# Gabagool



## wyogoob

"gabagool" is what gangstas, Sicilians, and Italian/American street people call Capicola. It is a spicy dry-cured pork made from the neck/shoulder area on a hog. It is a fatty, poor-man's prosciutto. Gabagool is also called Coppa, Capocollo and Cappocolla.

I'm making 2 dry-cured Coppas. One is smoked and the other is not. Both are stuffed into beef bungs. Each has a green weight of about 5 pounds. They should weigh 3 pounds after dry-curing.

First the meat is rubbed with a cure and set in the fridge. The cure draws the moisture out as the salt penetrates the meat. Then every week for 4 weeks the meat is overhauled, wiped clean and new cure applied.

A 5" beef bung was soaked in water for awhile and then cut to that fit the Coppa pieces:

















I have the same barber as the tye dye twins 

The meat gets trimmed and rubbed with a cure:









Wrapped in Saran wrap and stored in a cool place:









Every week the meat is rinsed off and new cure is rubbed in. The meat is ready to stuff, hang, and dry when it has lost 25% to 33% of it's weight:









The cure forces the moisture out of the roasts. A considerable amount of liquid will be in the tub at the end of each week. Should have took a picture of that, dangit.

After the initial cure is complete the roasts are rinsed off and then smeared with a spice mixture and stuffed into beef bungs:


















Any bung holes are sewn shut:









The Capicola is now tied-up for support as it hangs to dry:









One Coppa was lightly smoked, 15 hrs at 95° F and then taken from the smoker, dipped in boiling water and dunked in ice water to shrink the casing onto the roast:









Then they are hung to dry in a cool place, about 60° F, with high humidity, around 60%. The big boys use a dry room, Mine hang in the basement by a drafty window. One is hung over a bucket with an inch or two of water in it:









It should be gabagool in another month.


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## Greenhead_Slayer

> Any bung holes are sewed shut:


*Insert off-colored joke here*


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## wyogoob

*Cow Gut Chart*



Greenhead_Slayer said:


> Any bung holes are sewed shut:
> 
> 
> 
> *Insert off-colored joke here*
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah, business is kinda slow right now. I should put this in Waterfowl. 

Bungs, Greenhead_Slayer, bungs, the capend. It's the chamber between the small and large intestine:


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## GaryFish

It just isn't a Goob recipe unless it involves critter guts. Geeze Goob! I thought we dumped the gut pile idea a couple years ago? 

Thanks for sharing your affinity with cooking up weird stuff though. I'm guessing we'll see pictures of the finished product in about a month?


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## Greenhead_Slayer

Interesting. I'm sure it is delicious. Some of your gut recipes start to give me the heebie jeebies, but I guess if I can stomach haggis I can down about anything, right?


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## wyogoob

GaryFish said:


> It just isn't a Goob recipe unless it involves critter guts. Geeze Goob! I thought we dumped the gut pile idea a couple years ago?
> 
> Thanks for sharing your affinity with cooking up weird stuff though. I'm guessing we'll see pictures of the finished product in about a month?


Yep, in a month. My goal is one gabagool is covered with mold and the smoked one has no mold. I have to keep the humidity up on the un-smoked one to achieve proper mold growth. If mother nature doesn't cooperate, or the bacteria from my hiking boots hanging nearby invade my gabagool, I have a frozen mold culture (Bacto-Ferm 600) in my freezer ready to save the day.

Actually, Capicola is not weird, but a staple in high-end delicatessans. Runs around $20 per pound. I'm sure I can make it for $25 per pound, not counting labor.


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## wyogoob

Greenhead_Slayer said:


> Interesting. I'm sure it is delicious. Some of your gut recipes start to give me the heebie jeebies, but I guess if I can stomach haggis I can down about anything, right?


Yeah. There's many types of haggis. It can be a strong-flavored sausage. I don't think you want to know what gets thrown in store-bought haggis. Lamb's lungs are traditionally used. Good haggis is stuffed in a sheep's stomach.


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## tye dye twins

Jeeze talk about patience! I think I can't wait that long for food. 

I have seen the barber once in 11 years and that was back in July. Still I liked the pic of ya and I see we wear the same shorts too.


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## wyogoob

*hanging for 30 days not enough*

It's been hanging for 30 days and it's still not ready:










The Coppa over the bucket of water is doing OK, but needs to shrink some more. And I wish it had some mold growth. I may have to introduce mold to it.

The other one, the front one, is too dry.


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## pkred

Cool thread Goob. you got the makins of a good samich there.


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool Sliced Thin*

No matter what I do the coppa won't get moldy, dangit. So I cut one of them down and sliced it. 

Not bad, shrunk about 33%:









Could have a little more fat, more meat from the neck instead of shoulder:









Sliced paper thin, about 0.025" thick:









I have an Italian daughter-in-law that's gonna love this:









eyegottgogitsumbred


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## GaryFish

Fine looking stuff there Goob. Very impressive.


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## hattrick

Now that looks fantastic


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## tye dye twins

The end result sure does look better than the prep. Droolin over here!


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## Narient

I would like to request a video be made of this process. It is very interesting to me.


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## pkred

that is art you can eat nicely played sir, nicely played.


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## Narient

Can you explain the mold? Since your unsmoked one didn't have any, I don't get the significance of it.

It looks really good, by the by.


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## wyogoob

Narient said:


> Can you explain the mold? Since your unsmoked one didn't have any, I don't get the significance of it.
> 
> It looks really good, by the by.


A white covering of either mold or flour helps prevent the photo-oxidation of the meat and rancidity in the fat. White mold is good, green mold is bad...sort of. The mold imparts flavor and inhibits the formation of a tough "rind" on the outside of the sausage. Before refrigeration cured meats attained a nice covering of mold. Many high-end sausages and cured meats are moldy. Genoa salami is an example. My Wyoming basement is too dry for mold growth. I need a drying cabinet, something I can hang meat in a controlled high humidity enviroment. Sausage making supply houses sell mold cultures. I mixed up a batch of Bactotherm 600 and sprayed it on these coppas, but the mold just wouldn't grow in my cold and dry basement.


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## wyogoob

*Sliced Really Thin*

I took the second Gabagool down and sliced it up. The un-smoked coppa was 95 days old, perfect.

I almost forgot about this poor shriveled up guy:









Dried nicely, losing well over 33% of it's original weight:









I took the skin, the casing, off this one. Dumb, it helps hold the meat together when slicing it super thin:









Great flavor; paprika, cayenne, sugar, salt, garlic, and fennel:









A little over 0.020" thick:









The thinner the better:









Vacuum packaged:


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## bigred

Dude, that looks awesome! A drying cabinet sounds an awful lot like a cigar humidor, lol. I've gotta try this. I've made plenty of smoked stuff, even bacon a few times, but this looks awesome.


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## wyogoob

*Store Bought Gabagool*

I picked up a package of gabagool at Walmart. $3.98 for 3 oz.

That's $21.23 a pound. yikes


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## sawsman

Yeah goob, but it was nice of them to throw a peppercorn in it for ya.

How's it taste?


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## wyogoob

sawsman said:


> Yeah goob, but it was nice of them to throw a peppercorn in it for ya.
> 
> Lol ah, ha, ha
> 
> How's it taste?
> 
> Nothing to brag about


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## wyogoob

*Antipasto Gabagool*

Many times Coppa is served as an antipasto. 
I like to wrap it around a sliver of jalapeno, or a slice of melon. It's good with cream cheese too:


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## StillAboveGround

pkred said:


> Cool thread Goob. you got the makins of a good samich there.


Roger that Goob. Looks good to me.

I'm a huge fan of anything DIY and for trying new foods... 
and yes, that includes haggis...


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool-wrapped Cream Cheese n Jalapeno*

A sliver of jalapeno surrounded by cream cheese wrapped with capicola:


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## wyogoob

*Hangin' two - Fennel/Cumin*

Made a couple more capicolas for the Holidays. These are a fennel/cumin flavor and are not smoked. Cured for about 3 weeks in the fridge and then hung for 7 weeks in a cool basement:









Took them down when they had lost about 35% of their original weight:









About the right amount of fat for Gabagool:









Slide a long knife under the row of gabagool and then slip into the vacuum bag:









Mixed a little whole fennel with some white and brown sugar and then pulverized it in a blender. Spinkled it on about 50 slices for a Holiday treat:









Ready to load up in Santa's sleigh:


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## cklspencer

Wow that looks good!


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## wyogoob

*Panino*

Cut some cheese sticks and wrapped them with gabagool:


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## wyogoob

*Four at once*

Working on 4 more Coppas. Cut them different this time using some of the picnic. It's not too cool but I'm stuck with them now.

See how it goes:


The two lighter-colored ones on the left are sweet fennel/black pepper and the darker ones are sweet paprika/cayenne:


They'll hang in my cold basement for 30 days or more. When they lose 33% of their green weight I will slice one and try it.
In three weeks they've lost approximately 25% of their green weight:


.


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool-wrapped asparagus*

Got a bunch of Gabagool hangin' in the basement ya don't know what to do with? Need a dish to pass at a same-sex wedding reception? Check this out:

Gabagool Wrapped Asparagus
> In a blender mix cream cheese with some milk and garlic powder. 
> Slobber a thin layer of the cream cheese stuff on a pastry sheet.
> Toss a little freshly-chopped parsley on the cream cheese spread. 
> Cover the sheet with thinly-sliced coppa.
> Slice the sheet into strips about 8" long and 1/2" to 3/4" wide. One 10" x 10" pastry sheet will make about 15 strips.
> Wrap the strips around the asparagus spears.
> Bake in a 350° oven until golden brown.



2 pastry sheets (1 box) will do about 30 spears of asparagus.


It's a mess


Baked for about 35 minutes.


Wife doesn't like gabagool because its been hanging next to your wading shoes for 90 days? Hey, use proscuitto, ham, or salami....or just tell your wife it's proscuitto, ham, or salami; she'll never know. 

.


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## wyogoob

*Four at once*

This gabagool's been hanging out in da basement for 30 days. Looks like they've shrank quite a bit, faster than I thought they would. 
Time to cut em down:


60 days from start to finish. Weighed them to make sure the coppas lost at least 33% of their original weight. 
This one's green weight was 4.5 lbs, now it's 2.9 lbs:


Slice em and try em:


Took all the butcher's twine off and slipped some netting on them. The two on the left are sweet paprika cayenne and the two on the right are sweet fennel black pepper. I'll hang em back up in da basement and whack off a piece now and then:


Butchering hogs is being automated and machines cut the shoulders different than I would. The coppa, the loin muscle over the front shoulder, now gets cut in half by the machines; the top of the butt is very narrow. As an experiment I cut 3 of these capicolas the other direction down into the picnic. I don't care for it, there's no fat in that muscle. Coppa just has to have a certain amount of fat.

I'll hand out or ship the capicola to friends and relatives as low-fat "diet capicola".  Whatever, ya wrap this stuff around a sliver of cantelope or some cream cheese and no one cares one way or the other about the fat.

.


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## wyogoob

*Wrapping peaches n canteloupe*

Sliced some capicola today. I started this gabagool on Dec 9, 2013 so it's about 160 days old now; getting a little dry but still has good "mouth feel":


Traditionally Capicola is wrapped around fruit. Peaches and melon are popular choices:


Good stuff:


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## wyogoob

*Hanging for 7 months*

Sliced the last piece of Capicola. It's about 7 months old; getting kinda dry


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## Dunkem

I bet the flavor in that fat is to die for!


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool fruit cups*

Capicola cups filled with cantaloupe drizzled with balsamic reduction and topped with some fresh basil:


Make some cups out of gabagool in the oven:


Fill them with cubed cantelope and top with fresh basil:


Reduce some balsamic vinegar by one-half and drizzle it on the cantaloupe cups:


Kinda different...tasty though:


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## Dunkem

Wow, impressive! Sounds good, quite a combo.


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool fruit cups*

I chiffonaded the basil.

First time I ever chiffonaded anything.


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## Critter

I say that we all meet up at Goob's house for the Super Bowl and have him do the cooking. We can purchase porn, lotto tickets, and cheap gas before coming home. 
























OOP's I forgot I'll be in Arizona for the Super Bowl hunting javilina but that shouldn't stop the rest of you. OOO°)OO


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## Dunkem

I had to Google that.


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool fruit cups*



Dunkem said:


> I had to Google that.


Me too. It's what the recipe instructions called for.

.


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## wyogoob

*Capicola-wrapped Wellingtons*

Hidden in the back corner of my sausage refrigerator I found a half-dozen vacuum packages of capicola made back in February 2014. The seal was broken on one packages and the gabagool didn't have the same bright color as from the sealed packages, but boy was it tasty; best I have ever had.

This particular capicola had a dusting of sugar n freshly-cracked fennel on it as the slices are laid out for packaging:


Its a lot of work but well worth it. 2 years later the flavor is fabulous.

I ate every slice of the unsealed capicola. The balance was used to wrap four wild game Wellingtons:


Wellington recipes call for a prosciutto wrap. I substituted my fatty capicola and it worked well, especially considering how dry wild game can be.


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## Packout

You are a food artist!

..


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## wyogoob

Packout said:


> You are a food artist!
> 
> ..


Kind words from an artist like yourself, thank you.


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## oneezreiter

WOW, great thread. I am in the process of buying a new house and am trying to determine where I am going to try this at.


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## wyogoob

*Capicola-wrapped Wellingtons*

Wrapped around some antelope here:


Store the Wellington in the refrigerator long enough for it to take a set and then wrap it with puff pastry :


Do you see it in there?


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## wyogoob

*Capicola-wrapped Wellingtons*

More examples of capicola wrapped around an elk filet in a Wellington.

This capicola was sliced thin, vacuum packaged and stored in a refrigerator for over 2 years. It was as good, or better, as it was when I first sliced it back on March 2, 2014:


Mushroom paste and capicola:


Using the food wrap pull the capicola and mushroom paste up and around the meat:


Wrap it tight:


Covered with puff pastry and ready for the oven:


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool cured in a vacuum bag*

Trying a new way to cure capicola: rub the cure on the coppa and then place it in a vacuum bag. Refrigerate for 2 or 3 weeks. Roll the muscle out "round" every 3 or 4 days.

We'll see how it goes.



Cure Ingredients:


3 3/4 lbs - Pork coppa muscle

4 tbsp - Kosher salt

1 tbsp - dextrose

1/2 tsp - InstaCure #2

2 tsp - black pepper, freshly ground

 2 tsp - juniper berries, crushed

1/4 tsp - Bay leaves, ground

2 sprigs - thyme, fresh

2 cloves - garlic, minced
pork coppa, or neck, muscle:


It's important to track the weight of the meat as it cures and dries:


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## wyogoob

*Gabagool cured in a vacuum bag*

The coppa was cured in the vacuum bag and stored in the fridge for 25 days. It was removed from the bag, rinsed and then covered with a paste made from 8 parts dextrose, 4 parts corn syrup solids and 1 part spice mix. The spice mix was 4 parts paprika to 1 part hot cayenne pepper. The paste was rubbed into the meat and the coppa was stuffed into a 4 1/2" beef bung. The coppa was then tied with butcher's twine, weighed and hung to dry.


After 3 weeks hanging in the basement the capicola weighed 3 lbs. It had only lost 25% of it's original hang weight But I'm going to hang it a little longer.


I'll check it again in a couple weeks.


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## wyogoob

After hanging for 6 weeks the capicola weighs 2 3/4 lbs. So it's lost 1 1/4 lbs in 42 days; lost about 30%:


Time to open it up and give it a try:


Spicy

Moisture is perfect on the fatty part, a little dry on the lean side.

It's too salty. This is my first attempt curing coppa "in a vacuum". I need to tweak something. Using the vacuum bag is completely different. There's not the normal amount of liquid that "sweats" out of the meat as it cures. The vacuum must quickly drive the salt deep into the coppa. The meat is salty, cured all the way into the center like it should be, just too salty though.

.


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## wyogoob

*Not as salty as it was*

It's not as salty as it was 90 days ago but stand alone it's still a little too salty for me. Wrapped on fruit it's OK.

If I use the vacuum bag method again I'll make some adjustments to the technique.

I don't think it will get thrown away:


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## wyogoob

Bump....Time to make some capicola!!


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## pollo70

A work of art... that looks tasty! good work wyogoob


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## pollo70

Them wellingtons! look yummy I wished you was my neighbor .


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## pollo70

wyogoob said:


> "gabagool" is what gangstas, Sicilians, and Italian/American street people call Capicola. It is a spicy dry-cured pork made from the neck/shoulder area on a hog. It is a fatty, poor-man's prosciutto. Gabagool is also called Coppa, Capocollo and Cappocolla.
> 
> I'm making 2 dry-cured Coppas. One is smoked and the other is not. Both are stuffed into beef bungs. Each has a green weight of about 5 pounds. They should weigh 3 pounds after dry-curing.
> 
> First the meat is rubbed with a cure and set in the fridge. The cure draws the moisture out as the salt penetrates the meat. Then every week for 4 weeks the meat is overhauled, wiped clean and new cure applied.
> 
> A 5" beef bung was soaked in water for awhile and then cut to that fit the Coppa pieces:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I have the same barber as the tye dye twins
> 
> The meat gets trimmed and rubbed with a cure:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wrapped in Saran wrap and stored in a cool place:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Every week the meat is rinsed off and new cure is rubbed in. The meat is ready to stuff, hang, and dry when it has lost 25% to 33% of it's weight:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The cure forces the moisture out of the roasts. A considerable amount of liquid will be in the tub at the end of each week. Should have took a picture of that, dangit.
> 
> After the initial cure is complete the roasts are rinsed off and then smeared with a spice mixture and stuffed into beef bungs:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> Any bung holes are sewn shut:
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Capicola is now tied-up for support as it hangs to dry:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> One Coppa was lightly smoked, 15 hrs at 95° F and then taken from the smoker, dipped in boiling water and dunked in ice water to shrink the casing onto the roast:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Then they are hung to dry in a cool place, about 60° F, with high humidity, around 60%. The big boys use a dry room, Mine hang in the basement by a drafty window. One is hung over a bucket with an inch or two of water in it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It should be gabagool in another month.


I knew I had heard that word before and you refreshed my memory ...there are scenes on the Sopranos where their eating gabagool or its mentioned .


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## wyogoob

99¢ a pound for pork butts! Gotta make some Capicola.

The blade part of roasts go to pulled pork and sausage, top part of the butt (coppa) goes to gabagool.









Weighed, documented and packed in cure.


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## CPAjeff

I really wish I lived next to Goob!


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## wyogoob

Washed, rinsed and patted dry, then spice rubs were added. Three are black pepper fennel and two hot n spicy Calabrian. Stuffed into 4" beef bungs.









Weighed, documented and then smoked. Hung up to dry in a 43° walkin cooler. Periodically weighed and documented. Will take down and consume when they have lost around 30% of their original weight.


















Been 60 days since I started these coppas. They've lost about 12% of their original weight.


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## one4fishing

Yummm


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## wyogoob

Black pepper n fennel gabagool:


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