Swiss Book On Mangalitsa Pig

A mature boar stares at the plate of Mangalitsa specialties.

I've got a draft of a chapter about Mangalitsa from a Swiss book. The chapter includes a lot of nice information about the Mangalitsa and how it tastes. The photos in it are really impressive. I took two and superimposed them to generate the picture at the top of this post.


Here's text from the chapter about the meat:

Pork from the woolly pig is extremely characteristic, both in aspect and in taste, the meat being dark and very marbled, that is to say that there is a network of veining made up of fat spread throughout the meat. This gives the superb fl avour to the meat. This wonderful fl avour is comparable to that of the pork that comes from the hogs that forage the oak forests of Spain and Portugal, the ham of which is currently a top favourite in fi ne eating the world over. Woolly pig pork has twice the marbling of ordinary pork.

... The fat is not only incomparable in taste but also in terms of all its organoleptic qualities; it is a very
unsaturated fat, melting at a low temperature and very light in texture, leaving a « clean » smooth feeling in the mouth. The very special properties of the fat mean that woolly pig lard can be whipped like cream, becoming stiff, very white and silky. It is a healthy type of fat, containing a larger proportion of oleic acid than ordinary lard...

Here is their flavor graph for one of the Mangalitsa dishes:

According to the graph, Mangalitsa fat is quite creamy. I agree! That's generally what people notice and comment on. And that explains why people can't get enough of Mangalitsa belly, which is almost pure fat.