Chef Daniel Angerer's Mangalitsa Pig Buns

Miss Tiffie writes about Daniel Angerer's (Klee Restaurant) Mangalitsa pig buns. Klee buys their Mangalitsa from Mosefund Farm - the farm that held the best pig killing classes ever this last January.

The photo above is from Miss Tiffie's blog.

Chat with Monarch's Chef Galliano about our Products

I had a chat today with Chef Josh Galliano of Monarch Restaurant. When I was in Missouri last month, he got a boneless rib-loin, lard and some lardo.

We are putting together a show-and-tell event at Swiss Meats for chefs and media, so I was talking with him today. I got to ask him what he thought of the products he got last month.

He liked the loin. He agreed it was very special. If I recall correctly, he cooked it sous vide and seared it - which is often a big winner.

He liked the lardo a lot, and used it in different ways. He's the sort who'd probably make his own lardo from our raw material. He agreed that our lardo was totally different from all other lardo that he can buy or make. I explained about how we produce that fat, by optimizing breed, feed and age at slaughter.

He used the lard for a bunch of things - sauteing, making pies, frying potatoes.

He preferred our lard to the lard and duck fat mixture he was using to fry potatoes - and given the high cost of duck fat, its cheaper. He agreed that our lard was much better than the other lard he'd been using. He explained though, you can't substitute lard for ALL cooking fats. There are some applications where you'll want to use vegetable oils.

In general, I'm hoping that we can develop a market for our Mangalitsa pork and products in Missouri, because we ought to be able to serve them well via our primary processor.

Lafitte Restaurant (San Francisco, CA)

Lafitte in San Francisco is serving our pork, some Iberico and some meat-type pork (Berkshire) tomorrow - according to Grub Street.

The Iberico that is coming in is all frozen. I like that, because pretty much all the pork Wooly Pigs sells is frozen.

There are some chefs who refuse to use pork that's been frozen. I'm hoping that - due to a desire to use the highest quality ingredients - some of them will choose to use Mangalitsa and Iberico, despite the fact that they've been frozen.

Although imported Iberico is the most obvious competitor for our Mangalitsa, if it leads to chefs being more open to high-quality frozen pork, that's good for Wooly Pigs.

Monsoon - ordering Mangalitsa

I spent a lot of time at Monsoon today.

Eric is ordering our Washington product, which, isn't cut as nicely as our Missouri product. That means he's got to figure out how to make the most of it.

Basically, from the boneless shoulder butt, he can get out a neck (the best meaty cut on the pig except for tenderloin), which is great pan-fried and a bunch of trim which becomes rillettes, which he can make into fried rice (with duck egg!).

Eric is very intrigued by Mangalitsa lardo. I can see he's trying to figure out how to employ Mangalitsa lardo in some of his own dishes. Of course, if he does make lardo (or have us make a batch for him), he'll do it with Vietnamese spices.

When I see chefs like Eric trying to figure out how to use lardo, I get very happy - because that's right up our alley.

La Toretta Lake Resort - Return of Mangalitsa Chef

La Toretta Lake Resort ordered a lot of necks, rib-loins and sirloins - (see the cuts). Mangalitsa Chef (aka "Bryce A Lamb") is working there - which explains how they know about our products, and how to buy them directly.

They are going to save a lot of money that way.

I find it interesting - if anybody is going to take a whole and turn it into parts, Mangalitsa Chef would do it - if only for the fun of it. Yet when you've got a job to do - e.g. banquets for hundreds of people - the right thing to do is order a few hundred pounds of the specific cuts you want.

Mangalitsa Chef knows that our extreme lard-type pig experts (Swiss Meats) kill and cut our super pigs the way he wants them.

Germany: Mangalitsa Pigs Save the Day

Some Mangalitsa pigs in Germany dug up some old and dangerous explosives. Had humans not intervened, the story might have been, "Mangalitsa pigs blow themselves up."

Mangalitsa pigs root a lot!

A New Breed of Epicurean Delights

The Wall St. Journal has an article on new epicurean delights. It mentions some new truffles, farmed caviar and Mangalitsa pigs:

Mr. Claessen is now extending this method to other animals. "I was interested in breeding the rare Mangalitza pig, and found some in Hungary. I traded one Wagyu cow for four Mangalitza pigs. I used the reverse Atkins method on them, and when we tried the pork last week it was the best I had ever tasted. I brought along Michelin chefs, who were all amazed at its quality," he says. "This is my new project," says Mr. Claessen, who is hoping he has tapped into the next craze in luxury foods. "I am calling it the Wagyu of pigs."

Wu-Tang Pigs

Meishan sow owned by Wooly Pigs

I've written previously about the Meishan breed of pig. It is a Chinese breed that has some traits in common with the Mangalitsa - it is a hardy lard-type pig that, in years past, played a key role in keeping humans alive. To quote Harris on the pig:



The Chinese have kept pigs for approximatley 5000 years, in subsistence conditions. Their traditional pig breeds are noticeably more selected than European breeds, because they've been selected so much longer. Basically, the Chinese stopped whipping their half-wild pigs a long time ago.

Compared to wild boar, the Meishan is good-tempered, incredibly lazy and hyper-prolific. It is the opposite of wild boar, in the same way that a Pug is the opposite of a wild dog. Meishan can be kept in the flimsiest of pens, because they have such little interest in exploring. They sleep, eat, gestate and fatten.

Unlike all other boars I know of, Meishan boars don't get fat. The boars love to "work", but they don't love eating. Perhaps someone, someday, will study Meishan boars and learn something about human obesity.

Meishan pigs don't like to move. E.g. you bring them food and they don't necessarily get up to eat. In that way, they are the un-pigs. If one reflects for a moment on the needs of Chinese subsistence farmers, it makes sense that the Meishan is the pig that it is; it is a pig best-suited for a Malthusian world.



Because of its marvelous traits, the Meishan played a key role improving Europe's pig breeds, as noted by Harris and Charles Darwin. Europe was switching from extensively raised pigs to pen-raised pigs. Chinese had raised pigs in pens longer, so crossing their breeds with Chinese breeds allowed them to benefit from thousands of years of Chinese breeding.

The Swabian Hall, derived from the Meishan and European breeds like the Mangalitsa precursors - contends with Mangalitsa in taste tests. It doesn't look as striking as a Mangalitsa - but it apparently tastes about as good. Over time, the improved breeds were able to edge out the Mangalitsa. The Meishan genes were superior. Even now, Meishan genes give sows an edge.

If you ask USA farmers what they think of the Meishan pigs, they'll probably tell you they are worthless: small and too fat, and in addition, horribly ugly.

Meishan pork

When I did my research and saw that they were small and too fat, and hyper-profligate - and most important - famous for having fantastic meat, I knew I wanted to get some - because obviously they might help Wooly Pigs to do a better job producing the best pork.[1]

Basically, if the Swabian-Hall tastes as good as a Mangalitsa, a Meishan might work in our breeding program.

I've since learned even more about Meishans. E.g. there is a market for Meishan pork in Japan, where it is a super-premium delicacy, just as there is a market for Mangalitsa (another pig that is small, "too fat" and ugly - and incidentally, the best-tasting pig raised in the USA).

Many years ago, three labs imported Meishan pigs. As late as last year, at least two (Iowa State and USDA) were breeding them. I found out that one wouldn't sell to the public, while the other was going to shut down the breeding. That meant that the breed would go extinct in the USA.

I decided I'd try to find people who wanted to raise them, to try to keep the genetics available in the USA for future use. For more than a year, whenever people asked about buying Mangalitsa stock, I pointed out that they could get excellent lard-type genetics cheaply, if they acted soon.

Indeed, if someone wanted to copy the business model of Wooly Pigs - that is, acquire lard-type pigs, set up a production and processing network and market the pigs and pork - you could start with the Meishan pigs, without having to import a herd from overseas, avoiding an expensive, risky and time-consuming step.

In an effort to come up with a catchy name, ala "Wooly Pigs", one could name the company "Wu-Tang Pigs" (despite the fact that the Meishans come from Sichuan province, and not nearby Hubei province, home of the Wu Tang mountains).

Mangalitsa chop - photo by Foodista.

Due to my efforts, three farms (one associated with Wooly Pigs) are now keeping some Meishan pigs. Unfortunately, there's no organized breeding effort to preserve the Meishan breed, and none of us have a big stake in the continuing survival of it as a breed. None of us are about to found a "Wu-Tang Pigs" and go all out[2] - despite the fact that the Chinese and the Germans have programs (including products) based on their lard-type breeds that one could copy.

Mangalitsa x Meishan piglets

The herdsman who runs Wooly Pigs's Meishans is delighted with them, because they are so easy to work, and hopes we succeed with them. They are a lot more tame than Mangalitsas.

We have produced some F1 Mangalitsa x Meishan pigs. Some are for sale!

Due to heterosis, they are healthier and will grow faster than purebred Mangalitsa and purebred Meishan pigs. They ought to be the most affordable and economically-gaining 100% lard-type pigs in the USA.

They are very robust and should produce excellent meat. They should do better in hotter weather than Mangalitsa pigs. Having eaten Meishan x Berkshire pork - which was much better than Berkshire pork, I know the Mangalitsa x Meishan pigs will taste excellent.


[1] Among other things, the Meishan chops above look like they've got more marbling than my Mangalitsa chops (also shown) - although many variables besides genetics (feed & age) could explain why they Meishan chops look more marbled.

[2] On most farms, the Meishans are being used, as they have been for the last hundreds of years, to improve existing herds or create new breeds. Barring something like what Olmos es Toth did for Mangalitsa, the Meishan breed probably won't survive in the USA, just as it didn't survive independently in England. It appears these are Japan's Meishan guys, and based on this, I'd guess they might market some F1 crosses.

Mangalitsa Ham

While at the Herbfarm yesterday with a bunch of other people, I got to eat a slice of their Mangalitsa ham. It was made from heavy pigs killed in early 2009, so it was a bit more than a year old.

It was delicious. Particularly interesting: many fellow guests remarked on how excellent the fat was. I suspect that the hams Johnston County Hams is making from our Mangalitsa will be received in the same way: people will talk about how great the fat is.

I thought it was a little salty. It was also a little "young" tasting. Ron Zimmerman says he figures he might as well start cutting into them, because he's got a pile more of them.

My understanding is that it is possible to vacuum pack the hams once they are "just right", and then they'll keep that way indefinitely, without drying out more.