| What's a Hungarian Pig doing on Beacon Hill? |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 27 February 2010 05:37 |
Having never met my Hungarian grandmother, I'm always curious about that part of my own heritage, especially if it has to do with food. The Mangalitsa shares two traits with my paternal grandmother: both are/were Hungarian imports, and both have/had thick, curly hair. Thankfully, the similarities in our bloodlines end there.
The more I learn about Mangalitsa (Hungarians call it Mangalica), the more I discover that its story shares some common threads with other heritage breed pigs. The breed nearly disappeared due to the geopolitical hardships in Eastern Europe. It was resurrected by two entrepreneurs who understood its promise and appreciated its unique features. The breed was brought to the US by a hi tech guy turned entrepreneur/farmer, Heath Putnam. By throwing down a princely sum, Putnam imported a herd of the once-royal swine to the US just prior to the ban currently in place. Carefully controlling the breeding, Putnman has created a Mangalitsa Monopoly that some chefs grumble about but which does ensure the endurance of the breed. Given the problems other heritage breeds have had when registries disappear or farmers retire or die, it's easy to make an argument for more, rather than less, control. Whatever your feelings are about the "preciousness" of this pork marketing scheme, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person who's tried it and hasn't loved it. When I began the Pig Tales book project, I was originally focused on heritage breeds, American heritage breeds. Then I learned about the Mangalitsa. I tasted it and immediately understood why chefs swoon over it. I get Putnam's faith, his vision, his dreams for this breed. He was certain the pork he tasted in Austria, the pork that won him over immediately, would also win the hearts, palates (and wallets) of chefs and gourmands in the US. And it has. A Wooly Pig comes to Beacon HillThanks to Chef Jason Bond at Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro, the Hungarian Mangalitsa has made it all the way to Boston. As of this writing, the dinner featuring this special hog still has a handful of seats left. Call BHHB to reserve your seat now. Prior to Chef Bond's efforts, the only place a curious diner could try this unique pork would have been in a restaurant or two in NYC (April Bloomfield's The Spotted Pig) or at the Herb Farm restaurant outside Seattle, or Thomas Keller's French Laundry. Bond brought two Mangalitsas to New England, raised them at Pete & Jen's farm in Concord. Named Black and Tan, I have enjoyed the gift of some leaf lard from Tan and a taste of the rich meat. Leaf lard is the special fat that grows around the pig's kidneys and rendered it yields fat that is coveted by cooks and especially, bakers. See: For the Love of Lard: Mangalitsa Leaf Lard for Perfect Pies. It's an odd thing to see a pig with a long, curly coat. In fact, the Mangalitsa was almost unheard of not too long ago, but now the "wooly pigs" are enjoying their moment in the sun. Well, enjoy, may be too strong a way to put it. No doubt that these unique pigs are in the center of a couple of culinary trends. One is the growing interest in heritage foods and the "eat it to save it" ethos. Another is the farm-to-table movement, and our renewed interest in tracing our food to its source, knowing how it's raised, and meeting our farmers and producers. A return to old food ways, to traditional farming methods both have come to be seen as more sustainable and certainly healthier for the environment, the animals and those consume them. Meet Your MealI stopped by to see Chef Bond as he was prepping the newly arrived Black. He explained that this pig was much smaller than his brother (fed the same, raised the same and sharing the same parents). Black, it seems, just wasn't as assertive at meal time. Poor Black got edged out by Tan one too many times. As a result, Bond has much less fat work with but will surely rise to the challenge.
This photo (above) shows the loin and the fat which, if you can believe it, was thicker on Tan. Notice this pork is not white. The commercial pork that comes from industrial factory operations ("other white meat") was bred for speedy fattening, docile handling and lean meat. CAFO/commercial pork is trouble to cook because of the absence of intramuscular fat. It bears little resemblance to the meat of its predecessors. Most commercial pork comes from pigs whose lives have nothing in common with the fresh pasture, foraging life, and gentle hands-on care that Black and Tan enjoyed.
I'd never seen this cool little gadget. I suppose Jason learned of it at the Mosefund Pigstock three day butchering seminar. Mosefund Mangalitsa brings the leading Mangalitsa producers together with chefs and food professionals to learn from the team trained by master butchers. They are expert at preparations of all sorts, as well as the full utilzation of the animal, aided by European seam-butchering techniques.
Yes, Tan had more fat than this. For those of you recoiling at the sight of this fat or worried about the quantity, you should know that lard from pigs like this, raised on healthy organic diets including foraged foods is much closer in profile to healthy fats like olive oil. We tend to associate "lard" with the age-old tub o' Crisco. The two could not be more DIS-similar.
Heavenly Fat, Leaf lard from around the kidneys. Really, rendered down (see step by step photos in the Loving Lard post, link above), it is an unexpected delight.
Butchering Techniques
At the ALBC conference in Raleigh, I learned about European butchering techniques that run along the seam of a muscle (hence the name "seam butchery") rather than cutting across it as we do in North America. This is one of the unique cuts that result from the seam butchering technique. Two others mentioned in the lecture I saw were called Pluma and Presa - I believe it was a Spanish chart. These are said to be two of the tastiest cuts and two which Americans typically cut through and trim off. To have a chef that cares so deeply about how food is sourced, raised, produced and who is able to do this type of skilled butchering, it's not as common as one might think. When that chef thinks, studies, and cares about all these issues from farm-to-table and also prepares such understated yet elegant food with these rare ingredients, we are fortunate indeed. The topics of slaughter and butchering are both going to be explored more in Pig Tales:a Love Story and perhaps here. Please drop a comment if you have any recommendations on these below.
More about Mangalitsas
Trackback(0)
Comments
(6)
...
written by Heath Putnam , March 02, 2010
Heath
written by Jacqueline , March 02, 2010
Thanks for the correction and information and mostly for what you're doing. I really hope to make it your farm one day. My book, Pig Tales would not be complete without a section on you and your Mangalitsas!
Pig!
written by Eagranie , March 03, 2010
I had the pleasure of having the Herb Farm's Mangalitsa sausage/pepperoni last summer, and it was incredible. The fattiness and marbling was beautiful -- and the giant fat globules were aromatic and delicious, not fatty.
Eagranie
written by Jacqueline , March 12, 2010
It's amazing how different the fat is, isn't it? So hard to explain to those who have not tasted this pork or these products, how wonderfully flavored they are!
Love of Lard
written by Walter Jeffries , April 05, 2010
It is unfortunate that fat has gotten forgotten by the general population. I am not sure how much of that is the "fat is bad" craze that went on or simply the loss of the ability to cook in the general population. In addition to rendered lard from our pigs we use slices of back fat skin on when cooking to stir fry.
Walter
written by Jacqueline , April 06, 2010
Thanks for dropping a comment. I agree. We see now that the fear of healthy fats led people to hydrogenated artificial replacements, to dry white meats that required tons of sauce to choke down. A little fat from an animal that was raised in a healthy environment (pasture), on good feed natural to their digestive systems, is not only tasty and fine in moderation, but is also necessary to cellular repair and function. People actually have poor health outcomes from extreme fat-free eating.
Say lard and most people think of Crisco. Not the same in any way, by any measure. Here's to good old fashioned healthy pig fat!  |
Loin (R), kidneys (L)
Rib stripping tool
"Smaller" Black
Trapezoidal "Meat Pocket" often slit open and stuffed
Chef Jason Bond
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
1. If people want to produce Mangalitsa pigs, they can to buy breeding stock from Wooly Pigs, or import their own genetics. Most want it cheap, easy or riskless.
2. The Mangalitsa I ate in Austria (not Hungary) was what convinced me that it would do well here. The Hungarian stuff I've had has been intriguing but of spotty quality.
3. You have to give Chef Bond credit for recognizing the particular value of Mangalitsa pork and importing them to New England. I think he's the only New England chef who has done it. However, he didn't have to go that far - just to New Jersey. The key is, he recognized the value of the pigs, and took action.
4. You mention how special leaf lard is. Given how Jason fed his pigs, the non-leaf lard from his pigs should be better than the leaf lard of regular pigs.
5. To my knowledge, The Spotted Pig served some Mangalitsa F1 (50% Mangalitsa-cross) pork one or two nights - because they didn't buy much pork (maybe 50#).
6. You mention CAFOs and meat quality. You can actually raise pigs like Mangalitsas (e.g. Ibericos) in CAFOs:
http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/...a-ham.html
I was surprised myself when I learned that the Mangalitsa was the first "factory farmed" pig: http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/...mania.html
7. The rib puller is used in Austria, Germany and perhaps other countries. Due to Wooly Pigs and its effort to market Mangalitsa pork and associated processing techniques, more and more people know about seam butchery. Christoph Wiesner (not considered a butcher in Austria - but nevertheless a butchery expert) has a particular style of seam butchery, much of which he learned from master butcher Marcel Kropf. You can see Christoph teaching here: http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/...chery.html
I don't think other butchers in Austria do the pigs exactly the same as Kropf and Wiesner.
8. Many Mangalitsa producers fatten the pigs in environments where they can't forage, so that it is possible to easily produce high-quality and consistent fat:
http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/2009/02/soft-pork-mangalitsa-fat-quality-and.html
In closing, I'm glad you wrote about Chef Jason bond, his pigs, Mangalitsa pigs, etc. I'm glad you appreciate how yummy Mangalitsa fat is.
Thinking about Chef Bond, I am reminded that when I started with Mangalitsa pigs, like Chef Bond, I just wanted to be able to eat the best stuff I possibly could.