Directions

At the age of 16, I spent a month in Luthuanian city Druskininkai. It was during the winter when USSR officially collapsed. The world and borders around us were radically changing during those fascinating times. There, I learned that bread with caraway is good…very good; hence, I developed a life-long addiction to caraway. As a consequence, here it comes – a caraway capocollo.

From the beginning to the end, the process took 17 weeks; weight loss – 45%.

Process and Ingredients:

On one pork neck:

Sea salt – 2.5%; Cure2 – 0.25%; Black Pepper (hereafter, BP)- 0.5%; caraway seeds – 1%; allspice – 0.01%; some fresh oregano from backyard. The neck was vacuum sealed and kept in refrigerator for 3 weeks for EQ curing; for details, see explanation under “Technologies” section. Then the neck was washed in cold running water, dried, and dusted with the mix of BP and caraway seed. This capocollo was not cased; it was tied and sent to the Curing Chamber. Prior being sliced, it was placed in vacuum and kept in refrigerator for one week.