Jacqueline Church on Mangalitsa Lard

Chef Manfred Stockner with whipped Mangalitsa lard (r) and lardo(l).

Jacqueline Church has a post about Mangalitsa leaf lard.

She use some lard from Jason Bond's pig. I wrote about that before.

Foods In Season can send you Wooly Pigs brand Mangalitsa lard and bacon - just call 866-767-2464.

Anyway, this talk of lard reminds me of something.

Often people talk about leaf lard and how it is superior to non leaf lard. Although that may be a useful heuristic when dealing with meat-type pigs that aren't raised for high-quality fat, when dealing with extreme lard-type Mangalitsas that are fed for high fat quality, it isn't clear to me that leaf lard is better than non leaf lard.

I haven't done rigorous baking experiments, but as far as how it looks, tastes and smells, I can't tell my Mangalitsa lard from my Mangalitsa leaf lard.

Given a choice between some Mangalitsa lard and some leaf lard from a non-Mangalitsa pigs, I'd take the Mangalitsa lard. My own experiments with Berkshire hogs (fed along the lines of my Mangalitsa pigs) have told me that the Mangalitsa fat (leaf or non-leaf) tastes much better than Berkshire fat.