How to Make Coppa/Capicola at Home

This coppa tutorial is for those who have dabbled in the dry-cured and want to take it to the next level. We’ve aimed to make one of the more intimidating dry-cured recipes worth trying at home with step-by-step instructions, from ingredient prep to stuffing into beef bungs to the aging process, with plenty of tips along the way. We hope our guide encourages you to try your hand at homemade coppa to share with your loved ones. Buon appetito!

What’s the Difference Between Coppa and Capicola?

Coppa and capicola are two terms for the same kind of dry-cured meat. They can pretty much be used interchangeably, with one small caveat: Coppa originated in a region of Italy called Emilia-Romagna, while capicola was developed in Calabria. Either way, the meat comes from a muscle in the hog’s neck and gets dry-cured, then sliced thin for eating. You might also hear this cut referred to as capocollo (the most direct combination of the words capo and collo, which mean head and neck in Italian), capicollo, or even gabagool.

Can You Age Meat at Home?

An important thing to consider when making coppa at home is whether you have an environment that will encourage the best possible aging process. You may need to look around and see if you have a place (often a cellar or basement is fine) that during the late fall or winter months will hold temperatures from 50-59F and moderate-to-high humidity of about 70-80%. If the temperature is reachable but humidity needs a boost, consider a humidifier and/or humidity controls to get it just right. The Sausage Maker also makes a Dry-Curing Cabinet for the ease of set-and-forget.

Coppa Recipe

Note: Everything but the meat is available at end of the tutorial.

Supplies You’ll Need:

100mm collagen pre-tied casings OR beef bung

Note: Have backup collagen casings in case the beef bung tears and can’t be used.

Rub Mix

Compact food lug w/cover

#24 netting roll

Plastic wrap

Sharp knife

Food scale (10 lbs max)

Sausage pricker

Manual OR spring-loaded pliers

1/2” hog rings

Bactoferm Mold-600 (protects the surface from contamination)

Bactoferm B-LC-78 (protects the meat from spoilage bacteria)

Ingredients You’ll Need:

10 lbs pork butt/shoulder (AKA “Boston butt”)

Cure Mix

Capicola rub OR DIY coppa rub (per 5# coppa)

·         1 Tbsp crushed red pepper

·         1 Tbsp coarse black pepper

·         1 Tbsp Spanish paprika

Coppa Cure Mix Recipe (per 5# coppa):

4 oz salt – purified (non-iodized)

1 oz dextrose

1.5 tsp Insta-Cure #2

3 Tbsp coarse black pepper

3 tsp garlic powder

3 tsp Spanish paprika

2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

H2: Quick Tip on Buying Pork: Buy your pork from good local source and skip the chains and mega-marts. A quick search online will help find a local butcher, and if you’re in the area of one of our recommended meat markets, give them a try! If you talk and connect with your butcher, you’ll get the best quality cuts, support local business, and have an excellent final product to be extra proud of.

Phase 1: Prep Work (meat still in fridge)

Get your battle station ready, with your supplies in easy-to-reach places so you aren’t looking for them. Clean and clean some more—anything that will touch the coppa needs to be sterilized. Mix thoroughly all the ingredients from the cure mix into a clean container and set aside.

Phase 2: Cold Curing

Trim your butt and wrap it up!

Get the pork butt out of the fridge and trim away the fat cap on the surface. Cut it into approximately 2-lb pieces and trim away anything you don’t want to eat later. Leave the marbling intact and toss the pieces into the food lug. Season well with the cure mix by pouring it over the entire batch and rubbing it in thoroughly. Every nook and cranny of the meat should be visibly discolored by the paprika and peppers. Now plastic wrap each piece separately several times, pack the pieces side by side against each other into the food lug (stacking them is OK but no more than two high, and only if needed). Refrigerate for 30 days (not a typo).



During this month-long curing and marinating process, the salt, cure, cold and lack of oxygen nitrates to their more useful compound, sodium nitrite. This important stage will also allow the meat to develop shelf-stable properties under a more controlled refrigeration environment, instead of risking failure by hanging them right away in warmer, more vulnerable conditions.

will keep the meat from spoiling while the meat proteins gently begin to soften and absorb the spices and cure. The native beneficial bacteria in the pork also begins to break down

Keep the meat in an area that you will remember to check up on at least twice a week for any sitting “juices” in the bottom of the container that you need to drain periodically. You should also flip it upside-down and overhaul top pieces to the bottom if you have them stacked. Not much else to check on during this stage.

Phase 3: Stuffing

Day 29: Butts and bungs

First, get the capicola rub ready. You’ll either buy one from the Sausage Maker or make your own (recipe above). If you plan on using beef bungs, put them in cold water and in the refrigerator so they are pliable and ready for the following day.

Day 30: Pack ‘em and hang ‘em

Hope you remembered that coppa container that’s still in your fridge? Let’s get ready for the next big phase of the project. Prep your battle station again. Next, open both Bactoferms (Mold-600 and B-LC-78) and put them into separate containers. Add 1 tsp Bactoferm B-LC-78 to 4-6 oz of room-temperature distilled water and cover container to prevent contamination. Do the same with the Mold-600. Get the food lug with the coppa and beef bung (if using bung instead of collagen) out of the refrigerator.

Remove the coppa pieces from the plastic wrap and rinse them thoroughly under cold water. Spray or apply the Bactoferm B-LC-78 and then rub all pieces with the capicola rub or homemade mix. If you’re using collagen casings, soak them for only a couple of minutes in cool water. Jam each piece into the casings. Push pieces down to the bottoms of each casing and pack them in tightly. Be careful if you’re using beef bung casings so they do not burst under the force of stuffing. Once the casings are stuffed, feed them through the #24 netting roll and tie it off on each end. The netting helps gently squeeze air and moisture to the surface. Use a sausage pricker or sterilized needle to remove as many air pockets as you can, poking holes all over the coppa. Spray the surface with Bactoferm Mold-600, a quick coating on the entire casing.

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. 

Ideally, hang first at 58F and 85% humidity for two days. This extra humidity will encourage the Mold-600 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 and hold at this setting for the rest of the recipe, which could be anywhere from 30 to 45 days. If the hanging area is small (<25sq.ft.), try to refresh that air or have a very small fan in the area to move air. If the area is larger, the movement is less important but some air movement is always helpful. This simply depends on whether the conditions were held somewhat constant and when you hit the right weight for shelf-stable coppa.

By the Way, What Is a Bacterial Starter Culture?

The B-LC-78 is a bioprotective culture that will encourage quality bacterial growth while discouraging harmful bacteria like listeria from growing to unsafe levels. The Mold-600 is penicillium nalgiovense, a beneficial/protective mold that will create a biological armor on the surface. The armor will protect against chance contamination of other native molds/yeasts and will help regulate the flow of moisture and prevent case hardening. It will also gradually increase the pH level of the meat over time (offsetting any ferment flavors that may occur) and it will add to the flavor and aroma of the coppa.

Say your grandpappy never used bacterial cultures and you still lived? Grandpappy, in the old country, used a method called “backslopping” to get those beneficial bacteria into the next batches. Backslopping requires removing some product from a batch that is already fermented and begun aging, removing it from its casing and mixing it in directly with the new batch prior to casing and hanging it. Same concept as making sourdough bread at home. While some villages may still use backslopping due to lack of access to starter cultures, it has been discouraged and even prohibited in much of modern production because it can increase the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Maybe grandpappy didn’t use starter cultures, but in our opinion he would have loved to, given the opportunity.

Phase 4: Hanging

Day 60!

About 30 days in is a good time to do the second weigh-in. At this point the coppa may have lost about 30-35% of its weight, and may still need a little more time to get to the optimal loss for stability and slice-ability. If it’s short of its desired weight, give it another weigh each week. If you’ve reached your desired target weight, congratulations! It’s time to give the coppa a good slicing, the thinner the better. Have a cheese board and crackers ready for the best snacking experience. For short-term storage, keep it in the solid state, 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).

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on making coppa/capicola at home! It really is not as tricky as it all may sound, and we’ve attempted to boil down the process to include only what we would consider best practices. This tutorial may not be for the beginner sausage maker, but if you are familiar with making soppressata or other dry-curing recipes, you will likely be more comfortable making this one.

As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call and we will do our best to help.