Tuesday, July 6, 2010

New York Times on Mangalitsa Hams

The New York Times writes about imported Mangalitsa hams.

Although it doesn't mention Johnston County Hams's Mangalitsa Hams - made with pork from Heath Putnam Farms (aka "Wooly Pigs"), it does say:
The deep burgundy slices, streaked with mellow fat, are rich, salty and sweet, similar in color and flavor to Iberico ham from Pata Negra pigs, but more buttery, and half the price.
If anything, they sound better than Iberico hams. If you get the same flavor but they taste more buttery, and cost half the price, that's superb.

Similarly, our fresh meat in NYC costs half the price of iberico - and as far as I can tell, tastes the same.

There's another small victory for Heath Putnam Farms: the New York Times, when writing about the pigs, uses the spelling "Mangalitsa", and not "Mangalica", or any of the other spellings (e.g. Mangalitza). Of course, the people selling the imported hams would prefer that you spelled it "mangalica" - because that's how they label them in Spain.

This Mangalitsa spelling is the same as the previous article the New York Times wrote about the breed, from 2009. The spelling that I have promoted, "Mangalitsa" is, thanks to the New York Times, the official English spelling. That's good for Heath Putnam Farms - because Heath Putnam Farms comes up quite high when searching on the internet for "Mangalitsa", and Heath Putnam Farms owns the domain mangalitsa.com.

When I talked to the reporter writing the article about Mangalitsa pigs, I had only two requests. The first - and really the only important one - was that he spell Mangalitsa correctly.

I (through the company Wooly Pigs) created the Mangalitsa phenomenon in the USA. The New York Times, even when talking about imported Mangalitsa products, helps me, because they pretty much have to use the word "Mangalitsa" to talk about the stuff.

Another thing - the New York times writes "woolly-haired Mangalitsa pigs". I completely approve of that. It doesn't create problems with our trademark, Wooly Pigs.

I just hope that one day they write about Johnston County Hams and their special hams, made from our pigs.

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