by Bruce Steele | Mar 24, 2015 | What Chefs Say
Chefs and restaurants are becoming proponents of sourcing humanely raised animals, because it’s better for the planet and the palate.
Beef Bulgogi Meat & Livestock Australia
In his formative years as a chef, Conor Hanlon didn’t think too much beyond the kitchen.
“I was much more concerned about keeping my head above water than about where we were sourcing ingredients,” Chef Hanlon acknowledges.
But now, as executive chef of the W Hotels in Miami and chef de cuisine at its upscale eatery, The Dutch, sourcing is no longer an ignored topic.
Chef Hanlon’s broadened enlightenment began seven years ago when he read about the Mangalitsa pig, a little-known Hungarian breed characterized by its fatty, marbled meat. Fascinated, he spent four months trying to find the pig, often called the Kobe beef of pork. When he finally secured the animal and cooked it, the experience proved transformative.
“That’s when the light bulb went off in me,” Chef Hanlon says. “Whenever something is being raised, there’s someone behind it—and the way [that person] is raising the animal translates into its taste.”
In subsequent years, Chef Hanlon became increasingly more engrossed in the issue of animal welfare and how animal care translates to both the plate and the dining experience.
“Because I love what I do, I want humanely raised products,” he says.
A multi-layered issue touching hot-button topics such as animal rights, environmental stewardship, and social justice, animal welfare has become a frequently discussed subject in the restaurant industry, one propelled by consumers and chefs alike.
“This is everybody’s issue,” says Jason Gronlund, vice president of culinary for Smokey Bones, a 65-unit casual-dining chain based in Orlando. “Just because we have to feed the population doesn’t mean we can take shortcuts in the care of animals.”
Though animal welfare is a subjective term with shifting meaning among chefs, farmers, producers, and consumers, Meat & Livestock Australia business development manager Catherine Golding says the principal elements of animal welfare remain evenhanded and clear: Animals should be treated with respect and care according to best practices in animal husbandry throughout their lives.
That extends “from the paddocks they were born and raised in to when they are transported for sale and at the processing plant,” says Golding, whose organization works with industry and government in Australia to promote fact-based best practices in animal husbandry.
All Creatures Great and Small
From cattle and dairy to pork and poultry—and even farm-raised fish—animal welfare continues to weave into the public’s consciousness. Cage-free and pasture-raised are no longer fringe terms, but pepper grocery store aisles and restaurant menus.
Dan Gibson has witnessed the transformation firsthand.
After experiencing 9/11 in New York City, Gibson traded fast-paced Manhattan for life on the farm. In 2002, he built a grass-fed herd at Grazin’ Angus Acres in Ghent, New York, and began selling in New York’s green market system in 2006. Even among the most conscientious chefs, Gibson says many struggled to understand the advantages of his meats compared with those arriving from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO). Over time, he says, that has changed.
“There’s a significant and growing amount of the population that cares about this issue and is voting with their pocketbook every day,” Gibson says.
The burgeoning movement inspired Gibson to open Grazin’, a diner serving only Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) products, in 2011. AWA is a labeling program for meat and dairy goods that ensures animals were raised to the highest welfare and environmental standards.
Located in Hudson, New York, Grazin’ is a hit among the locals and frequently serves guests who have made the 120-mile trip from New York City specifically to visit his eatery. In 2014, sales jumped nearly 50 percent over the previous year. Those results and swelling interest have motivated Gibson to locate a Grazin’ outpost in New York City later this year.
“And we’re not going to stop there,” Gibson says.
Today’s consumers, many contend, are more sophisticated and interested in food than ever, accessing millions of resources to explore all aspects of food, from nutrition’s impact on the body to ethical sourcing.
“Food is in the consumers’ sight all the time now … and as demands change, you have to abide by that,” Smokey Bones’ Gronlund says, specifically noting the rise of organic goods and paleolithic diets.
According to AWA, raising animals intensively, either indoors or confined on dirt feedlots, harms animal welfare and, ultimately, human health and the greater environment. The organization, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, charges that headline-grabbing news about the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, environmental pollution, and animal-welfare abuses spotlight the broken nature of the nation’s food system. Furthermore, AWA contends that the nutritional quality of meat, milk, and eggs is intrinsically linked to the welfare of animals and the impact of farming systems on the environment.
“Shouldn’t we all want to make sure that animals’ needs and wants are met?” AWA program director Andrew Gunther asks.
For many, the answer is a definitive yes, which has heightened calls for the elimination of cages and crates, and driven awareness around the ethical sourcing of animal products as well as restaurants’ roles and responsibilities.
Gunther calls animal welfare a “market pressure that’s coming,” and one that is only going to grow given Gen Y’s interest in social and environmental issues.
“All chefs should have this on their horizon because it’s vital to their business, especially given how much the market has shifted towards people wanting to know the background of their food,” Gunther says. “It’s better to get ahead of the game and secure your place in the market rather than sit on your hands.”
A more conscientious and questioning populace, meanwhile, has urged restaurants to define their brands by deeply vetting sources and pushing humanely raised goods as a marketplace differentiator. As Smokey Bones’ Gronlund notes, no restaurant wants negative press.
Increasingly, serving the greater good extends from the flavor on the plate to all the practices and processes involved in food preparation.
“Though it costs more to serve free-range chicken, it’s a product you can stand behind and be proud to serve,” Chef Hanlon says.
Looming beyond the ethical concerns and marketplace movement, however, there’s the critically important issue of taste. Beef, lamb, and other animal products raised according to best practices in animal husbandry simply taste better, many argue.
“It is a more tender, juicy, and, overall, just better-tasting meat,” Golding contends.
By returning to the original practices of animal husbandry, a counter to the mass commercialization of food, Chef Hanlon believes animals enjoy richer diets that result in more robust flavor profiles on the plate. He says the pasture-raised cattle of Australia avoid the sweet, starchy taste of their corn-fed domestic counterparts.
“When you put cattle in a lot and feed them the same product day after day, there’s no diversity,” Chef Hanlon says. “When the cattle are in a pasture, however, eating different grasses and grains each day, those flavors come through.”
Put more succinctly, he says: “Why take an animal that never ate corn and make it eat corn? It doesn’t make sense.”
Celebrity chef Elizabeth Falkner, a James Beard Award nominee, believes a comparative taste test would deliver clear results.
“If more people tasted an animal that had been cared for and one that had been neglected, they would come to the same conclusion,” Chef Falkner says. “You can just taste the difference.
“And if nothing else,” she continues, “at least there has to be better karma in sourcing products from animals that have been treated the right way.”
Clarifying the Cause
While many can be sold on the rationale of sourcing goods from humanely raised animals, actually bringing those goods into the restaurant is a process that presents its own hurdles.
Rising consumer interest in food sourcing has created a litany of packaging terms that spark more confusion than clarity. According to AWA’s guide, Food Labels Exposed, terms such as fresh and all-natural have little meaning. Fresh, for instance, simply means that the internal temperature of the meat never dropped below 26 degrees Fahrenheit.
Similarly, all-natural has nothing to do with animal welfare, but rather signals that the meat contains no artificial ingredients or added colors, and that it was minimally processed. Even the term humane is employed loosely on packaging.
“Humane claims are now widely used to convince consumers the food manufacturer is making a special effort in the way animals are raised. However, there is no legal definition or minimum welfare standard for the term humane,” AWA reports.
This uncontrolled Wild West image of labeling has given defined third-party credentials—such as AWA or Certified Humane, two organizations that both perform birth-to-slaughter audits—added credence in the marketplace.
“These third-party agencies give credibility and also brand protection,” Gunther says, adding that leaning on a third-party helps a restaurant counter arguments between animal rights groups and producers.
Cattle and sheep products sourced from Australia, Golding adds, are also raised according to strict animal-welfare regulations. “The standards are legislated by law and enforced by state governments across the country,” she says.
At Smokey Bones, Gronlund says his team leans on its Australian-based vendor, JBS, to ensure the animal goods that Smokey Bones’ procures are humanely harvested and meet the restaurant chain’s defined specifications.
“We’re 100 percent clear in our expectations,” Gronlund says.
Then, of course, there’s the issue of price, a supremely important matter in an industry known for tight margins and intense competition. According to the AWA’s Gunther, the markup on some humanely raised products is significant. AWA-approved chicken, for instance, can be twice as expensive as other options in the marketplace.
Gibson, who is also a supplier to restaurants, says it takes much longer to finish cattle on grass, about three times as long as the 12–15 months needed at a CAFO. That investment of time is reflected in his prices. Ground meat goes for $10 per pound while filet runs $40 per pound. To some operators, absorbing higher prices is simply the cost of doing business in an evolving, more curious, and conscientious society.
At Grazin’, his own restaurant, Gibson simply charges what he needs to and explains the deeper value inherent in his products.
“There are lots of people who don’t think about livestock, but they’re not my customer,” Gibson says. “If you’re mindful about how an animal is raised, taken, and processed—and that’s important to you—then you’re going to seek me out. It’s that simple.”
Others, however, understand the need to be more flexible, nimble, and strategic in their sourcing. Competing in the casual-dining category, Gronlund says Smokey Bones must balance sourcing and pricing to stay cost-efficient and competitive. He says that process begins by looking at the restaurants’ target consumers and determining their hot-button issues.
“You have to know what matters to your customers,” he says.
To test that, Falkner says restaurants might ease into sourcing humanely raised products, perhaps investing in items it can first spotlight as specials before committing to regular menu items. “Then, track the success of those products and see if there’s a correlation,” Falkner says.
To further combat the higher costs, Gunther says some chefs decrease the portion size and take care to explain their sourcing efforts, which positions the restaurant to earn guest loyalty.
Falkner suggests restaurant leaders educate their service staff on where products come from and, in the case of animals, how they are treated. Front-of-the house staff can then relay this information to diners to build a more compelling story.
In addition, Falkner says restaurants might buy cuts that are not prime and use such products strategically, such as using the humanely raised product to complement the main entrée.
It’s a theory Chef Hanlon subscribes to at The Dutch. In November, for instance, Chef Hanlon topped a dish of roasted baby root vegetables with lamb shoulder braised with red wine. He then pulled apart the lamb and served it as a rich sauce over the vegetables.
“It’s about finding a happy medium,” Chef Hanlon says.
As informed by the past as he is in tune with the future, Chef Hanlon acknowledges he needs to selectively pick his battles concerning animal welfare and sourcing. His team at the W Hotels uses up to 1,000 eggs each day, an immense volume that makes obtaining free-range eggs cost-prohibitive. Still, he remains mindful and committed to other ways he can source humanely raised goods.
“No one opens a restaurant to close the restaurant,” Chef Hanlon says. “I have to pick the things that are important to me and run with that in a smart way. It’s about being realistic and pragmatic. We can’t do it all, but we can do some things that make a difference.”
Original post: http://www.fsrmagazine.com | Daniel P. Smith | Sustainability | February 2015
by Bruce Steele | Mar 20, 2015 | History, Mangalitsa Pigs, What Chefs Say
Pig farmer Armando Escaño stands with his Iberian pigs on his farm on western Spain’s dehesa. Escaño raises pigs for jamón ibérico, Spain’s most prized ham. | Lauren Frayer for NPR
In Spain, an age-old way of surviving the winter is getting some new attention from foodies worldwide. It’s called la matanza — literally, the killing of a pig. It’s an ancient ritual in danger of dying out, amid an influx of commercial abattoirs and modern supermarkets. But Spain’s matanza is now getting renewed interest from farm-to-table food enthusiasts.
Armando Escaño calls out to his fat black pigs as they chomp on acorns under cork trees. Escaño comes from a centuries-long line of pig farmers on western Spain’s dehesa, a UNESCO-protected landscape where this country’s most prized ham — jamón ibérico — is produced.
“You can see the future in the past. It’s lasted thousands of years and is therefore sustainable.”
– Chef Dan Barber
Lured by that delicacy, tourists are now making these empty green hills a new foodie destination. They’re coming to see how Armando’s pigs live — and how they die.
“Matar means ‘to kill’ in Spanish — but the word ‘matanza’ actually refers to the whole process that takes two to three days, which starts with the actual slaughtering, but involves the seasonings of the meats and charcuteries,” says Miguel Ullibarri, a tour guide and jamón expert who organizes culinary tours of the dehesa region. “There’s lots of cooking involved — quite a lot of drinking as well!”
Ullibarri’s company, A Taste of Spain, brings visitors to learn about the farm-to-table, free-range, organic eating that’s been the norm here for centuries. Tourists typically spend a few days in Spain’s dehesa, a landscape of rolling hills dotted with cork oaks and fat black pigs. They learn about the relationship between wildlife and landscape conservation: Each Iberian pig requires nearly 5 acres of grazing land, on average. They also learn about the pigs’ relationship to cork — some 80 percent of global cork exports come from this border region of Spain and Portugal.
“These age-old practices carry with them a very complicated ecological understanding, and an intimate engagement with the environment, because technology has not penetrated the agricultural landscape like it has in America,” says Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, who has toured western Spain with Ullibarri. “You can see the future in the past. It’s lasted thousands of years and is therefore sustainable.”
Barber writes about his discovery of Spanish food traditions in his latest book, The Third Plate.
Like Barber, Ullibarri’s guests tour jamón-curing facilities, and they sometimes attend a matanza — the pig slaughter.
“It’s important to know where your food comes from — even if the experience is unpleasant.”
– Juan Miguel Ramos, mayor of Linares, Spain
“They simply pick the animal up, and lay him on a table — all the while, they’re all stroking him and trying to keep him calm,” recalls Bob Hancock, a Kentucky native who went on one of Ullibarri’s tours a few years ago. “They simply just cut the artery, and the pig is bled out. They don’t do what they do here in the States, [where] they either stun or shoot the animal to knock the animal out. The pig was simply calm until his life was gone.”
The pig is massaged to calm him, and to prevent the flow of adrenaline into his muscles — which can change the flavor of the meat.
Hancock was so impressed with what he witnessed in the matanza that he decided to raise pigs at home in Kentucky. “It was a completely different experience! You could really feel the respect they gave to the animals,” he says.
Iberian black pigs can weigh 500 pounds, having doubled their weight in the two-month acorn season, right before the slaughter. Outside the acorn, or bellota, season, the pigs eat grass, other plants, corn feed — even insects. The matanza has always been an intimate community affair. Tour operators must get to know local officials personally and persuade them to allow foreigners to attend in small groups.
“The matanza is such a core part of the culture, in the sense that it’s how people fought to stay alive — it provided the food for the year. So for them, it’s not a hobby that’s taken lightly — it’s not roasting your ribs on the weekend,” says Ryan Opaz, a Minnesota native who now lives in Portugal and runs a food and wine tour company, Catavino.
Opaz has received increasing numbers of requests for tours that include the matanza and hopes to add them to his company’s itineraries next year — but he says it must be done carefully.
“It’s not a pretty sight for some people. So there’s a bit of voyeurism here. What the tourists are looking for is that full visceral experience,” says Opaz, a former butcher himself. “If it’s done respectfully, it’s truly like stepping back a century — which is great.”
Ullibarri says his company was reluctant at first to include the matanza in its tours. Guides spend days explaining the historical and cultural context of the matanza before guests watch the killing. They want to be careful to respect the wishes of local officials, who don’t want their age-old practices to appear backward to foreigners.
Women wash pig’s intestines in the local river near the village of Linares, Spain. After the matanza, or pig slaughter, every part of the animal is used, nose to tail. The intestines — cleaned with water, lemon and vinegar — will be used as sausage casings.
Lauren Frayer for NPR
NPR was invited to attend a matanza in the Spanish mountain village of
Linares, population 300.
“It’s a rural tradition we want to preserve,” says Linares’ mayor, Juan Miguel Ramos. “It’s important to know where your food comes from — even if the experience is unpleasant.”
In Linares, the matanza is done in a farmyard not far from the town square. Villagers drag the pig onto a wooden table that looks like an altar — they use the Spanish word sacrificar, to sacrifice, rather than to kill. Grown men coo and pet the pig, to keep it calm. A man wields a sharp knife, and women rush forward with buckets for the blood.
“¡Está muerto! ¡Sangre! — It’s dead! Blood!” a man screams. The whole process takes less than 15 seconds.
“The rest is women’s work,” says Carmen Ramos, chuckling, her arm elbow-deep in a bucket of hot blood, which she stirs vigorously to keep from coagulating. The blood will be mixed with rice, oats and spices to make morcilla, a type of Spanish blood sausage.
The pig’s heavy carcass is carefully lifted onto a wooden cart and hauled into the town square for butchering. And a festival begins. Flamenco music blasts from speakers affixed to the town hall; children dance on cobblestones.
The women take the pig’s intestines down to the river, where they wash them in a cold stream with lemon and vinegar. The intestines will be used as sausage casings. Every part of the pig is used — nose to tail, and down to the hooves, which are boiled for gelatin.
“We came out to the countryside to show our little girls the old tradition,” says Isabel Romero, a Spanish tourist from the city of Malaga, who brought her daughters, ages 11 and 6. “It’s the first time they’ve seen that pork doesn’t always come from the supermarket.”
After his matanza tour, Bob Hancock went home to Kentucky and installed a Spanish wood oven in the bakery he owns — and started raising pigs himself.
“There’s a huge wave of people getting into a nose-to-tail style of eating. They’re not just going to the three-star Michelin restaurants. They’re doing exactly what I did,” he says. “And slowly but surely, the way we are looking at our food here is changing — for the better.”
Village women chop herbs for use in sausage at a matanza festival in the village of Linares, population 300, in the Sierra Aracena, in southwestern Spain. | Lauren Frayer for NPR
March 18, 2015 | by Lauren Frayer | NPR | Read original post: http://www.npr.org/
by Bruce Steele | Mar 12, 2015 | Recipes
The food world, like everything else, has its fads & fashions. Pork Belly may not the be the darling of star chefs that it was a year or two ago, but it’s always been a mainstay of rich, hearty ethnic cuisines. Pork is particularly esteemed in Eastern European cookery, and is a cornerstone of the cuisine of Hungary.
Lard is the cooking fat of choice for everyday Hungarian cooking (when cooking “light,” Hungarians use butter). Pork fat is such a big deal that the Mangalitsa pig, which has been getting a lot of press lately, was bred in Hungary especially for its abundant and luxurious fat.
This preparation is inspired by a traditional Hungarian dish, Abált szalonna (roughly translated as “boiled bacon”). While this version is made with fresh, uncured pork belly instead of the usual bacon or smoked hog jowl, the essential flavor and aromas of pungent garlic and rich, dusky Hungarian paprika ring true to the original version. And oh – the silken, tender texture of long-simmered pork belly with its layers of soft skin and tender streaks of meat, held together with delicate pork fat!
After cooking, the garlic-laden pork belly is liberally anointed with good Hungarian paprika, carefully wrapped and refrigerated until it is firm and completely chilled. The fully cooked pork is traditionally eaten cold, draped over a thick slice of warm, fresh bread with roasted peppers, sliced onions and lots and lots of homemade pickles. This is the quintessential Hungarian convenience food, something you’d take on a trip or offer to the guest who drops by for a visit.
While many Americans might be horrified at the thought of eating what amounts to pure, unadulterated fat, at the same time, they think nothing of consuming copious amounts of fried foods and snacks, all soaked with processed, hydrogenated fats.
But is pork fat bad? Recent research suggests that it’s not. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, medical doctor and well-known naturopath, the scientific analysis of 21 studies determined that there is no significant evidence that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease.
Pork fat has only about one-fourth the saturated fat and more than twice the monounsaturated fat as butter. It’s very high in Vitamin D and is also low in omega-6 fatty acids, known to promote inflammation; and if your pork comes from free-range pigs that eat greens, not grains, it will have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
The bottom line? Relax and enjoy this, and other traditional pork delicacies, in moderation. You’ll be glad you did.
Hungarian Style Pork Belly
- 1 lb slab of fresh pork belly, with skin on (not sliced)
- 6 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 3 Tbsp salt
- water
- 3 Tbsp Hungarian Paprika, or more to taste
Using the tip of a thin-bladed knife, deeply pierce the fat side (not the skin side) of the pork belly in 10 or 12 places, making sure not to go all the way through the skin on the other side.
Poke whole cloves of garlic (or halved cloves, if they’re especially large) into the slits.
Place the pork belly, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt and 2 – 3 sliced garlic cloves in a large, heavy pot filled with cold water. Over medium heat, bring to a low simmer. Reduce the heat to just barely simmering, cover and cook about 3 hours, or until the skin is very soft and tender.
Remove from the heat and take the pork out of the pot and drain, reserving the broth for other uses. Using paper towels, pat the pork completely dry and place on a large piece of wax paper, skin side down. Sprinkle the top of the pork belly very generously with the paprika. Wrap tightly with the wax paper and a layer of aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight or until thoroughly chilled.
Place thin, almost transparent slices of the pork belly on warm slices of rustic bread with a sprinkle of coarse salt – and maybe a little extra pinch of paprika. Serve with roasted peppers, sliced onions and homemade pickles.
Fresh Pork Belly
A thin slice of Hungarian-style pork belly pressed against a backlit translucent salt block. Note the slices of whole garlic cloves!
Pork Belly with traditional accompaniments
Read the original post: earthlydelightsblog.com
by Bruce Steele | Feb 22, 2015 | Mangalitsa Pigs
WINFIELD UPDATE –
A visit from Wilhelm Kohl, author of “The Mangalitsa Pig: Royalty is Coming to America”
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The power of social media to connect the world is amazing! Wilhelm Kohl co-authored “The Mangalitsa Pig: Royalty is Coming to America”, to document the history of these amazing Hungarian wooly pigs and share recipes from Hungarian chefs.
Wilhelm discovered the Winfield Farm website Mangalitsa page and subscribed to our e-letter, then responded to our Christmas greeting. Trading emails and phone calls back and forth, we learned that he is partner in a Mangalitsa farm in Michigan raising red and blonde Mangalitsa wooly pigs, is writing a sequel featuring American Mangalitsa farms and recipes from American chefs, and – the amazing part – he asked to visit us for the purpose of including Winfield Farm and Bruce in his new book!
Wilhelm arrived at the farm on February 18, accompanied by his photographer, Barbara Meyer zu Altenschildesche, a Royal red Mangalitsa farmer in the Netherlands who also runs a confinement breeding operation, raising Manga piglets for export, some to the United States.
Small world!
Barbara and Wilhelm showed up at feeding time, and spent the afternoon in the field, photographing our swallow-belly Mangalitsas. Barbara made friends with our 450-pound foundation boar Augustus (Gus), “speaking” to him and scratching his belly (albeit through the fence of his paddock).
Following the introduction to our porcine menagerie, we gave Barbara and Wilhelm the proverbial cooks tour of restaurants in the Santa Ynez Valley who have purchased Winfield Mangalitsa pork.
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On Wednesday evening we visited Root 246 Restaurant in Solvang for a special dining experience. Root 246 bills itself as offering the ultimate in farm-to-table cuisine. Chef Seth Nelson exceeded expectations with an elegant entrée, Winfield Farm bone-in Mangalitsa loin chops, brined in whey crafted from house-made ricotta cheese, which also adorned the plate.
On Thursday Barbara photographed our newest addition to the farm, 17 six-week old Manga piglets – so adorable with their wooly coats still colored with racing stripes. (The stripes fade when the pigs mature.) Then we were off to lunch at Industrial Eats in Buellton, a bustling European-style restaurant featuring two custom “beehive” pizza ovens and its own charcuterie case. Owners Jeff and Janet Olsson, who also operate New West Catering and have been great customers of Winfield Farm produce, bought our first Mangalitsa – in fact Jeff has purchased several over the last year. His interest in charcuterie –– he makes yummy prosciutto, melt-in-your-mouth lomo (which we devoured as it was served on their large meat plate) and other cured delicacies from our pigs –– is a big reason why we settled on raising Mangalitsa pigs in the first place. (Mangalitsa, a heritage lard breed originating in Hungary, is renown worldwide for charcuterie… and a natural fit for us after visiting Hungary four times and falling in love with the country.)
After lunch we visited Chef Pink and Courtney Rae DeLongpré at Bacon & Brine – a relatively new and very popular lunch spot in Solvang that features ONLY local sustainable produce — and Winfield Mangalitsa pork when available.
Barbara posted a series of photos of our visit to Chef Pink on her Mangalitsa Breed Facebook page afterward, commenting “Facebook is amazing. .. without it we never would have met.”
Our culinary tour concluded Thursday evening at Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos, where owner/chef Clark Staub served us a five-course Mangalitsa feast truly fit for Royalty! First came home-made levain bread with avocado and Mangalitsa lardo, garnished with rose-pickled Winfield Farm “Gen Red” onions, grown from seed stock that Bruce created himself. Then we dove into a wild boar and Mangalitsa “Scotch” egg, and shaved puntarell, fennel and radish salad bedecked with Mangalitsa speck. A signature Flatbread ‘pizza’ featured house-made shamen’s bread with rosemary lardo.
The entreé was oven-roasted bone-in Mangalitsa loin roast on a bed of charred blood orange, with fennel and paprika, served with broccolini, fingerling potatoes and wild nettles. To top off the meal Euro style, we finished with little gem lettuce salad with cherry tomatoes, sheep’s milk cheese and Mangalitsa ‘croutons’. All in all, a truly amazing!!! dining experience crowning a visit that we won’t forget!
Wilhelm and Barbara departed early on Friday morning and we will continue to stay in touch. In fact, Wilhelm suggested that I write Bruce’s profile for his new book – he called it a great story… from covered wagon days (Bruce’s family crossed the prairie in the mid 1800s to settle in CA), to sea urchin diving to Mangalitsa farming. As Bruce says, he’s moving up in the world!
Postscript: Now that we have some 80 Mangalitsas to raise for market, we have begun our own social media campaign. Please check out our new Mangalitsa webpage and News Blog, as well as our Winfield Farm Facebook page (www.facebook.com/WinfieldFarmBuellton)
Also FYI: We now have USDA certified, frozen cryovac-packaged Mangalitsa rib chops, a few Boston butt and Tri-Tip roasts (2 lb pkg), smoked ham (2 lb pkg) and bacon (1 lb pkg), as well as trotters and smoked ham hocks. Characteristic of this heritage breed, we also have lots of leaf fat! Please visit our Mangalitsa Market online to order.
We will be going to market again in April. Please sing out now to reserve your Mangalitsa pig (or custom cuts).
All the best,
Bruce and Diane
Photo credits: DB Pleschner | Barbara Meyer zu Altenschildesche — Visit the gallery for full size and additional photos taken during this visit.
