Other whole-muscle cured pork

Other whole-muscle cured pork (whole-muscle salumi, whole-cut salumi) is dry-cured meat made from one whole muscle or muscle group rather than mince: neck (coppa, capocollo), thigh muscles (culatello), loin (lonza, lomo) and leg (hiromeri). Each piece is salted and aged, often in a casing or a pig's bladder, then sliced thin. The family sits halfway between a whole ham and a sausage.

In Cyprus, hiromeri Pitsilias is salted for 5–7 days, then kept for at least two weeks in dry red wine and smoked under a press at no more than 38 °C, never over open fire. The Cypriot government traces the oldest mention to 1573, and Venetian consular records from 1769 and 1771 already speak of hiromeri shipped to Syria. It has been a PGI since 2020.

The cuts are precise. Coppa Piacentina is the upper neck muscle, at least 2.5 kg, separated while still warm. Culatello is the bundle of rear and inner thigh muscles, trimmed to a pear shape. Spaniards make lomo embuchado from the muscles along the spine, nearly fat-free, in a casing; under RD 474/2014 it holds at most 55 g of moisture per 100 g.

Ageing varies. Coppa di Parma is salted for 6–10 days and aged 60 days, or 90 for pieces over 2.6 kg. Capocollo di Calabria matures for at least 100 days, Coppa Piacentina at least 6 months, Culatello di Zibello at least 10 months from the start of salting: 1–6 days in salt, up to 21 days' rest, bladder, string, 30–60 days' drying and long maturing at 10–21 °C.

Italians have kept these recipes for a long time. The Coppa Piacentina specification traces production back to Roman times, and Coppa di Parma was known by the late 17th century as «bondiola». Coppa Piacentina and Culatello di Zibello became PDOs in 1996, Capocollo di Calabria in 1998, and Coppa di Parma received its PGI in 2011.

Unlike Dry-cured hams and shoulders, this family takes a single muscle rather than the whole leg on the bone; unlike sausages, the meat is never minced. Within the family the muscle sets the character: coppa is marbled with fat, culatello is a dense thigh muscle in a bladder under a net of string, lomo and lonza are lean loin. Coppa Piacentina tastes sweet and delicate, culatello sweet and gentle, and hiromeri smells of wine and smoke.

On the label, look for the name with its status: «Coppa Piacentina» with «Denominazione di Origine Protetta», «Coppa di Parma» with «IGP» and the EU symbol. Culatello di Zibello carries a white-and-red cord seal and a label with the date salting began. Plain «culatello» without Zibello is legal too: Italy's 2025 decree asks only for 9 months and 3 kg.

The Coppa di Parma consortium advises keeping a whole piece somewhere cool and humid, like a cellar, and an opened one in the fridge, wrapped in a damp cotton cloth. Before slicing, culatello is freed of string and bladder, trimmed and rested for a day in a cloth soaked in dry white wine.

Why this matters to you: the name of the muscle tells you the rest — taste, fat, ageing, even how to slice it. Once you know coppa is neck and culatello is thigh, an Italian deli counter becomes easy to read. The wider picture is on Cured meats & charcuterie.