Collagen Casings with Coppa

[ericrice]

I'm sure the info it out there somewhere but I've searched and read a lot....
I've been using collagen casings for some dry cured salami products and the result seems fine with ground meat and a stuffer as I can get it all nice and tight. Where I get into trouble is trying to use them for Coppa. They just don't seem to be pliable enough to "hug" the cut. I tried one last year and ended up having to bin the result. Figured I would give it another try last night and just gave up and went with bungs. Issue is air pockets, and I especially have problems at the top tie off. The bungs get expensive though so I really want to be successful with the collagen. Anyone with experience using them specifically for Coppa or other large cuts have any advice to offer?

[NCPaul]

I tried it and found the same as you; there is just no way to get a collagen casing to get tight on an odd shaped coppa. I ended up cutting it off when I spotted mold growing in an air pocket between the casing and the meat. I'm drying the coppa without a casing and so far so good. I'm also keeping the humidity at about 80 %. On the plus side, one beef bung should case two or three coppas.

[ericrice]

Thanks much for the reply. Yes, I get 2 Coppa into each bung, I am happy to say I finally can get CT collars around here so I'm dealing with 4lb-5lb coppas (had to work like crazy to get one of them to fit into the bung) rather than the 1lb-2lb I would get trimming out a shoulder from the store
I was thining of trying without the casing as I know folks have done pancetta that way. I'll be interested in how that turns out. If you think of it I would love to know the results.

[larry]

I use fibrous casings for coppa (as near as I can get to the proper cut) and lonzino. I usually stuff the loin into the casing thick end first, and then shove the thin end down and let it expand and I tie it off very tight by twisting the end of the casing tighter and tighter. You have to poke holes before all the twisting so the air has somewhere to go. It works fine. I've had coppa type cuts that were just too big for my biggest fibrous casing, so I split two casings open, wrapped the meat, and tied it up with the casings overlapping slightly. That also worked fine. My standard procedure whenever I put anything in casing is prick, squeeze, prick some more, squeeze some more until I don't see any more air pockets. It's surprising how the meat will fill the voids if you keep pricking and squeezing.

[ericrice]

Appreciate the follow up. I'll give one in my next batch another go based on that.