One Vanilla Bean Wins

A while back I made an offer to Charcutepalooza participants - basically, if someone would make a post about their Charcutepalooza Mangalitsa products, I'd pick the best and give them some good stuff. As I wrote, "I'll judge based on the skill used to craft the product and the photos you take of it."

One Vanilla Bean has won. Here's her winning post.

She wins a ham, made from our pigs, by Johnston County Hams.

Sold!

I've just executed an agreement to sell my pigs and brands and other intellectual properties to Mosefund, one of my oldest and best customers.

I'm almost out of the luxury pig and pork business - but I've still got meat to sell.

If you want to buy Mangalitsa, please call me at 253-508-3604. That includes lard, cured shoulders, raw meat, etc.

If you want live pigs - breeding stock or feeder pigs - I suggest you call Michael from Mosefund at 201-289-0210.

Part of my agreement with Mosefund includes a noncompete clause. I spent most of yesterday and the day before calling former live pig customers, explaining that for at least one year, I wouldn't be able to consult with them.

I've enjoyed helping all my customers and potential customers these last few years. Besides consulting with them, in cases where I couldn't serve consumers, or I felt a customer could serve them much better, I typically recommended the Mangalitsa products of others to the consumer, figuring it would be better for me in the long run. However, due to the noncompete, that stops right now.

Quick Hams

Mangalitsa ham on foodista.com

These guys in London did their hams the fast way. If you follow this link, there's more info. Mangalitsa hams produced that way taste incredible, but take very little time to produce. There's less risk of spoilage.

Nevertheless, some people fetishize bone-in hams, unaware that unless you've got your process down, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.

Here's a recipe for quick hams from The Herbfarm's Chris Weber on foodista.com

On the topic of hams, I should mention that here you can buy bone-in Mangalitsa hams, from Johnston County Hams.

Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa in Costume

I saw this absurd photo on Mosefund's twitter feed.

Big News

Selling

Heath Putnam Farms is in the process of selling its pigs and brands to Mosefund.

There'll be more news about this in the future.


Victory Lap

I'm currently planning a trip to the Wiesner's in Austria. I'll get to learn (finally) how to cut up the pigs. I've cut up a bunch (along these lines), but I've never felt really good at it. By going when they'll be killing a bunch of pigs, I ought to get plenty of practice.

I've wanted to visit the Wiesner's farm for years, but running the business has prevented it. I think I view their farm the way Tolkein portrayed Lothlorien: a place of preservation that is "out of time". Right now, it is my idea of a perfect refuge.

After I come back, before I start my next thing, I'm thinking of doing a quick tour around the USA to visit customers (many of whom I've never met in person). Hopefully I'll be able to show them something.

New Mangalitsa Breeder Tyke Antonopolous

Tyke Antonopolous of Missouri (near Springfield) just bought some breeding stock (4 gilts and 3 boars). His phone number is 417-276-3039.

He said his main intention is to sell breeding stock. He said he'll do a little meat, but given that he's isolated, he doesn't expect to sell much to restaurants.

If you've bought breeding stock from Heath Putnam Farms, don't be surprised if he contacts you. He wants to form an association of Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa breeders.

Tyke has been breeding livestock for years. He used to be very active in Boer goats.

It fascinates me to see this happening. Most of the breeding stock customers to date have been operations like Mosefund, Pasture Prime Wagyu or Revival Meats: breed specific meat companies.

Kerns, of International Boar Semen and Ken Kehrli (a Berkshire guy) are some of the established Iowa farmers that are adopting, if only experimentally, Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa pigs. It was a big deal to get them involved.

Tyke has two obvious markets: farms that bought Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa genetics and need fresh blood and farms wanting to acquire Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa genetics for the first time.

Favorite Bites 2011

EDIT: added a new one from chowfather

A bunch of people have written up "favorite bites of 2011" articles. It is great to see that Mangalitsa made an impact on so many peoples' gustatory lives in 2011. I figure it is just the tip of the iceberg; a few people write such articles. Many more people had the same experience, and perhaps even noticed it, but didn't bother to tell others about the best things they ate in 2011.

Jeff #1's list includes a chop in Houston's Max's Wine Dive. I'm guessing Morgan Weber's Revival Meats sold the loin to them.

Ian Froeb liked one of my pigs, cured and served at Taste, in St. Louis.

Food writer Leslie Kelly liked our winning hog.

Jeff #2's list included our winning hog.

Chowfather - Mangalitsa Belly his dish of the year.

Just due to how long it takes to get a Mangalitsa pig to market and who was breeding them when, I'm fairly sure (but not certain) that at one point, the pigs used to produce the pork belonged to Heath Putnam Farms, and hence, to me.

One thing that's neat about the rapid expansion in Mangalitsa breeders (which is accelerating) is that come 2013 or 2014, most of it will have been produced by someone other than me.

Mangalitsa Hams in the News

There's a nice story here about Johnston County Hams and their Mangalitsa hams.

I'm incredibly grateful that Johnston County Hams chose to produce Mangalitsa hams (and shoulders). Nobody else was willing to sink a fortune into producing a novel ultra-premium luxury food.

The story reminds me a bit of Germain-Robin; they made great brandies, equal to those of Europe. Unfortunately, Americans didn't really want that stuff. Unsurprisingly, I love Germain-Robin. Here's a section from an article about it:

Germain-Robin spends no money on advertising. Unlike Hennessy or Courvoisier, hip-hop artists don't give it "shout outs" in their songs. Moreover, being in Ukiah leaves Germain-Robin far off the trail of Wine Country tasting.

But in the glass, Germain-Robin brandies sing and dance. I tasted a range of the company's products along with some Hennessy XO Cognac, a well-regarded French product that costs $120. (See story page F6). The Hennessy XO smelled simple and uninteresting, and tasted rough and unbalanced in comparison.

It's not surprising that Germain-Robin tastes better than similarly priced French Cognacs when you learn how the two products are made. Both reflect the culture of their homelands.

Thanks Herb!

I finished the cured Mangalitsa shoulder that Herb Eckhouse sent me yesterday. There might be a few grams more of cured meat and fat on that thing, but I didn't want to risk cutting myself to get it.

It was delicious. The fat was like lardo. The cured meat was an umami-bomb.

My favorite part of the shoulder was the shank. I used a very sharp knife to remove the meat off the bone near the hoof. After cutting out the sinew I was able to enjoy some very delicate meat. I cut that into paper thin slices and ate it piece by piece. The texture is great - they are stiff and a bit chewy but still yielding.

This stuff isn't for everyone. One acquaintance that I shared a piece with remarked that it tasted plain. Apparently the jerky-like texture fooled her; she was expecting it to taste peppery. She didn't appreciate it at all.

This experience reminded me of the first time I ate cured pork products in Spain, while switching planes. I had never eaten cured pork products that weren't spiced or smoked. At first they tasted odd. The more I ate them, the more I liked them. Later I ate products made with spices and felt they were over-spiced.