Mangalitsa Class Alumnus

Here's an article about David Pearlstein, student of the Wiesners and Mangalitsa fan.

Jason Bond's Ham from 2009 Pigs

Jason Bond of Boston's Bondir sent me this photo of his ham. He's been a Mangalitsa fan for years.

Winning

Here's a photo of us taking 3rd in Memphis, from Mike Causey.

There's an article about us taking 3rd in the Seattle Weekly. It makes us sound like ingrates, so I should explain - we knew around 4PM or so that we were in the finals, meaning that we'd take either 3rd, 2nd or 1rst place. When we found out we got 3rd, that was the worst possible outcome -- of 3 fantastic outcomes.

We knew that what we'd done (roast a pig and serve it, sans sauce) was so risky, we'd probably not even place. So when we found out we'd made it to the finals, we figured the judges had embraced our approach, and that we'd win - if only because Mangalitsa tastes much better than alternatives, and the other competing teams had all used meat-type pigs, which are relatively dry and flavorless.

After the fact, we sound ridiculously arrogant. E.g. being bothered about getting 3rd. But when you are in the moment, and know that the worst you can do is get 3rd -- and "all" you get is 3rd, you are irritated. And if you've been drinking all day - as we all had - you are even more irritated.

In retrospect, it is amazing that we got 3rd, as Leslie Kelly explains here.

Memphis in May Summary

Photo by Jim n' Nicks Barbecue.

I just got back from Memphis in May. Our team, the Fatback Collective, competed with two Mangalitsa pigs in the whole hog competition. We did very well, taking 3rd.

Team preps pig for smoker

The team all worked together, with chefs and barbecue experts turning the pigs into barbecue. My job was easy as I wasn't responsible for the cooking. I did set myself the challenge (see below) of eating a big plate of Mangalitsa barbecue.

The lucky pigs.

Nick Pihackis of Jim n' Nicks Barbecue organized a historic team of pitmasters and chefs. The team chose to use our Mangalitsa pigs, which is what got my pigs and me there.

Chef Donald Link

We ate a bunch of awesome food. Donald and Sean Brock brought crawfish, oysters, stone crab claws and softshell crabs. Many of us brought our best moonshine to share with the others.

One of the Mangalitsas

Our chefs took a very culinary approach. The team chose to put a rub on some Mangalitsa pigs and smoke them. Very simple. We didn't serve a sauce with the pig - that might have cost us 1rst or 2nd. People said Memphis judges like molasses on their barbecue.

Drew Robinson on the rig

The pigs tasted fantastic. Other chefs, competitors and guests were wowed by the flavor and succulent meat and fat.

Nathan enjoys some Mangalitsa ribs

Almost nobody had ever tasted a pig this good. It was fun to share stuff with people.

Nathan, pictured, is a personal trainer with 9% body fat. He talked to me about insulin, carbs and fat storage - and wolfed down a bunch of very tasty and fatty Mangalitsa ribs. It was great to watch people enjoy the succulent meat and fat.


To celebrate, I purposefully didn't eat much the day we'd present, so I was able to enjoy a big plate of barbecued Mangalitsa.

My thought was, how many times in your life do you get to eat your winning Mangalitsa, turned into barbecue by some of the USA's best pitmasters and chefs, and win at Memphis in May? Might as well really enjoy it.




Which I did.

Quail

A longtime customer of mine loves Manglaitsa. I've eaten at his house before. He does a great Mangalitsa belly.

At top there's a picture of grilled quail, wrapped in Mangalitsa lardo.

These photos show how he wrapped some quail in Mangalitsa lardo and grilled them.

Obviously, the Mangalitsa fat makes the relatively lean quail more tasty.

Veritas Again

Our loin. Photo apparently by Steve Barnes.

I wrote about Veritas on this blog a while ago. I just saw some nice photos of their food in a review by Steve Barnes of the Times Union. They are still using our stuff, which they get via DeBragga.

Our fatback in action. Photo apparently by Steve Barnes.

That above is some fish with some lardo on top of it. That's a great way to make fish taste extra special.

If you want to read exactly what the food is, I suggest you read the original review by Steve Barnes.

Inn at Ship Bay's Mangalitsa Video

Geddes Martin, innkeeper, farmer and chef has a video of one of his Mangalitsa pigs.

It is neat to see what affection they have for each other. You can also see how fun pigs are to watch; they are so curious.

I called him today and chatted. I explained to him: if he'll personally drive out to Iowa to pick up a Swallow-bellied Mangalitsa boar (and drive it back to Orcas Island), I'll give him one for free.

Somehow I like the idea of guys in the remote corners of the USA breeding, fattening, slaughtering and processing Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsas into great food. He's really into the whole process. One expected benefit: if I can make it up there, he'll give me a place to eat and some great Mangalitsa products.

Fatback Collective on Twitter

I recommend you follow the Fatback Collective on twitter.

This is the barbecue team competing in the Memphis in May World Championship Barbeque Cooking Contest with our Mangalitsa pigs.

The Inn At Ship Bay

La Provence's pigs - photo by Besh Restaurant Group

Geddes Martin, owner of the Inn at Ship Bay on Orcas Island, WA sent me the photo below of two of his pigs. Don't look down if you can't stand the sight of blood.

Geddes runs an inn, raises pigs, processes them into food and serves the food at his restaurant. This is a lot like an Austrian "Heuriger". Basically, a farm that sells its produce to the public on site.

We don't have many of them in the USA - they are very difficult to run and make profitable. As a result, when you do find them, they'll either be really low end (underground) or high end, like Inn at Ship Bay, La Provence (a Besh Restaurant Group restaurant), Csarda Haz or Willows Inn (another culinary destination on the San Juan Islands).

If you are running a high end place, and raising and processing your own animals, it makes sense to use the very best pigs available. Hence, these guys favor Mangalitsa pigs.

photo by Geddes Martin

One neat thing is that in Austria, the farmer can kill the pig himself on the farm and take it to the state to get it inspected (something I mentioned in November 2007).

In the USA, unfortunately, we have to bring the slaughterhouse and inspector to the pig in a mobile slaughter unit, which is a lot more complicated! That's one reason why people either kill the pigs themselves (break the rules) or just buy meat from a meat distributor instead of raising their own pigs.

Geddes Martin actually goes through the trouble of keeping pigs and having the USDA mobile slaughter unit come out to his place. Unfortunately for him, that means they skin the pigs (instead of scalding), so he loses a bit.

The photo above shows two of Inn at Ship Bay's Mangalitsa pigs in a mobile slaughter unit. They've just been stunned and stuck. After the photo, they were skinned, gutted, etc.

The photo, gory as it is, reminds me that we get meat by killing animals. There's no way to avoid it.* It is too bad we have to kill them to eat them; they are quite entertaining, even if they aren't sweet; they spend pretty much all day teaching each other who's boss.

So please, don't waste any meat - particularly not Mangalitsa.


* As soon as we've got vat-grown meat that is as good or better than Mangalitsa, I'll switch to it.