What Is The Difference Between Capicola, Prosciutto, and Soppressata?

Whether you’re out at a restaurant or perusing the deli section to find fixings for a charcuterie board for your next book club, party, or girls’ night, it can be difficult to distinguish one meat from another, especially when their names aren’t as familiar to Southern ears as bacon, ham, and sausage. So, let’s get to know the Italian cousins of our favorite snackable meats.

Get To Know Prosciutto

Chances are you’re familiar with prosciutto. It’s available in many grocery stores and is often sold in wafer-thin slices.

From the Italian word for "to dry," prosciutto is seasoned, salt-cured, air-dried, and periodically pressed to give it a firm, dense texture. Unlike bacon, prosciutto is not smoked (but it’s second cousin speck is!), but because it’s cured, it is safe to eat without cooking (unless you’re pregnant or immuno-compromised).

Made from the thigh or hind leg of the pig (like American ham), prosciutto can be from anywhere. If you’re looking for the good stuff from Italy, look for “prosciutto crudo” or one labeled with its city or province of origin, such as prosciutto di Parma.

Capicola: Meat of Many Names

Capicola comes from a different part of the pig—the neck and shoulder. Often sold pre-sliced, capicola is seasoned with wine, garlic, herbs, and spices, then hung and dried for up to six months. Sometimes it’s rubbed with paprika, which gives the exterior a rosy color. It isn’t pressed like prosciutto, so it has a more tender, fatty texture.

Capicola goes by many nicknames (like coppa) and has multiple spellings (cappocolo is one), but the most confusing of both is "gabagool." If you don’t have an Italian-American grandmother from New York or New Jersey, or you didn't watch the TV show The Sopranos, you may be shaking your head at this name that sounds like it belongs to a character in a science-fiction movie. Linguists and historians believe that the pronunciation of capicola as "gabagool" came from Italian dialects morphing and evolving as they were passed from generation to generation of immigrants in America.

No matter how it sounds, gabagool and capicola are the same thing—and delicious no matter now you say it.

 Soppressata Is Kinda Like Sausage, Y'all

We Southerners love our sausage—and Italian soppressata is made in a similar fashion. Chopped bits of lean pork and pork fat are seasoned with different flavorings (clove, garlic, and black pepper in northern Italy; chile peppers in Southern Italy) and then cured and dried like prosciutto and capicola. The result is a dense, sliceable salami that’s ready for snacking—no cooking required.

Don’t be alarmed by the dusty white exterior of soppressata; it’s actually penicillin, the same variety that grows on the rind of Brie cheese. While it is edible, we recommend removing the casing with the mold for a more pleasant snacking experience.

Now that you know what you’re shopping for, it’s time to build your ultimate Southern snack board. Start with a pretty, food-safe serving board, then use our handy guide to pull everything together. Or, take the easy route and whip up our Charcuterie Board Snack Mix.