Coppa drying duration question

[da-stinger]

Hello.
I finally broke down and bought another freezer to convert to a curing chamber (my wife appropriated my last chamber to turn into a freezer to store meat for the apocalypse and I have no hope of getting it back).

I did a prelim round with coppa, bresaola and lonzino last year and was successful and so went for a massive coppa project and did 40 pounds of collar with plans to share/sell at work to cover expenses. When it came out of the chamber in April I was working from home and have just eaten/shared that and am ready to start my next round.

my question is that I have seen that some people have had success with longer drying periods of up to 6-9 months to improve the flavors. I am curious if anyone has done this and if it requires modified temp/humidity setting after the 35% loss. I have been running at 55F and about 65% humidity after the first couple of weeks (Typically 90%, 85% etc slowly as the excess water is removed).

 

[daveomak]

75-80% seems to be the "go-to" RH for the highest quality, write home about products.. Long time to get the weight loss down to acceptable levels... Flavors become great with the long wait...

 

[da-stinger]

Thanks, this round will keep at 75% and try my patience and see how it goes. Adding Guanciale to the mix and will look forward to the results... this was the initial try with bresaola, coppa and board.

 

[daveomak]

Even runs his chamber at ~80% RH.....

Coppa seasoned with Orange Zest, Hot Calabrian Pepper, and Wild Calabrian Fennel Seed

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evan m brady
Newbie


Joined Apr 8, 2015






Coppa Arancia FINAL.jpg

• evan m brady
• Sep 29, 2015

| Coppa con la Scorza di Arancia e Peperoncino Piccante di Calabria e Finocchio |

Pretty straight forward here... Local Berkshire Pork (not sure what farm, but was from my towns local version of a "whole foods") cured in 2.50% Trapani Sea Salt, 0.04% Food Grade Potassium Nitrate, 0.05% Texel DCM-1, orange zest, hot Calabrian pepper powder and flakes, and lastly Calabrian wild fennel seed.

Cured for 14 days, and then re-rubbed with spices only, and then stuffed into a 5.5"+ beef bung cap. Aged for roughly 75 days here now, and final water activity of core 0.83.