First Load of Mangalitsa is on its Way to Hong Kong

Photo from Hungarian "mangalica" fesztival.

Our meat is leaving for Hong Kong, as previously mentioned here.

At a certain point, it leaves your hands. We are approaching that moment very soon; a truck will come and take the meat away. Hopefully we've done the paperwork and stamping correctly and the meat will be in Hong Kong in a few days.

This is probably the first time the USA has exported lard-type pork to Asia in the last several decades. If things build from this, we'll look back at this as a historic moment. It amazes me that I'm the guy doing it. I've told the guys in Hong Kong I need to get photos of them with our meat in Hong Kong, just to prove that it has happened.

The Spanish have exported Ibeirco to Asia for a while now. With our export, the USA is starting to compete with Europeans for the Asian market. Our product will have to go head-to-head with Iberico in Hong Kong.

Importing Mangalitsa breeding stock to the new world, selling the first pigs to world-famous restaurants like The French Laundry, building demand in New York at the highest levels for Mangalitsa pork: I really have accomplished a lot.

But international trade is even bigger; it means we've somehow produced something so valuable that it pays to ship it halfway around the world, because other people really want it. If it works, in a few years, there'll be a lot of lard-type pork going from the USA to Asia.

I think it is great that people in Hong Kong have money and want to spend it on the world's best pork. From early on, it has been clear that Mangalitsa is a good fit for the Chinese market; the Chinese market isn't fat-phobic or fixated on beef. From retailing at the farmers' market, I and other Mangalitsa producers have learned that well-off foreign-born Chinese are some of the best Mangalitsa customers; some of them buy week after week, and they really appreciate the fat.

If the Mangalitsa breed thrives in the USA, it will be because international trade allows us to sell off the fatty cuts (bellies, jowls and fatback) to customers who appreciate that stuff, and have the means to pay for it. It is trivial to sell the lean meat from Mangalitsa pigs; what limits a producer is the fatty cuts.

In some sense, the Hungarian "mangalica" producers have it easy; they can sell fatty products like the stuff in the photo at top in their home market. We don't have it that easy - but we do have an excellent trade network with Asia.

I'm hoping this turns into something big. Even if it doesn't, just getting the first load of product off to Asia is a huge step.

Products from Our Raw Material on Sale at Eataly

Michael Clampffer from Mosefund sent me this photo of lardo and pancetta, made from our pork by Salumeria Biellese, on sale at Eataly.

Cane syrup glazed Mangalitsa pork belly with Louisiana crawfish

This dinner to honor John Besh features some of our Mangalitsa:

Gulotta serves as chef de cuisine of Restaurant August in New Orleans. His award-dinner menu will feature jumbo Gulf shrimp with pickled mirliton, spicy remoulade and petite greens; cane syrup glazed Mangalitsa pork belly with Louisiana crawfish, Becnel’s blood orange, picholine olives and green garlic; blanquette de veau, a slow-cooked breast of veal with handmade sweet potato tortelli and morel mushrooms; and Ponchatoula strawberry and Meyer lemon Streusselkuchen with strawberry Creole cream cheese ice cream.

Domenica in New Orleans

I saw this mention of John Besh's Domenica and our Mangalitsa in this review:

The octopus carpaccio was extraordinary and unless I have tasted anywhere. It was sort of like a brawn dish – but made with octopus jellied up in a roll and very thinly sliced carpaccio styled with a fennel/salad thatch (as they say in them fancy cuisine reviews). Enjoyed with a glass of white wine from Sicily – Regaliali – composed of Inzolia and other varieties it says). I got a small ($8) portion and could have gone the $12 size (be cautious with American sizings!). Then the main of Mangalitsa pork (neck) braised with borlotti beans, basil and honey – unbelievably tender and melt in mouth ($23). This could do no wrong so far – enjoyed with a glass of Umberto Cesare Sangiovese from Romagna. This was proving to be an absolutely classic Italian meal – forget the food in Italy folks, it’s all happening here in adaptation. Although desserts were interesting after the event on the menu decided I was going to do cheese instead and have the Casarita di buffalo – the mozzarella buffalo milk cheese from Lombardia. This was great but somewhat turned into a dessert American style with sweet stuff also on the board – some marmaladed citrus fruits, some honeyed nut things etc – not to mention some fried sweet salty beignet type bread pillows! All for $8, the same as the “real” desserts. I was happy to tip 20% for this bringing it to $80. One of the best ‘Italian’ meals I have had anywhere and no disappointments anywhere (usually one course falls down somewhere) – well worth 4 peanuts!

Exporting Meat to Hong Kong

We're exporting meat to Hong Kong. Meat leaves in a few days for the Far East!

Waves Pacific Limited will distribute our stuff in Hong Kong.

This is very exciting. Heath Putnam Farms might be the first ever to sell Mangalitsa pork in Hong Kong.

I'm hoping that our customers like Johnston County Hams and Salumeria Biellese can start exporting their cured Mangalitsa products to Asia too.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. One neat thing about selling in Asia is that we may have different demand for various cuts than what we see in the USA. With the exception of John Besh, not many USA chefs think of cooking and serving Mangalitsa belly or jowl.

Bakers Green Acres and Our Pigs in The News Again

Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa feeder pig

Bakers Green Acres, a farm that has bought many feeder pigs from us, got written up in Northwest Michigan's Second Wave.

They took some nice pictures of the pigs and the Baker family.

As the article explains:

These, however, aren't just any pigs. They are Mangalitsa, which is often referred to as "curly-haired pigs," and the Bakers have found themselves knee-deep in the culinary world thanks to them. The pig was the focus of a recent New York Times piece.

I'm always happy when our pigs get our customers good press.

How the Herbfarm Cures their Necks

See here for how to fabricate a neck.

We cut our pigs so that we get a Schopf (aka collar, neck or coppa). Jokingly, I sometimes refer to this cut as the "Heath Putnam Farms Austrian Pig Neck cut". To my knowledge, we are the only company selling this cut wholesale to American chefs.

Discriminating customers know that a neck is some of the best meat on a Mangalitsa.

The Herbfarm has been using Mangalitsa pigs longer than almost everyone else in America; they love their Mangalitsa neck. Here's their sous vide recipe (165F for 14 hours).

Besides the Herbfarm, John Besh and his restaurants buy hundreds of pounds a month. Tom Douglas's Serious Pie buys necks and cures them. Macelleria in New York likes them. Bloggers like Anamaris Cousins is are big fans, as are the Eadeses (who know more about Mangalitsa pigs than most people).

Some people like to cure the neck. Here's some cured Mangalitsa neck, done by the Sausage Debauchery guy:

Photo by The Sausage Debauchery.

A lot of people get our frozen necks (including the Herbfarm). When curing frozen meat, it is crucial to watch the salt, because it penetrates quicker than with never frozen meat.

I had some customers asking for help on curing previously frozen necks.

I emailed the Herbfarm and asked for info on how they cure the necks without them turning out too salty. Here's what Ben Smart (#2 in the Herbfarm's kitchen wrote):

The very basic cure we use on the necks is:

2.25 Kg pork neck
125 g salt
25 g dextrose
6 g prague #2 or DQ curing salt #2

Rub half of mixture on neck and refrigerate for 9 days. Rub remaining cure and let sit additional 9 days. Rinse, truss and hang in cool, dark place with roughly 70% humidity. When neck is about 70% of its original weight it is cured.

If your customer follows this recipe he should have success. However, half the fun of curing is coming up with additional spices to play with in the rub. He should keep this template and experiment if he chooses...

It is incredibly nice of them to share information, as they already did their ham recipe.

So there you have it; if you want to cure one of our previously frozen necks, that ought to get you started on the right foot.

If you want to order a neck, there's info in the right margin on how to order.

Mangalitsa Diet

Breakfast

I wrote here about my Mangalitsa/Sous Vide/Crossfit lifestyle change.

Basically, in the last few months, I've been eating my way through some Mangalitsa pigs, working out and using a supplement, Pentabosol.

Melissa's video.

Having noticed that the most fit people I sell Mangalitsa to - typically, of all things, lard - are paleo-dieting CrossFitters. My job is to sell fatty pork. I need people to eat fat and feel good about it. Obviously, the more fit you look when you do that, the better.

In December, I got more serious about exercise and diet. I went to my gym and did CrossFit enough to improve my fitness noticeably. CrossFit is ridiculously fun, and it will get you into shape quickly. Just try doing Fran (video). I don't think jogging or riding on an exercise bike will get you similar results.

Unfortunately, I injured my knee, probably doing some squats. I was re-injuring it when I did CrossFit. I finally decided I needed to stop the CrossFit and get the knee fixed. So I've switched to working out with kettlebells until I can go back to CrossFit. The idea is, repair the knee and build up enough strength that I can do thrusters and overhead squats without injuring myself.

On the diet front, in December, I noticed was that I was gorging on carbs. E.g. if I had roasted almonds around (so I could eat a few a day), I'd snap and eat them until they were all gone, at which point I'd go back to eating meat. I didn't have the discipline to make occasional almonds work.

I did some research and made some modifications.

I read some things - like this - that convinced me that I really ought to cut out the carbs and dairy. That is, on a daily basis, eat few carbs and no dairy.

I also read about the concept of a cheat day. When you are dealing with someone who loves carbs, if you tell them they never get to eat dessert again, they get terribly depressed. So imagine you tell the, "eat this for 6 days, the 7th day, you eat what you want." That makes it a lot easier to stick to a diet.

So I put that together and came up with this meal plan (6 days a week followed by a cheat day), which I started at the end of December:

Mangalitsa meat (cooked sous vide) or bacon, lardo, speck, sausage
leafy greens (cabbage, kale or collard greens)
any other non-dairy, low-carb foods

I'm calling this the Mangalitsa Diet.

I'll eat other things too - e.g. salami and Brazil nuts (basically no carbs)- so long as they don't contain dairy, sugar or starches. I also take Pentabosol twice a day.

There's no calorie counting on the Mangalitsa diet. If you are hungry, eat.

Typical meals look like the photo up top. Mangalitsa, Mangalitsa and more Mangalitsa. Surprisingly, this isn't getting boring. Mangalitsa tastes incredible. I typically eat it with salt and pepper. I cook it all in my Sous Vide Supreme.

I'm really enjoying eating chunks of meat. In the past, I tended to eat slices of bacon or sausage. Now I'm really liking chunks of fatty meat. I can see why people like to eat steak.

On this diet, most of the calories are from animal fats (typically Mangalitsa fat), except on the cheat day.

The high fat diet is quite satiating. That fits with the experience of others. If you are overweight, you will probably lose some fat, because you won't be overeating. Sometimes I am not hungry until the late afternoon. On those days, I eat when I get hungry. It leads to a sort of intermittent fasting.

A big change is that I'm not eating for entertainment. Most of my life, I've eaten out of boredom. That was very easy to do in Europe, because the beer, pastries and bread are so much better than here; that stuff tastes good and gives you a nice sugar rush. When your food has almost no carbs, you can't anything like a sugar rush no matter how much you eat.

I resumed losing weight after changing the diet. I also started gaining muscle.

My experience:

The low-carb Mangalitsa diet seems to be work. I enjoy my meals a lot.

The Sous Vide Supreme makes it ridiculously convenient to cook a lot of Mangalitsa.

Mangalitsa tastes so great, it doesn't get boring to eat it meal after meal. E.g. I have no desire to eat any non-Mangalitsa meat on my regular days.

CrossFit will get you fit.

If you aren't trained, working out with kettlebells will improve size, strength and aerobic capacity. Of course, if you aren't trained, just about any resistance training will get you low-hanging fruit - aka "newbie magic".

Bakers Green Acres in the News, Brian Polcyn Calls our Pigs a "Necessity".

Where you might encounter our pigs.

I was happy to see my customer, Bakers Green Acres, getting mentioned in Crain's Detroit Business.

The article is about Brian Polcyn, chef, instructor and restaurant owner. He's famous for writing a book (with co-author Michael Ruhlman) called, "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing".

In the article, he's quoted as saying:

Breed-specific pigs are critical. I use two types of pigs: Managalitsas for cured meats and Berkshire pigs for cooking. I get the Mangalitsas from Bakers Green Acres. Mangalitsas are a must for certain types of charcuterie. A necessity. Michigan is one of only a few states that breed that type of pig, which is critical for curing meat.

I'm really happy that an American charcuterie authority, Michael Polcyn, thinks our pigs are essential.

These are "our pigs" in these sense that, as I've previously mentioned, all Mangalitsa pigs that have gone to slaughter in the USA in the last few years were bred by Heath Putnam Farms.

Brian Polcyn isn't the only guy who thinks our pigs are the best. Here's a satisfied Mangalitsa customer who has worked with a lot of different meat, the author of The Sausage Debauchery blog:

It's terrific. I think God put these piggies on earth specifically to cure, I can't imagine they serve a better purpose than this. As I wrote prior regarding the coppa and how it melts in your mouth, the Lardo is even more unctuous, if that's possible. I sliced some paper thin to put on bruschetta. I toasted the bread and while it was still warm added the lardo. It was drizzled with top notch olive oil and cracked pepper. By the time I got to it, the lardo had begun to melt into the bread..............sick.

If that inspires you to want to order some Mangalitsa lardo from our pigs, clicking this link will get you stuff made by Salumeria Biellese from our pork.


Brian Polcyn mentions that some farms in Michigan breed Mangalitsa pigs. To my knowledge, the farms in Michigan that breed Mangalitsa pigs produce Blonde Mangalitsa pigs. In contrast, our pigs are Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa.

There are three different Mangalitsa breeds, the Red Mangalitsa, Blond Mangalitsa and Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa. They really are different pig breeds (like Golden Retrievers vs Labrador Retrievers). See "Do Mangalica pigs of different colours really belong to different breeds?" by Zsolnai for more info.

We've sold Swallow-Belly breeding stock to several farms. Here's a map showing the locations of farms that have bought Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa breeding stock from Heath Putnam Farms:

Farms that own Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa Breeding Stock

In 2007, when I imported Mangalitsa pigs to the USA, I had to decide what pigs to get. I chose Swallow-Belly Mangalitsa pigs because I was able to get the most genetically diverse herd.