As I have stated many times, this is in the style of Piacenza, due to the fact that I'm not actually IN Piacenza. Of course, this is true, even in Italy of DOP items, which Coppa Piacenza is. Piacenza is a town in Emilia-Romagna in the Po river valley which also lays claim to another DOP salume, pancetta Piacentina. I've wanted to make something in this style for quite some time, however, I have something of an aversion for several of the spices in this. I've used some of them before and I felt they were overwhelming and unpleasant, clove and cinnamon, in particular. But, I was eager to try something different, and I surmised that by using scant amounts of said spices, it would turn out palatable. I went with the usual sea salt, black pepper, sugar combo, along with the spices cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger and coriander. The coppa(again, provided by Michael at Mosefund) started at 2.41kg. After close to 3 months, I removed it at 33% total weight loss. I eagerly cut into it, hoping for the best. I was beyond pleasantly surprised, I was amazed. All those challenging spices together are actually very pleasant. Absolutely nothing overwhelming about any of them. No Christmas recollection at all, which most of these spices do for me. I can aver that this salume will be a mainstay in my repertoire.
