Capocollo di Calabria

Appearance & taste

The capocollo is cylindrical. Its colour is pink or red and more or less intense depending on the black pepper or red chilli. When cut it is soft and bright pink, with the typical streaks of fat of the pork loin. It tastes mild, and the flavour becomes more delicate with ripening; the aroma is characteristic and suitably intense.

The label shows the name in clearly legible lettering, set well apart from all other information and directly followed by “Denominazione d’Origine Protetta”, together with the logo of the PDO “Capocollo di Calabria”.

Production

The meat comes from pigs raised in Calabria; boars and breeding sows are excluded. The animals correspond to the heavy Italian pig, bred from breeds such as Apulo-Calabrese, Large White and Landrace Italiana or from Duroc boars; purebred Landrace Belga, Hampshire, Pietrain and Spot are not permitted. A batch of slaughter pigs weighs at least 140 kg on average. The pigs are fed compound feed at least half of which consists of barley, field beans, maize, acorns and chickpeas; cassava and potatoes are prohibited, and in the final fattening stage so are by-products of milk production. As far as available, the feed comes from Calabria.

The meat used is from the upper part of the boned loin, a large, long cut that the producers select for the right fat content; according to the specification, this keeps the capocollo soft throughout ripening. Fresh, it weighs 3.5 to 5.5 kg. It is salted dry or in brine, then placed in a natural casing, tied with string and ripened for at least 100 days. Raising and slaughtering the pigs, selection, stuffing, tying and ripening take place in Calabria.

Origin & history

Calabria lies in southern Italy. The climate is warm to temperate, with little rainfall, which falls mainly in winter. The region is mostly hilly to mountainous and, as a peninsula, has 800 km of coastline on the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas. According to the specification, the particular wind conditions and temperature ranges help to maintain good conditions in the ripening rooms.

The specification calls capocollo a typical ripened cured meat of Calabria. The traditional method of production includes the producers’ experience in selecting and boning the cut and the use of spices such as pepper, paprika and chilli.