This cut is typically called capocollo or coppa in much of Italy, Corsica, and southern Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons).

[4] The pronunciation gabagool has been used by some Italian Americans in the New York City area and elsewhere in the Northeast US, based on the Neapolitan language word capecuollo (IPA /kapəˈkwol.lə/) in working-class strata of 19th- and early 20th-century immigrants.

The meat is then salted (and was traditionally massaged), stuffed into a natural casing, and hung for up to six months to cure.

It is widely available wherever significant Italian communities occur, due to commercially produced varieties.

Three particular varieties, coppa piacentina, capocollo di Calabria from Italy, and Coppa de Corse[9] from France have protected designation of origin status under the Common Agricultural Policy of European Union law, which ensures that only products genuinely originating in those regions are allowed in commerce as such.