NPR on Iberian Ham

Free-ranging Iberian Swine
The "poster pig" for iberico - fat pig on range looking for acorns.

NPR recently had a story on Jamón ibérico, or as we say in English, Iberian ham.

Unfortunately, there are fundamental omissions in the article. For example, one might conclude that to produce the best ham in the world, one just needs to let pigs run around and eat acorns before turning their legs into hams. That is simply not true - which pigs get to run around and eat acorns, and how old those pigs are when they die are both crucial.

One of the most important differences between Iberian hams and other hams is that Iberian ham is produced from pigs with special genetics. A few breeds are considered "Iberian", and the pigs used to produce Iberian ham must have 3/4 or more of their ancestry from those special Iberian breeds[1].

Mangalitsa Pork from a 5-month Pig
marbled and fatty due to the genetics

The Iberian breeds are fundamentally different from the common pigs of the world - they are lard-type. Their marbling, fatty acid composition and percentage lean are all different from normal pigs - they are fat-prone pigs, and their fat tastes much better than normal fat.

As this study shows, you can feed the Iberians less monounsaturated fats (e.g. less acorns) and they'll still have more monounsaturated fatty acids in their tissue. If you really want to produce the best pork, you need the right genetics. Due to the importance of genetics, the best pigs, fed worse food, can still outperform lesser pigs fed a better diet.

Another key difference is that the Iberian pigs used to make the hams are much older than most other pigs - e.g. 15-24 months. Older pigs make better cured products. That's roughly 3 times as old as normal pigs.

My company, Wooly Pigs, prides itself on the quality of its bacon and other cured products, raises its pigs extra heavy. For example, our Berkshires are killed at one year - twice the typical age - because that's how old they need to be to make much better cured products. In keeping with this, I won't produce any cured Mangalitsa products until I get pigs at least 9-months old - and I'd be happier if none of the people who buy pigs from me cured young pigs. I afraid that Americans will get the wrong idea of what cured Mangalitsa tastes like; if they eat a bunch of inferior stuff, they won't know that cured Mangalitsa is some of the best there is.

Of course, an older pig costs a lot more to raise than a younger pig. The cheap growth happens when they are young. As they get older and fatter, pigs eat a lot more without gaining weight, and with their massive bulk, they are more of a "management problem." Big pigs break stuff, and they can do a lot more harm to humans.

Heavy Berkshire Hogs In the Trailer Heading to Slaughter
Thank goodness they can't get out!

It really feels good to send big fat pigs to the slaughterhouse. When I look at their fat jowls and think about all the feed they've consumed, how they've knocked people down, stampeded, broken fences and generally been a nuisance, it is fun to see them in that trailer on the way to slaughter. And when I look at their fat jowls, I can't help but imagine how the bacon will taste.

In America, a country where most people just want cheap meat, most pigs are killed at 5.5-6 months - ensuring that our bacon, ham and other cured products will taste lousy. In contrast, Spanish producers manage the genetics, feed, age and other factors to produce the best pork - and they do it on a huge scale, industrial in some cases. E.g. the Spanish are willing to feed penned pigs special diets designed to replicate the free-range diet. Not everything is traditional, free-range and feel-good in Spain as one might assume from the NPR story; they run confinement operations just like us - they just use better genetics, feed and so on to make much better pork.

Penned Iberian Swine (likely 3/4 crosses)
Delicious, cheaper, not free range, probably not fed acorns.
still iberico, still very superior.

Finally, NPR fails to mention that there are 3 categories of Iberico. The category is determined by the finishing diet of the pig. That's crucial - finishing diet substantially determines quality. The most free-range meat costs the most, because it tastes the best and requires the most resources to produce. Some of the pigs, like the one pictured above, are just kept penned. Not as heartwarming as the free-ranging Iberian pigs under the trees - but you can produce a lot more of that pork than the really great stuff, and it still tastes fantastic.[2]

When one understands the determinants of meat quality, it is easy to understand why the Iberian hams taste better than the Mangalitsa products coming out of Hungary and why Iberian tastes better than most Italian cured products - and why American products taste the worst of all.

3/4 Mangalitsa Pigs in Hungary
not purebred, not free-range and not acorn-fattened
still affordable, tasty and superior
said to be fraudulently sold as iberico.

The Hungarians use the right breed - but they can't feed acorns like the Spanish, nor let them roam and get so old. The Italians just use normal pigs - but unlike most American producers, they kill them at 9 or more months of age and strictly control the fatty acids in the feed. American producers routinely use pigs that Italians would reject for having too much PUFA. Essentially, in America, there are no standards - you can get away with anything, call your lousy product something misleading - hopefully with a foreign-sounding, ethnic name - and if people buy it, great!

Hence, Americans will probably get duped. E.g. someone will finish some normal pigs on acorns, probably much younger than 15 months, and then marketers will tell people that it is as good as "Iberico". If someone is smart, he'll call it "American Iberico" or perhaps "Americo" or "Iowaberco" - just like Snake River calls their watered-down Wagyu crosses "American Kobe." Consumers who've never eaten Iberico will then go around parroting that "Americo" is as good as Iberico, and as long as it tastes better than what they otherwise get, they'll be happy.

Mangalitsa pigs in Eastern Washington
free range, not acorn-fattened
still very superior

Of course, I have a personal interest in all of this. As the only person in the Americas who owns a herd of European lard-type pigs (if only they were Iberico, I'd probably be getting some PR right now) I stand to benefit if Americans learn that lard-type pigs taste better. But mostly I'm bothered at people getting duped.

Also, I'm hoping that someone out there, with acorns, will decide to buy some pigs from me, raise them the way the Spanish do - and thereby produce fantastic pork -- in the Americas. That will be a historic event.

[1] The 3/4 requirement allows the Spanish to produce a lot more product, because the 3/4 crosses are more efficient to produce - more piglets per litter, faster growing pigs, etc. The meat and particularly the fat is not as good - but the average consumer probably can't afford the purebred stuff anyway.

It is the same with Wagyu: Wagyu crosses are more economic. Big producers normally have enough clout that they can legally market crosses to the public as the "real deal." Here is a nice blog post with some photos that show how the purebred Wagyu differs from the crosses.

[2] Tip for foodies: if you want the best grade, make sure it is bellota. The other grades are recebo (less good) and pienso (the lowest). Given that Austria and Hungary are so short on acorns and space, their best Mangalitsa is typically like pienso. If they had acorns, they could produce pork very similar to bellota, due to the Mangalitsa and Iberians being so similar.