Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Meat from Italy

Capocollo di Calabria DOPCapocollo di Calabria

Capocollo di Calabria is a dry-cured whole cut, the boned upper part of the pork loin, from pigs reared and slaughtered in Calabria. It is cured in salt or brine for up to 14 days, wrapped in natural casing, tied and matured for at least 100 days. It is a whole-muscle cure, not made from minced meat.

Fully documentedMeat3.7 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes the cut, its weight and the curing and maturing limits, not the amounts of salt and spice.
Upper pork loin (capocollo), boned3.5–5.5 kg fresh weightFrom heavy Italian-type pigs reared in Calabria; batches average at least 140 kg at slaughter[eu-capocollo-2015]
Salt or brine[eu-capocollo-2015]
Black pepper, red chilli pepper or sweet pepper (Capsicum)The amount of pepper sets the pink to red colour of the outside[eu-capocollo-2015]
Natural casingTied with twine or traditional wooden twigs[eu-capocollo-2015]
StarterNo microbial starter is added to the Calabrian cured meats studied, capocollo among them (Romeo et al. 2014).

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.7 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The upper part of the pork loin is boned and trimmed

Step 1 of 4
Bone and trim the upper loin
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Capocollo di Calabria is a dry-cured whole cut, the boned upper part of the pork loin, from pigs reared and slaughtered in Calabria. It is cured in salt or brine for up to 14 days, wrapped in natural casing, tied and matured for at least 100 days. It is a whole-muscle cure, not made from minced meat. Made in 4 steps over 3.7 months. The longest step, mature, takes at least 3.3 months (European Commission 2015) and runs at 14–18 °C (Romeo F.V 2014).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3.3 monthsSet[eu-capocollo-2015]Mature
Temperature14–18 °CReported[romeo2014]Mature
AciditypH 6Measured[romeo2014]Mature

What makes this one different

Capocollo di Calabria is a whole muscle, not a minced sausage. It is cured for up to 14 days and matured at least 100 days under the 2015 amendment, while the 1997 application gave maturing times of thirty to a hundred days for the Calabrian salumi as a group.

Related ferments

Safety

Additives allowed by the specification protect the meat from microbes and unwanted fermentation during the slow maturing. This is still raw pork that is cured, not cooked. Curing and drying alone do not consistently kill Trichinella worms in pork (CDC). CDC tells people who are pregnant, 65 or older or have a weakened immune system to avoid unheated deli meat and cold cuts, or to heat them until steaming hot.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Entered in the EU register as a PDO, together with Soppressata, Salsiccia and Pancetta di Calabria, by Commission Regulation (EC) No 134/98 of 20 January 1998, published on 21 January 1998. The application cites the 17th-century work "Della Calabria Illustrata" for early pork processing in the region.

  1. [cdc-trichinella] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How to Prevent Trichinellosis (12 March 2024)gov
  2. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov
  3. [eu-capocollo-2015] European Commission 2015, Publication of an amendment application, Capocollo di Calabria PDO (IT-PDO-0217-1570), with single document, Official Journal C 82, 10.3.2015 (CELEX 52015XC0310(04)), read via the EU Publications Office cellarspec
  4. [eu-calabria-1997] Application for registration, Salumi di Calabria (Soppressata, Capocollo, Salsiccia and Pancetta) PDO, EN/06/97/49840200 (summary sheet in the eAmbrosia register, file PDO-IT-1570)spec
  5. [reg-134-1998] European Commission 1998, Commission Regulation (EC) No 134/98 of 20 January 1998 supplementing the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin (lists Capocollo di Calabria PDO), Official Journal L 15, 21.1.1998, p. 6, read via the EU Publications Office cellarspec
  6. [romeo2014] Romeo F.V., Runcio A., Piscopo A., Iaccarino T., Mincione A., Poiana M. 2014, Characterization of four typical Calabrian cured meat products - spicy sausage, soppressata, 'nduja and capocollo, Acta Alimentaria 43(4):564-573paper