Capicola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capicola, or coppa, is an Italian cold cut (salume). It is made from a piece of pork shoulder, dry-cured whole . The name coppa is Italian for nape, while capicola comes from capo—head and collo—neck of a pig. It is esteemed for its taste and is more expensive than most other salumi. It is usually sliced thin for antipasto or sandwiches, such as muffulettas and hoagies, as well as some Italian pizzas. Capicola is often incorrectly referred to as a type of ham, probably because it is made from pork meat. However, the technical definition of ham is the thigh and buttocks of any animal (but typically a pig) slaughtered for meat.

[edit] Ingredients

The official ingredients listed in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2005 Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book are:

"Boneless pork shoulder butts which are cured and then cooked. The cool curing process may be dry curing, immersion curing, or pump curing. The cured product is coated with spices and paprika before cooking. This product shall always be labeled with "Cooked" as part of the product name. Water added is permitted."

[edit] In popular culture

• The meat was often mentioned on TV series The Sopranos (always referred to as gabagool), as one of main character Tony Soprano's favorite cold cuts (e.g. episode "Proshai Livushka").

• The apparent fixation on the meat in that TV series was lampooned in a MadTV parody sketch.

• At the wedding reception in the opening scenes of the film, "The Godfather," someone shouts across the crowd to Corleone Family soldier Paulie Gatto, "Hey, Paulie, I got two gabagool!" He then tosses the sandwiches to Paulie, but overthrows them. The sandwiches land on the ground and Paulie complains, "stupid jerk!"