Smoked Coppa Roast
Try coppa roast, the inexpensive "money muscle," or pork collar, smoked to perfect juicy tenderness with a homemade rub.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 2-lb coppa roast
- 1 tbsp neutral oil (like avocado or grapeseed)
For the rub:
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp ground savory
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Light your grill and set it up for two-zone cooking. Add wood chunks (not chips) to the hot coals and establish temperature at 225° F as indicated with a reliable leave-in thermometer.
- While your grill is preheating, add all the ingredients for the rub into a shaker bottle and shake to mix. Then evenly coat the coppa roast with a very thin coat of neutral oil before seasoning the entire roast liberally with the rub.
- Place the meat on the grill over indirect heat, close the lid, and allow it to smoke until the internal temperature reaches 175° F. Then increase grill temperature to 300° F and allow the pork to continue cooking until it reaches 190° F before removing it from the grill.
- Allow the pork to rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Slice in 1/4-inch thick slices for service, and lightly dust with a sprinkle of rub.
Notes
The smoked coppa roast might just be the best piece of meat you’ve never tried. Let me rephrase that. If you’ve ever smoked a pork shoulder and then pulled it into a pile of deliciousness you’ve had the coppa. You might even have heard of the coppa roast by what it’s more commonly referred to: the money muscle. The coppa is the most tender—and because of its intramuscular fat—the juiciest part of the butt. Pork butt and Boston butt are other names that refer to the pork shoulder, by the way.
So why did I say you’ve never had it? Well, when the coppa roast is shredded into pulled pork and combined with the rest of the butt, it gets sort of lost. Also, in order for an entire pork shoulder to be tender it generally needs to be cooked to over 200° F. The coppa roast on the other hand is best served sliced and only cooked to a temperature of around 190° F. On its own, and dollar for dollar, the coppa roast packs an uppercut punch of flavor and best of all, it’s an inexpensive cut of meat.