Fat Pigs

Mangalitsa pigs have valuable fat. Depending on the type of carcass one wants to produce (e.g. very lean or lardy), one feeds them differently.

Morgan Weber of Revival Meats wrote about different feeding programs - and their impact on Mangalitsa carcass quality here.

I saw today a story that reminded me of this subject. It involves a woman who wants to become the fattest woman. There's some great quotes:

Donna, who wears XXXXXXXL dresses, eats mounds of junk food and tries to move as little as possible.

Ms Simpson already holds the Guinness World Record as the world's fattest mother, when she gave birth in 2007 weighing 38stone.

She needed a team of 30 medics to deliver her daughter Jacqueline during a high-risk Caesarean birth.

Yet although she can only move 20ft before needing to sit down, she wants to be even bigger.

'I'd love to be 1,000lb,' she said.

'It might be hard though. Running after my daughter keeps my weight down.'

Pig fattening is the same way.

The ideal lard-type pig is one that eats to the point of ridiculous excess, allowing it to fatten the fastest, and then sleeps the rest of the day - so that it doesn't burn off those calories.

The Wiesners recently produced some excellent pork, quickly, by feeding their hogs barley and cooked potatoes. The cooked potatoes are essentially pure starch. I'm thinking I might try feeding something similar, to see if I can get more fat and marbling in my carcasses.