Sunday, March 8, 2009

Herbfarm Food & Visconti's Mangalitsa Dinner




There's report from Sheri Wetherell who ate at The Herbfarm recently. One dish featured Mangalitsa in it. Keith Luce explained to me that they've been using it in discreet ways in many dishes, so we don't really know how many might have had it.

At home, I use the fat for a variety of tasks. I prefer it to high-oleic sunflower oil, my favorite cooking oil.


Also, last night, I ate at Visconti's in Leavenworth. There was a wine dinner there for Napeequa. Dan Carr, the owner of Visconti's, and Pigstock participant, invited me.

Mangalitsa gets used a lot at wine dinners. I can see why they order in a Mangalitsa for the wine dinner; if they need it to be a special occasion, a few courses of Mangalitsa will do it.

It was my first chance to see 50 or so people eat Mangalitsa for the firs time. A lot of them really liked it. I definitely liked what I ate - particularly the Mangalitsa belly, which was amazing. I liked that more than the tenderloin. The sausage was also very memorable.

They've also got a USDA-inspected facility in the basement where they'll be making cured products. That was really neat to see. They've got a really nice setup - everything looked new and nice. One thing they don't have is a loading dock, they need to carry heavy carcasses down a flight of stairs. The more you deal with meat or meat production, the more you see the utility of pallets, forklifts and loading docks.

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