Micropig Problems

I had some people email me about breeding stock recently. They want to breed "micro" Mangalitsa pigs. Micro pigs are "teacup" pigs - as small as can be (e.g. 30#). The breeders are after the curly bristles and stripes of the Mangalitsa breeds, likely because the buyers of such pigs care a lot about looks.

I think that's bad for the Mangalitsa as a meat animal. The last thing we want is people getting upset about the that we kill and eat Mangalitsa pigs - in wholesale fashion.

This article is about people who buy what they think will be small pigs, but then they grow up into medium-sized destructive pigs. Because the people are attached to them as pets, they don't just slaughter and eat them. Rather, they keep them around, spending more and more money to try to contain them and mitigate the damage they cause.

The behavior of these pig owners would be unfathomable to our ancestors, who couldn't afford to have pigs destroying their few worldly possessions. It explains why the Meishan, derived from pigs that people domesticated thousands of years ago, is so lazy and tame (Chinese breeders killed off the unruly ones).

I tend to think the way our ancestors did: if there's pig that doesn't fit the system, you want that pig off the farm ASAP, even if it means killing it prematurely. If you keep that pig around, it will cause a lot of trouble.

When I see how big that pig on the sofa is (see photo at top), I'm surprised the sofa looks so good. If the pig was destructive like a Mangalitsa, it would have already ripped holes in the side of the sofa and pulled out all the stuffing. It would have also pulled the cushions off the sofa and had fun ripping them to shreds. I'm guessing they don't allow that pig near that sofa very often, or its a new sofa that they just bought, to replace the old one the pig ripped up.

My other thought when I see that pig is "wow, that's a FAT pig!" It is fat like a Mangalitsa.

Mangalitsa Hams

From the Marx Foods blog

Earlier today, I was looking at the picture (above) of our hams (made by Johnston County Hams), on the Marx Food blog.

Besides thinking, "I hope Justin doesn't hurt himself with that knife," I thought, "that sure is a lot of fat on that ham.

Then I saw that Costco is selling imported "jamon mangalica" (Mangalitsa pork, likely from Hungary, cured in Spain). Besides noticing that their price was much higher, I noticed that their ham likewise has a lot of fat cover too.

That's just how the pigs are. They are extreme lard-type pigs. They taste the best, but they have a lot of fat. The fat on those hams can taste wonderfully nutty.

Marx Foods & Mangalitsa Cured Products

Marx Foods is selling ham, shoulder and bacon from our pigs. As previously mentioned, Johnston County Hams buys our hams and shoulders (and bellies) and cures them.

Three-Michelin Star Restaurants like Per Se in NYC buy them - because they are incredible.

Marx Foods sells a lot of high-quality, hard-to-find ingredients to people. I'm very happy that they've added our Mangalitsa hams.

Justin Marx portioning a ham. (photo by Marx Foods)

Marx Foods has a blog - and they write about getting in the Mangalitsa products.

As they write on their blog:

In you want some cured mangalitsa pork to test-drive and develop a recipe, email me at justin (at) marxfoods dot com. I will send you my choice of the mangalitsa ham, mangalitsa shoulder or mangalitsa bacon. There will be a prize for our favorite recipe(s) and it will be delicious. Plus, the author of our favorite recipe will be eligible to compete in the Ridiculously Delicious Challenge next month.

Ham Anatomy, Culatello Fabrication and Manufacture

Our hams (and paletas) get turned into cured hams by Johnston County Hams (order them here).

I've had some people who've bought pigs from me ask how to make culatelli (plural of culatello). Culatello is a cured product made from the "haunch" of a pig. It is a famous product, primarily associated with Italy.

You hear foodies talk about it, but you don't normally get the details.

I try to make this blog as informative as possible, so I've gathered here a lot of info about culatello. If you find this information helpful, please let me know.

The culatello picture, up top, is from this website. You can read about the product there.

best ham anatomy document on the web

It starts with anatomy. Click here for the best document I've found on ham anatomy. Download and look at it - it shows you the muscles in the leg.

The "top round" (aka "Frikandeau) is the biceps femoris (bf).
The "bottom round" (aka "Schale) is made up of the Semimembranosus (SM), Adductor (A) and Pectineus (P).
The "eye of round" is the Semitendinosus (ST)

The culatello is made from a 3-muscle ham, made up of the top round, eye of round and bottom round.

You can see the "top round" at the top, the eye of round on the left and the bottom round beneath it. How do you know which is the "top round"? One clue is the fat attached to it. The "bottom round" doesn't have as much fat, because it is on the inside of the leg.

To fabricate a culatello, you bone out the ham (cutting through a bit of the Sartorius), and keep the top round, eye of round and bottom round as a big piece. To make a finished culatello from that raw meat, you do something like this (rub it with cure, put it in a bladder, tie it up and dry it out).

In this video, a guy shows how to tie it up:



It looks like quite a chore.

A by-product of culatello manufacture is the creation of the knuckle (aka "Nuss") aka "Fiochetto".

In Italy, they make another product from it, a fiochetto.

One neat thing I found, in the course of doing this research, is how to debone a whole prosciutto (the whole leg) into the fiochetto/Nuss/knuckle and culatello/3-muscle-ham.

That's pretty neat! I'm willing to bet that very few people do that on a regular basis.

I remember reading about culatello years ago. None of it made much sense to me - what part of the pig it was, the chemistry involved in curing it, why it was aged, why it was safe to eat raw, etc.

Just a few years later, if my customers ask me for info, I feel I've got to get it to them - that's my new job.

The more I learn about this stuff, the more I learn how many details there are to get right. E.g. in order to make a great culatello, you need:

the right genetics
good husbandry (Mangalitsa reproduction is difficult at best)
the right feed
the right age at slaughter
killing in such a way that there's no blood in the ham and the same pH in each ham.
proper cutting of the culatello
correct curing & aging

and probably yet more factors that I'm not aware of.

It is hard to get all that right. It is amazing that some people decide to specialize in products like culatello, despite that fact that it is a difficult business, with lots of competition.


Thinking about factors that impact taste reminds me of factors that some people talk a lot about, that don't impact taste much. For example:

1) organic raw material

2) how close the culatello is produced to the pigs that provide the hams or the humans that eat the finished product.

3) sustainability issues. E.g. the best stuff tastes the best, regardless of its carbon footprint.

3) how modern the pig farm is

Ugliest Mangalitsa Ever

Mangalitsa pigs are often called ugly. Many people have told me they are the ugliest pigs they've ever seen. When that happens, I reply that they are however, the tastiest (including the most marbled), and that that's what really matters.

I think the young pigs are really cute, but when they get big and fat, they get downright ugly.

Looking on the web, I found a very ugly Mangalitsa. It's got the fat (not rolls - it's more like a blob), the crazy hair, a "beard" of dried muck balls and a very wary look on its face, like it's about to run off or perhaps try to bite. This is the pig ya mama warned you about.


Nevertheless, it might have a loin like the one pictured above - and that's the loin I want to eat. Not a regular sorry-looking pork loin:

Typical pork loin photo, found on the web.

New Mosefund Video, Mosefund Event

My best feeder pig customer, Mosefund, has a new video about their pig operation.

You can see how they keep their pigs outdoors, then bring them indoors, where they can make sure they eat what they are supposed to, so that they get the right fat.

They've got a wonderful educational event coming up in a few days. There's more info about that here.

Mangalitsa Lardo - A Delicacy in Austria

There is a review of this fancy Austrian Restaurant (translation here) that explains that Mangalitsa lardo is one of their trumps - one of their key ingredients that sets them above the competition.

Sausage Debauchery's Pancetta

Photo Copyright Scott of the Sausage Debauchery

Scott at the Sausage Debauchery made and compared his pancetta made from Mangalitsa bellies produce by Mosefund Farm (a live-pig customer of mine).

If you read this blog, particularly if you make your own Bauchspeck, pancetta, bacon, etc. you may enjoy his post on the pancetta.

Looking at his photo, there's one flaw I see. See if you can spot it before reading forward. Look down for more info.

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That top belly shouldn't have that crease in it on the skin side. That's the fault of the processor (Swiss Meat & Sausage Company, of Swiss Missouri).The reason is that after getting turned into speck, the skin gets cut away. When there are creases in the skin, there's small but still irritating decrease in yield. It is one of the issues we're working on fixing.

Wiesners, Mangalitsa Cuisine, Cultural Exchange

The Wiesners have updated their website - I'm guessing Marcus Wiesner, Christoph's brother did it.*

They've got a neat page, entitled "Mangalitsa Cuisine", showing what they've done, in words and photos. Here's the automatic Google transation of their page.

It has a great section showing the fresh meat and products of Mangalitsa pigs.

The page also summarizes their interactions with America, many of which I've written about in this blog:

Mangalitsa Chefs (Manfred Stockner & Bryce Lamb)
Their training of Swiss Meat in January 2010.
Their classes at Mosefund Farm in January 2010.
The class at the Herbfarm.
The class at Culinary Communion.

It is nice to see Bryce Lamb getting some international recognition.

The funny thing is, the Wiesners are in the USA right now. They've taught classes in four states in the last few weeks - so Marcus will have to add more to their already impressive page.

One thing their page seems to leave out: their releasing the seam butchery tutorial, so that people can learn how to cut pigs the way they do.

* Marcus is an excellent graphic designer.