for a few days, then rolled in pepper, stuffed
into casings, and hung.  Pop said that for the first few years he
was here, it was easy for him to buy a pig from a local farmer and
butcher it just like "home," but now it's too much trouble to find
a pig and there aren't enough people interested in helping with the
killing and processing, so he buys the whole boneless loins and
does it that way instead.  "It's better quality meat from the loin
anyway," he tells me.

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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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