Chef Bryce Lamb - Update

Chef Bryce Lamb, Mangalitsa enthusiast, has a facebook gallery up of his exploits in Austria with Christoph Wiesner.

He's got some photos that show how they butcher pigs.


I wrote about Bryce recently.



That Mangalitsa below looks fat. There's nothing wrong with its belly - it is just a very fat pig.

Looking at that pig, I'm reminded that the shoulder butt - a very popular cut, is a mere 10% of the carcass, by weight. It might be even less on these hippos: their extra weight mostly goes on as fat, which they primarily store on their back and belly. Just because they get big, they don't get big everywhere.


I get a little sad when I see the just-slaughtered pig hung up.

I've seen photos from Christoph showing even fatter Mangalitsas. This one's belly looks strangely big - but its not. Its just a fat Mangalitsa pig.


We generally slaughter ours at smaller weights than Christoph, because then they are suitable for fresh meat too. To make the most of the really fat Mangalitsa carcasses, you need to process them.

One thing we find is that many Americans don't understand that pigs of different weights are optimal for different things. They tend to think pigs are pigs - which given the homogeneity in breed (meat-type) and feed, is understandable.

The Mangalitsa is an extreme lard-type breed. The commonly available breeds are meat-type, and taste very similar to each other). Besides breed, age at slaughter is a major determinant of quality.

Are Pigs Destructive?

Mangalitsa photo by Ring Tamas.

I saw a question at answers.com about pigs:

Are pigs destructive?

The answer:

Pigs can be destructive, but are not always destructive. It depends on the pig. If the pig is usually very calm and collected, it isn't very destructive. If it is usually hyper and angry, it is usually very destructive. It also depends on how tame the pigs are. There are a number of factors that play into this, but pigs can be destructive. Most of the time, they aren't.

Historically, it was clear:

The public's attitude towards pigs — which, to be fair, was based on the fact that the animals were notoriously destructive in their search for food and were deemed, according to historian Joseph Felt, "dangerous to the life and limb of young children" — can be seen in a deal made between Salem selectmen and John Cromwell in 1680. Cromwell was given permission to use the Burying Point on what is now Charter Street for grazing cattle, sheep or other animals, "Except swine which we alow not...".

Pigs aren't destructive.

And then there's wild pigs:

With a title as alarming as "the most harmful invasive mammal in the world," it's no wonder that Oregon officials worry about the spread of feral pigs. They'll eat almost anything and root up the ground anywhere they gather. Weeds are the only species able to come back after that destruction.

One thing I find funny about Mangalitsa pigs, particularly the blonds, is that they look very cute even as they destroy stuff. A bit like a Komondor - a mean Hungarian dog that looks disarmingly cute.

Operation Porcupine Update - 11/13/09

Wooly Pigs is delivering some of our pork to the Four Seasons and Jardiniere today.

Chef Mark Richardson (of The Four Seasons) is placing his second order. He buying loins.

Wooly Pigs sold Jardiniere some pork in 2008, but it wasn't Mangalitsa. This is the first time they've bought our Mangalitsa pork.

The Food Issue: Meet the Mangalitsas

Photo by Mike Sula

Mike Sula, a journalist I've corresponded with for quite a while, has an article in Chicago Reader about Triple S Farms's (Stan Schutte's) Mangalitsa pigs. Last we saw the pigs, they were tiny:

The cocky-looking pig shown at top is presumably one of the two striped piglets pictured above, 8 months later. From the article, here's where those pigs are going:

"The first thing I said was 'I want one,'" says Pat Sheerin [Signature Room]. He told his brother Mike [Blackbird], who put himself down for two. Schutte also got commitments from Chris Pandel of the Bristol and chef Michael Higgins from Maldaner's in Springfield. Virant went in on a pig with chefs from the Boka restaurant group, which is planning to host two back-to-back dinners in December at which Virant, Perennial's Poli, Boka's Giuseppe Tentori, and Stephanie Izard of the forthcoming Drunken Goat will each prepare a course with Mangalista pork. The other chefs are also planning special dinners that month, with the exception of Mike Sheerin, who'll be offering a Mangalitsa tasting menu throughout January at Blackbird.

As described in the article, Schutte's Mangalitsas are finished on a special diet:

He feeds them a mix of his own organic grains, particularly barley, and in August they got apples—but in the fall, when Schutte added acorns purchased from a nut grower in southern Illinois to their diet, they began to turn their snouts up at everything else.

Schutte's program for his six and our own much larger production remind me of Christoph Wiesner: most of his pigs get a low-PUFA diet similar to ours - because that's effective and affordable. The few special pigs (typically his own) are penned in the forest to eat acorns (and fed supplemental grain if necessary). I don't think Christoph sells any of his special pigs; there's never enough to spare.

Our Feeder Pig Customers

Triple S Farms, along with nearly all of our feeder pig customers, have finished their pigs on partly or completely on acorns and forage, along the lines of Spanish Iberico bellota producers.*

The fact that so many of our customers strive to make the most of our pigs is in keeping with other extreme behaviors, like visiting Austria to learn how to kill and process Mangalitsas from experts, or staging classes in America (with Austrian experts) on that topic.

When I see that, it is clear that Mangalitsa producers are doing a lot more than just preserving the Mangalitsa breed - we are enriching America's culinary scene with a new sort of food, increasing awareness of topics like "fat quality" and popularizing relatively unknown (in America) but powerful techniques like seam butchery.

If a journalist was going to write something about the Mangalitsa phenomenon in America, I'd key in on those things - because those are the new trends.


* Due to various constraints (age at slaughter and amount of acorns), I doubt many American Mangalitsa producers will fatten them exactly like Spain's best pigs in 2009 - but in coming years, I can see it happening. As should be clear to people familiar with the American Mangalitsa phenomenon, if anyone is going to do it just like in Spain, it will be a Mangalitsa producer.

Mangalitsa Star of Chicago Dinners

Mangalitsa will feature on some special menus in Chicago in December:

The Mangalitsa is going to be the star of The Cadillac Of Pig Dinners. Chef Paul Virant of Vie, Chef Giuseppe Tentori of BOKA, Perennial's Chef Ryan Poli and Top Chef alumnus Stephanie Izard of the soon-to-be Drunken Goat are paying homage to the Hungarian Hog with a 4 course dinner. The host chef prepares the amuse and dessert, and the remaining three each prepare a course using a different cut of the meat.

I called the restaurant and found out it won't be Mangalitsa from Wooly Pigs, distributed by Foods In Season, but rather, from Triple S Farms, one of our many feeder pig customers.

19th Century is the New Black

They'd eat Mangalitsa from Wooly Pigs.

There's an article in the New York Times about how 19th century fashions have returned to popularity. Tweeds, bowlers and all sorts of clothes that most of us only know from pictures are fashionable again.

When I saw the images from the article, I was reminded that the Mangalitsa hasn't changed much. Since 1833, it has been an extreme lard-type breed.

The popular breeds have all changed with the times, becoming leaner and less flavorful, to the point that the Mangalitsa is in a category of its own as the most juicy, flavorful, satisfying breed of pig.

Donauschwaben with their pigs. Note the clothing.


Hungarians with fat Mangalitsa pigs. More fashionable clothing.

Wooly Pigs - The Mangalitsa Company

Chef Bryce Lamb - Mangalitsa Chef

It is getting to be the time to kill pigs. Winter is coming, so it is the right time to cure meat without refrigeration. Also, if you kill the pigs now, you don't have to take care of them when the weather turns really bad and it gets hard to water the pigs (assuming you have a traditional farm, like the Mangalitsa producers in Austria).

Chef Bryce Lamb (formerly of 25 Brix in Gig Harbor) is a Mangalitsa enthusiast. Here's what he told Taste Washington about a year ago:

I have recently discovered Mangalitsa pork. As soon as I assumed my role at Brix 25, I made the call to Wooly Pigs for sample product. To say the least, I loved it. It reminded me of the pork I was able to get when I was cooking over seas. It is so much better than typical American pork. Currently we are using Mangalitsa in a stuffed pork raviolo at the restaurant.

Christoph Wiesner - Mangalitsa expert.

There was a special event at The Herbfarm in early 2009, led by Christoph Wiesner, a man who has dedicated his career to breeding, fattening, exporting, slaughtering, processing Mangalitsa pigs - and teaching people about them.

Marie Nguyen of Suisun Valley Farms processing a Mangalitsa.

Chef Lamb attended, where he spent 3 days learning all aspects of how to process Mangalitsa pigs the way the Austrians do.

The 2010 class in New Jersey is modeled on that class. At the New Jersey event, students will slaughter, butcher, cook and cure Mangalitsas, under the supervision of Christoph Wiesner.

Having already attended the 3-day Mangalitsa class at The Herbfarm, Chef Lamb recently went to Austria, to learn firsthand from the Wiesners and others. He sent me an email saying he'll be work with Christoph's butcher for a week. That's Marcel Kropf, Austria's best master butcher. Here's Kropf showing how he cuts up a pig, using Austrian seam butchery techniques.

Chef Stockner on how he uses a Mangalitsa pig.

Look at Chef Lamb's facebook page, I was happy to see the following:

... just butchered and cured 50KL of mangalitsa, cooling down the blood sausage, sleep and Vienna in the AM.

Which is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure he'll kill a bunch more, before he comes home. By the time Bryce is done, I suspect he will be the American chef who is most expert at slaughtering, butchering and processing Mangalitsa pigs into food.

I think that's pretty cool!

It is likewise time to kill the "mangalica" in Hungary. I found these nice photos on the web, as part of this article. I'm including them here so that people can get a sense of the slaughter phase. Essentially, one takes a wonderful animal, with tremendous personality and cognitive powers, and turns it into a lot of ridiculously tasty food:

The pig is very cute.

Hungarians burn off the hair, Germans use scalding hot water.


When the pigs are de-haired, you can see how fat they are. There's no muscle definition, unlike typical pigs. Given the size of this pig, I think it might be different than the one shown above.

Its a fun time for everyone.

Mangalitsa Pigs part of Cooking Show

There's a TV Show about food ("F Word") that has Mangalitsa pigs in it. I found another mention, with the cute photo above.

It makes sense that the show would feature them - Mangalitsa pigs are the best tasting pigs in the UK, where the show is filmed. Nothing comes close.

As the sole breeder of Mangalitsa pigs in the Western Hemisphere, Wooly Pigs is happy to see this sort of thing.