Coppa di Parma

Coppa di Parma (Parma coppa) is a dry-cured pork neck from the province of Parma and neighbouring parts of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. The neck muscle of a heavy pig is salted with pepper, put into a natural casing, tied with string and aged for at least 60 days. It is an unpressed cylinder 25–40 cm long, red with pinkish fat.

At the end of the 17th century it was known as «bondiola»; in the 18th century travellers wrote about it and the registers of the «lardaroli» guild cited it, and it was served at the court of Don Ferdinando di Borbone.

The muscle runs along the neck vertebrae and part of the thoracic ones. It must never be frozen. The pigs are at least 9 months old, 160 kg ±10 % on average, Large White, Landrace and Duroc; boars and breeding sows are excluded. The area covers the provinces of Parma, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Mantua and Pavia plus Po-bank communes in Lodi, Milan and Cremona.

The meat is dry-salted for 6–10 days at about 4 °C with salt (2.6–3.5 %), pepper and natural flavourings; wine, sugars, starters and nitrites are allowed. Next comes at least 5 days of rest at 0.5–5 °C. Then it goes into natural casing, beef or pork, and is hand-tied with hemp string: at least 8 lengthwise «briglie» plus a spiral. After 8–10 hours of warming at about 18 °C and 12–15 days of drying, the coppa matures at 12–16 °C. PGI status came with Regulation (EU) 1118/2011 of 31 October 2011.

The aroma is checked with a horse-bone needle pushed into the fatty parts. The surface must not be greasy or coated, the fat neither yellow nor soft, and there must be no mould inside. Salt stays below 5 %.

Compared with Coppa Piacentina, Parma's ages for less time — from 60 days against from 6 months — and uses natural gut and string instead of diaphragm. Culatello di Zibello, though from the same land, is thigh muscle in a bladder, not neck.

The label reads «Coppa di Parma» with «Indicazione Geografica Protetta» or IGP and the EU symbol. It is sold whole or sliced within the production area and weighs at least 1.3 kg when sold.

Why this matters to you: the consortium advises keeping a whole coppa in a cool, humid cellar and an opened one in the fridge, wrapped in a damp cotton cloth. Serve it as an antipasto with hot croutons, country bread and fresh vegetables.