Blog & News
Chicherones and guacamole recipe
Chicherones is Mexico’s take on pork crackling. Serve with guacamole for a classic Mexican snack
INGREDIENTS
For the chicherones
- 7oz/200g pork skin, as much fat cut from it as possible
- Coarse salt
For the guacamole
- 1 or 2 large green chillies (Serrano if possible), chopped
- ¼ of a red onion, very finely sliced
- 1 big bunch of coriander, washed and dried, leaves picked from stems
- 5 small sweet cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 2 large very ripe avocado
- Juice of 2 limes
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 230F/110C/Gas ¼. Cut the skin into thin strips about 10cm (4in) long, and then put them in the oven for an hour and a half to render the fat and soften the skin.
Remove the pork from the oven and transfer it to a clean roasting tray. Then turn the oven up to its hottest setting (about 550F/300C/Gas 10). While the oven is heating up, make the guacamole.
In a large pestle and mortar, crush one of the chillies with the onion and coriander leaves, and then the tomatoes, which you should bash up a little bit. Scoop the flesh out of the avocados and add this to the mixture, crush the mixture with the pestle, but keep it a little coarse.
Season with salt and squeeze over the lime; taste and adjust acidity with more lime and check the salt. Add more chilli if it needs it: the guacamole should taste punchy and full. Return the pork skin to the oven at 550F/300C/Gas 10 for 5 to 10 minutes to allow it to puff up and become really crispy.
Pairing Wine with Fire in the Sta. Rita Hills
Paul Wellman (file)
PAIRING PINOT WITH BBQ: As both a chef and winemaker, the Hitching Post II’s Frank Ostini enters this Saturday’s grilling-meets-wine demo during the Sta. Rita Hills 10th Annual Wine & Fire Weekend with a distinct advantage — even if he isn’t cooking mammoth meat like cohort Peter Cargasacchi.
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Like much of the greater wine world, Santa Barbara County is hitting a saturation point with events in which the wine itself can no longer be the only star of the show. Folks in the Sta. Rita Hills realized this back in 2006 when they started the annual Wine and Fire celebration, which pairs their world-class pinot noir and chardonnay with food cooked over open flames.
This year’s 10th annual affair — which kicks off with a party at the Sanford & Benedict barn on Friday night, peaks at the La Purisima Mission tasting on Saturday, and includes open houses all weekend — emphasizes the fire more than ever before, thanks to the BBQ Blast. Taking the place of the usual Saturday-morning seminar, this grilling demo features five teams of vintners, chefs, and their supporters showing off their chops and tips and assorted bits. They’ll pair finished dishes with their wines and explain which morsels go best with which sip and why.
To get a taste, I asked a few participants what to expect.
Which meat goes best with pinot?
Frank Ostini of the Hitching Post, teamed with Steve Fennell of Sanford Winery: Beef is king because that’s what they eat in Burgundy [with pinot noir], and what the Hitching Post II has successfully served with pinot for almost 30 years. But Saturday, the best match will be with smoked duck — the smoky, earthy, gamy duck will pair perfectly with Sanford & Benedict pinot noir.
Peter Cargasacchi, teamed with Loring Wine Company: Woolly mammoth, because it is the only true paleo meat that is being served. We will be serving woolly mammoth sliders with purple lichen slaw. We have been working with geologists in the Arctic Circle to create a menu that is fresh from the permafrost. Siberian baby woolly mammoth. When they chiseled the young wooly mammoth out of the block of ice, it still had fresh clover and buttercups on its lips. [Editor’s Note: It looks like pulled pork to us.]
Which meat with chardonnay?
Ostini: I’m pining for a Winfield Farm Mangalitsa pork chop, grown by Santa Ynez Valley rancher Bruce Steele, who is my neighbor. It is for sure the greatest “other white meat.” The white part of this is the fat that is so flavorful, rich, and glorious when grilled and cuts through the acidity of the Sta. Rita Hills chardonnay, making it a perfect match. I sort of wish we were grilling this.
Cargasacchi: I would probably have to say penguin, because it combines two culinary traditions, poultry and seafood. Penguin is the true Chicken of the Sea.
Why does cooking with fire go so well with Sta. Rita Hills fruit?
Kimberly LaMontagne, whose husband, Theron Smith, is teamed with Kessler-Haak: The complex flavors wood projects with its many layers completes my pinot noir, which I create to marry with BBQ. Thank you, wood, for helping my wine be “multilayer sex in a bottle!”
Ostini: You’re asking a guy who was born with a BBQ pit in his backyard. Cooking with fire is the original cooking. It is a big reason why we are Homo sapiens. It is a part of our DNA. So it goes with fruit from any valley in Santa Barbara County. With SRH fruit in particular, it is the acidity and the smoky, earthy, gamy characters that work so well with grilled food.
Cargassachi: Not all fire is created equal. A lot of our competitors will be using “strike anywhere” fire. Their fire has no soul. Our fire will be authentic paleo fire. We are bringing it from a lightning-strike-initiated forest fire. Everyone else’s fire has no sense of place — soul-less junk fire — it could be from anywhere.
Is a BBQ battle treading on the toes of your friends up in the Santa Maria Valley, where tri-tip was supposedly invented?
Ostini: Born in Santa Maria, and now living in the Santa Ynez Valley, I figure I’m rather bi-valley — as a chef and as a winemaker. And my family has been grilling in Casmalia outside of Santa Maria for 60-plus years. I have tons of respect for that, and my brother respects what we have done in Buellton.
Cargassachi: Tri-tip and oak grilling is a ranchero tradition. It’s authentic to all of Santa Barbara County. And as a matter of fact, the last woolly mammoths that existed were here on the Channel Islands. What could be more fitting than eating woolly mammoth in the last area that it freely roamed?
Will you be doing grilling, smoking, or BBQ?
Ostini: Yes, yes, and yes. Our duck is cold smoked first, and we will grill it over an oak wood fire, using our indigenous style that we here have always called BBQ. For me, the distinctions are blurred. The common element is the smoke flavor derived from the wood fire. What’s good about this “contest” is the chance for attendees to taste four distinctly different BBQ styles with great wines.
Cargassachi: We will be using a La Caja China roasting box, using indirect heat, to create succulent, juicy meat rather than the charred carbon that our competitors will be serving. After 15,000 years in the deep freeze, mammoth is fairly delicate and requires long, slow cooking over moderate heat to be at its most tender and flavorful.
Should wine grapes be included in BBQ recipes?
Ostini: Sta. Rita Hills fruit makes such good wine; it is a waste to use it in food. Maybe Central Valley grapes?
4•1•1
Wine & Fire runs Friday-Sunday, August 14-16. See staritahills.com for details and tickets.
Read the original post here: Santa Barbara Independent
Announcing Winfield Mangalitsa Salami Barolo
July 21, 2015
We’re delighted to announce the next chapter in our quest for superior flavor – Winfield Farm Mangalitsa salami barolo – the fruits of a unique partnership between three connoisseurs of good taste: Winfield Farm, Alle Pia and Palmina Winery.
This story begins with a chance meeting with Antonio Varia, Chef and owner of Buona Tavola restaurants in Paso Robles and SLO, and his nephew, Alex Pellini. Both Antonio and Alex also create fine-cured meats at Alle Pia Handcrafted Italian Salumi. “It was our tradition in Italy to make salami each winter with our entire family,” Antonio says. He named his artisanal salumi-curing venture Alle-Pia in honor of his mother, Maria Pia Allesina. Their philosophy: “Alle-Pia Salami is made with the finest ingredients using traditional old world family recipes. Handcrafted and created with love under careful supervision in our USDA inspected state-of-the-art facility.”
Mangalitsa pork is renown for charcuterie, ranked among the best in the world for prosciutto, lomo, pancetta and the like. But what about salami? We posed the question to Chef Antonio and Alex. They had not worked with Mangalitsa before, but they were willing to try. We added another challenge: Alle- Pia’s traditional salami barolo recipe uses Italian wine — nebbiolo. But a local Santa Ynez Valley winery, Palmina, makes world-class nebbiolo also. What about producing a totally local product, utilizing Winfield Farm Mangalitsa pork and Palmina nebbiolo?
We approached Steve and Chrystal Clifton at Palmina and both were enthusiastic. Palmina is all about relationships. “Relationships that bring people back to the table to sustain themselves with good wine and food, conversation and a small respite from the hustle and bustle of today’s world.” According to the Palmina Wines website, “Palmina crafts wines that are a key part of that equation; wines that can be enjoyed everyday, and that complement and enhance a wide range of food styles.” Palmina produces wines from Italian varietals grown in Santa Barbara County, after Steve and Chrystal found that the climate and soil types here are similar to their favorite regions of Northern Italy.
Antonio and Alex also liked the local approach. So the experiment began. After close to two months of curing in Alle-Pia’s temperature-humidity-controlled room, we met to sample the results. Spectacular! Amazing! Creamy! Delicious! Actually, indescribably good!
So the partnership is cemented! Alle-Pia wants more Mangalitsa to cure (also eager to make lardo from Mangalitsa backfat and serve Manga loins in their Buona Tavola restaurants). Palmina Winery is planning to showcase Winfield salami Barolo at their 20th anniversary celebration in August, and will promote it in their tasting room. And we also will offer Winfield Farm Mangalitsa salami Barolo as a new product on our online Mangalitsa Market store.
Get it while you can! Supplies are limited now… (but we will be producing more…) https://www.winfieldfarm.us/?page_id=1111
Alle-Pia also makes a killer Tuscan salami with sangiovese – and Palmina also produces a sublime sangiovese…
A hand-written sign on the door to the curing rooms at Alle-Pia says, prophetically, “This is the beginning of something good.” Indeed! This partnership is just beginning… Stay tuned.
Alex Pellini and Antonio Varia
Heritage Serendipity
— Republished from Edible Santa Barbara 2015 Summer Edition —
The Mangalitsa pig is a special breed known for its thick fat, but is also identified easily by its unique curly and wooly coat. Photo by Rosminah Brown.
Heritage Serendipity
Winfield Farm is run by Bruce and Diane Steele. Bruce had a longtime dream to have a pig that would help consume surplus produce on his farm. What ended up happening was an explosion of pigs that’s resetting the course of the farm’s operations and helping bring a heritage breed back into popularity that was once on a path of dying out.
Bruce started out as an urchin diver and fisherman, and in 2003 became a land farmer in Buellton on Highway 246 about three miles west of Highway 101. Winfield Farm is most easily spotted by his pale blue fishing boat parked at the base of the driveway. The farm had been in land production for 10 years before Bruce’s dream of having a pig first became a reality.
The Steeles specialize in just one heritage breed, the Mangalitsa, also called a Wooly Pig, and also known as a Lard Hog. The Mangalitsa stock hails from 19th century Eastern Europe. The Mangalitsa has exceptional fat and was the prize pork of Austro-Hungarian nobility at the turn of the century. Once you see how much fat is on its body, it’s a wonder this tenacious breed can move about quickly and easily at all.
The breed is considered rare, and it almost died out entirely. Because the Mangalitsa has so much lard, the breed was unpopular in the 1970s and ’80s when fat became unfashionable. Who remembers the ad campaign for “the other white meat?” It was almost extinction for the Mangalitsa. But thanks to the growing popularity of bacon and pork in general, a desire for rich flavor and unctuous texture in meat, and the recognition that genetic diversity is a good thing, the Mangalitsa is making a comeback and its smooth silky fat is now held in glorious esteem. Winfield Farm is currently the largest breeder of the Mangalitsa in Southern California.
The pigs are fed with fruit and vegetables from the farm with additional organic grain supplement. If Bruce sees an opportunity to feed them something local and readily available, he’ll give it to them. Like autumn acorns or winter squash. So much squash.
The Mangalitsa pigs seem to breed like crazy and the Steeles are excitedly incredulous at times that their initial investment in 2013 of a handful of pigs has become an increasing series of enclosures with their original pigs, then a serendipitous rescue of 13 additional Mangalitsas, plus their next generations. Now there’s new sets of spunky piglets that arrived over Christmastime, running around, squealing, rooting and foraging. They grow so quickly.
Bruce is often constructing new shelters for expectant sows to birth and nurse their young. It’s not all a fairy tale—the reality is that stillborns occur, and when some don’t make it due to a sudden cold snap or the lack of enough suckling teats to go around, it is upsetting to everyone. This is farm life and it comes with unanticipated death as well. As for their fondness of the Mangalitsa piglets, Bruce says with both a smile and a shake of his head, “they’re just so darned cute.”
Winfield Farm to Chef – Full of Life Flatbread
Winfield supplies whole pigs by order to local restaurants, such as Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos. Chef/owner Clark Staub purchased a whole Mangalitsa last summer, and he and his staff broke it down and processed it entirely. The specials menu ran fresh Mangalitsa dishes for several weeks, while its legs were set to cure for longer-term projects, like smoked hams, speck and lardo that started to grace dinner plates this past February.
Sourcing locally is important to Full of Life, and the relationship between farmer and chef in this case is especially close—Clark lives just a few miles away from Winfield Farm off Highway 246 and passes it daily on his way to the restaurant. Not only do we have the opportunity to eat this spectacular pork prepared by one of our county’s favorite chefs, but the two are collaborating on recipes for an upcoming Mangalitsa cookbook. Something to watch out for!
Resources
Direct purchase is available to the public, by ordering online or purchasing pork through the farm’s weekend produce stand. Winfield offers the magic of Mangalitsa in all varieties of cuts and processing. The primals, or basic large cuts, are the biggest and least expensive per pound, while packets of bacon, chops or sausages are available by the pound, which is a very approachable option for those making a first foray into local heritage pork. They are a great source for the Mangalitsa’s special feature: its fat. Both leaf fat and back fat can be bought, useful for making flaky pastry or cut into lean-meat sausages, respectively.
Slaughter and processing takes place farther north. Currently this requires driving the pigs to a USDA-certified slaughterhouse in Fresno; the Steeles hope to bring this closer to home when such an option becomes available. In Bruce’s ideal world, he would like to convert all this farming equipment to solar—even the tillers and plows.
Whole pig prices are $7 per pound, and are custom scheduled by contacting Winfield Farm. Select cuts in smaller portions range from $10 to $15 per pound. These can be bought by mail order, shipped or picked up in person at their weekend farm stand in Buellton.
Read the original post: Edible Santa Barbara
International conference on fat-type hogs in Herceghalom
The conference called Fatty Pig on fat-type hogs (including the more and more famous Hungarian Mangalitsa) might bring scientific and economic results. The conference was organized for the second time by the Research Institute for Animal Breeding and Nutrition and WESSLING Hungary Kft. on November 21 and 22 in Herceghalom, and it was attended by researchers and businessmen from all around the world.
Fat-type hogs play a key role in the production of high quality pork! Fat-type hogs are usually bred only in small populations, but in many parts of the world, and they represent a premium segment within the sector, and also enormous national, genetic and economic value. To utilize these values, it is outstandingly important to investigate and to understand more thoroughly their physiological and genetic properties. Mangalitsa is more and more well-known in the world and more and more sought-after by consumers – said Dr. József Rátky, director general of the Research Institute for Animal Breeding and Nutrition, co-organizer of the conference.
With genetic analysis against counterfeiting
For successful performance of a premium product on the market, in order to eliminate counterfeiting, traceability is indispensable, which is achieved by performing the necessary background analyses and molecular biological-genetic research. This was the goal of the MANGFOOD project, an undertaking of Biomi Biotechnological Service Kft., a joint venture of the independent analytical laboratory WESSLING Hungary Kft. and the Agricultural Biotechnological Center.
As Adrienn Micsinai, general manager of Biomi told us that, together with several other enterprises and scientific laboratories, a gene sequence specific to the Mangalitsa was found during the MANGFOOD project, which is suitable for the fast and highly accurate determination of whether the given product is really made of Mangalitsa. This way it was possible to differentiate genetically between Mangalitsa and other pigs. This solution can be used not only for products containg only one type of meat, but also for mixed products, e.g. sausages, and even the percentage Mangalitsa content can be determined.
The journey of the Mangalitsa
Elimination of counterfeiting is extremely important, since Mangalitsa today has an outstanding role in the Hungarian meat industry – emphasized Dr. Lajos Bognár, deputy undersecretary of the Ministry of Rural Development responsible for food chain contol supervision and agricultural administration. Mangalitsa was in a critical state in the 1990’s, but it was resurrected thanks to the gene preservation program that was started in 1995.
The fate of other fat-type hogs all over the world was similar to that of the Mangalitsa – said Péter Tóth, president of the National Society of Fat-Type Hog Breeders and the Genetic Resources Council of Indigenous Livestock. Ancient breeds were close to extinction and they were revived – concurrently with the appearance of a new demand for quality meat – by a few eager breeders, learning almost in a self-educated way all there is to know about this animal. And then they were joined by research institutes and economic players.
Lo Chin-Hsien Ra, owner of 551 HORAI, an Osaka-based Japanese restaurant chain came to Hungary specifically for the sake of Mangalitsa. He had heard a lot about the breed, and had already encountered Mangalitsa products in Japan. This was not an accident, because – as was told by Endre Nagy, general manager of Pick Szeged Zrt., known internationally for its excellent salami, among other things – the leading product of the company, “téliszalámi”, has been present in the Hungarian and world markets for 145 years, and its raw material is high weight, high quality pork, i.e. Mangalitsa.
Winfield Farm Spring Update
Spring is usually a busy time of year at Winfield Farm: tilling the soil, seeding and out-planting vegetable starts. This spring was doubly busy, with the arrival of 54 Mangalitsa piglets since March 18!
Although Bruce managed to plant some spring carrots, beets, potatoes, shishito peppers and heirloom tomatoes, and just finished planting a row of Costa Romanesco zucchini squash, most of his waking hours have been devoted to pig husbandry. In fact, heirloom Mangalitsa wooly pigs have become Winfield Farm’s mainstay!
Bruce has turned over most of our fields to pig rearing, so planted pasture instead of produce, and spends a lot of time building and moving fence. We corral our pigs with hog panels wired together so he can rotate the herd: when the little shovel-noses root up one section, he moves them to new turf. People driving along Highway 246 from Lompoc to Buellton can spy our herd of purebred swallow-belly Mangalitsas cavorting in the field. These wooly haired pigs look a lot like black sheep.
The 54 new arrivals are the offspring of 8 sows and 4 boars (3 more sows produced another 20 piglets last winter) – so our Mangalitsa herd now numbers more than 100 pigs total. It’s amazing to think that just 2 years ago we began this pigdom with only two pigs. We’re now able to provide fresh (or fresh-frozen) Mangalitsa pork virtually year-round.
We’re marketing our heritage Mangalitsa pigs to a growing number of discerning restaurants in the Santa Ynez Valley and beyond. For example, you’ll often find Winfield Mangalitsa prosciutto, lomo and pancetta at Industrial Eats restaurant in Buellton, and Clark Staub at Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos makes magical dishes – and pizzas – with Winfield Mangalitsa pork.
We also offer USDA certified, cryovac packaged frozen Mangalitsa pork products on our online Mangalitsa Market store.
We recently took several pigs to market, so have a fresh supply of frozen cuts available, including chops (a handful of skin-on, bone-in loin and a lot of skin-on, bone-in rib with a glorious cap of pure white Mangalitsa fat), bone-in sirloin roasts, smoked hams (both bone-in and boneless), sliced bacon (and a couple of belly slabs), ground sausage (fresh and sweet Italian flavors in bulk 2-lb packs), smoked hocks (yummy!), trotters and leaf lard (the best baking fat EVER!).
Please call us at (805) 686-9312 or email us at bruce@winfieldfarm.us to order.
Or you can order from our online store, but please call first to make sure we still have what you want. If we don’t have it now, we can custom-order it for you the next time we go to market. We’ll be taking more pigs to market in late June, and at least monthly throughout the summer and fall.
If you haven’t tried Mangalitsa pork yet, you’re in for a treat. Try Winfield Mangalitsa and taste the magic for yourself!
The Mangalitsa Pig: Royalty is Coming to America
By Francesca Shanks on May 1, 2015
This book is a love letter to a unique Hungarian pig breed, a breed whose history seems miraculous when compared to America’s agricultural traditions.
The curly-haired Mangalitsa’s “genetics have remained untouched since 1833”—an almost unbelievable story for those acquainted with large-scale agriculture in the U.S. But raising these pigs is a long game—they aren’t bred to fatten up quickly. They’re renowned for their taste and the quality of their lard, and they’ve found their way to several of the country’s highest-rated restaurants in recent years.
But, according to the book’s authors, this almost wasn’t so: in the early 1990s, less than 200 Mangalitsa pigs remained, prompting Peter Toth and a partner to buy a herd of 50 from a Hungarian farmer in order to expand the Mangalitsa’s numbers. Today, Toth is president of the Hungarian National Association of Mangalitsa Breeders, and, he writes, the breed is 10,000 strong.
TheMangalitsa_recipes-1Mangalitsa pigs are now (again) a big part of Hungarian cuisine, as 23 Hungarian chefs demonstrate with recipes that incorporate Mangalitsa cuts, from lard to brain to loin. Each beautifully photographed recipe comes with a short chef profile and detailed instructions—make Zsolt Litauszki’s Mangalitsa rillette in breadcrumbs with fermented wax beans, or simply marvel at Antonio Fekete’s “Apple dessert,” a white chocolate-covered molded apple mousse complete with dark chocolate stem (no pig included in this recipe).
If you’re desperate to taste Mangalitsa for yourself, there’s a list, including a map, of Hungarian restaurants at the back of the book, plus a couple of pages advertising Mangalitsa farmers in the U.S.
This beautiful book, with gold-embossed title and incredible photography, is translated from Hungarian, which, unfortunately, results in some typographical errors. This may drive you crazy if you’re an editor type, but don’t let it get in the way of the opportunity to read about this fascinating pig breed. If you are interested in a story that merges fine cuisine with a passion for animal husbandry, you’ll enjoy The Mangalitsa Pig, and probably learn something, too.
The Mangalitsa Pig: Royalty is Coming to America
by Mate Dobesch, Wilhelm W. Kohl, Peter Toth, Beata Bencsics, Eszter Szalai (Translator)
247 pages; Boook Publishing Hungary, 2014
Read the original post: modernfarmer.com
10 Reasons You Should Be Cooking With Lard
The Huffington Post | By Julie R. Thomson
In a not so distant past (about a century ago) and in a not so foreign land (like, in America), lard was the fat that people cooked with. It wasn’t butter. Nor canola oil. And definitely not extra virgin olive oil.
Lard — rendered pig fat — was what people used when they needed to make pastry; when dinner needed frying; and even as a quick breakfast, eaten smeared on a piece of bread. So much has changed in our recent history. Lard is not only out of favor, it’s even considered a derogatory word.
We’re not going to get into how or why this happened — though Crisco and Upton Sinclair have gotten most of the blame — we’d just like to focus on bringing this glorious cooking (and baking) fat back into people’s kitchens. It’s time to let go of the lard stigma and enjoy great pie crust again. Let us make our case:
- Lard makes the best fried chicken. Crisp like a spring morning.
- It’s an extremely versatile fat. It doesn’t smoke at high temperatures so it’s perfect for frying. It does wonders while roasting. And its large fat crystals mean it makes the flakiest of pastries.
- Mexican tamales just wouldn’t be the same without it. Word.
- It has less saturated fat than butter. (Though not the same glorious flavor.) We’re not going to make any health claims about lard — because what do we Taste editors know about health? — but we can report what we’ve learned: lard has 20 percent less saturated fat than butter; it’s higher in monounsaturated fats which are said to lower LDL cholesterol; and it has none of the trans fat that shortening does. Chew on that.
- It makes for the flakiest of pie crusts. And one that’s pliable and easy to form.
- Despite what you may think, it does not impart a pork flavor. This is not bacon grease here, but rendered lard — preferably leaf lard which surrounds the loin and kidneys. It makes everything cripsy without leaving a trace of flavor behind.
- Vegetables roasted in lard come out crisper than you thought possible. As much as we love olive oil roasted veggies, sometimes they’re just too greasy and, well, a little soggy too.
- It’s sustainable. Cooking with lard is one way of guaranteeing you use every part of the hog. Some of the best restaurants, like Husk, are focused on that aim and bringing lard into fine dining.
- Biscuits. A southern lard biscuit recipe will make you wonder why you mess with anything else.
- Lard is even good on a piece of bread, in place of butter. Try it.
Read the original story: www.huffingtonpost.com
The One-Percenter’s Guide to Pork: The Best Pork, Ham, and Bacon in the World
by Kerry Acker | www.epicurious.com | February, 2014
Not all pork products are created equal. Just imagine for a moment that money was no object, that no supernal slice of lavishly marbled ham or haute hunk of succulent pork was too high-end or high-falutin’ for your budget. Here, our mini guide to some of the finest, most exclusive, pork, ham, and bacon in the world.
Jamon Iberico de Bellota
Celebrated El Bulli chef Ferran Adria once said of this traditionally cured Spanish ham, “Iberian pork meat is extraordinary. There’s nothing like it elsewhere in the world. There’s a great difference between a superior ham and all the rest.”
Raised along the Spain/Portugal border, the pata negra (black-hooved) pig roams free-range through old-growth oak forests, dining on herbs, grass, and, most significantly, acorns (bellota means “acorn”), resulting in an intensely flavored, distinctly nutty, and richly marbled meat unparalleled in the ham universe.
Get It: A 14.5-pound bone-in whole Jamon Iberico de Bellota ham from elite Spanish brand Cinco Jotas retails for $1,290 at La Tienda. But, wait, you’ll need to properly slice it, too, so consider investing in the Cinco Jotas Cortador kit–including a 13-pound bone-in Bellota ham, a black ham holder, two carving knives, serving pincers, and a protective chain-mail glove–which will set you back $2,450.
Culatello di Zibello
Among the rarest, most highly esteemed charcuterie in Italy, culatello is a boneless ham with a velvety texture and a robust, slightly sweet flavor. Produced in the foggy Po Valley, outside of Parma, culatello (“little backside”) is made from the muscle in the rear leg of the pig, and is related to prosciutto, but pig purists consider the version labeled with the D.O.P. “Culatello di Zibello” superior to its cousin. Because it takes a whole ham to make the culatello, and producers must adhere to strict D.O.P. regulations–including using only pigs born and raised in Lombardia or Emilia-Romagna, and a slow aging (without refrigeration) of 12 to 20 months–Culatello di Zibello is pretty hard to find. (Approximately 20,000 pieces of culatello are produced annually.)
Get It: Head to Italy’s lovely Antica Corte Pallavicina, a hotel/restaurant situated in Polesine Parmense and run by Chef Massimo Spigaroli, chairman of the Consortium of the Culatello di Zibello since its inception and widely considered one of the best producers of the exclusive ham. You can visit the on-site cellars, where the ham is aged to meltingly tender perfection, then sample it afterward at the Michelin-starred restaurant.
A Mangalitsa pig
Mangalitsa Pork, Bacon, and Lard
This rare breed of pig, the result of a 19th-century Austro-Hungarian experiment cross-breeding a wild boar with a pig raised for lard, is pretty darn funny-looking: Its distinct “fleece” coat gives it the look of a sheep-pig–which is why the Mangalitsa is also known as a “woolly pig”–and the pigs can weigh over 300 pounds. The animal was near extinction until the 1990s, when a Hungarian breeder revived it, and in recent years a handful of American farmers have started raising Mangalitsas. Though the woolly pigs are more expensive to produce than other heritage breeds, the buttery meat has been enjoying considerable popularity among chefs: Mangalitsa pork has been served on menus at the likes of the French Laundry, Le Cirque, and Blue Hill Stone Barns, and it’s also increasingly available as cured ham, bacon, and other products.
Get It: D’Artagnan sells a bone-in 12- to 16-pound Mangalitsa ham–dry-cured in Spain–for $400, Murray’s offers bacon ($17/12 oz.) from New Jersey-raised Mangalitsa pigs, and Florida-based Pasture Prime sells ground Mangalitsa pork, lard, and custom pork.
Edwards’ Surryano Ham
When it comes to dry-cured American ham, Surry, Virginia’s Edwards’ Surryano is a fabulous bet. Produced from Berkshire hogs and other heritage breeds–who dine on peanuts, grass, corn, and soy, according to Food Republic’s interview with Sam Edwards–the meat is dry-cured, smoked over hickory wood for seven days, then aged for 400 days. The ham that results is rich, smoky, and silky, and beloved by such chefs as David Chang, who serves it at Momofuku Ssam Bar.
Get It: A 15- to 17-pound bone-in Surryano will set you back $215, while $39 will get you 3.4 ounces of sliced Surryano heaven.
Benton’s Bacon
North Madisonville, Tennessee’s Benton’s Country Hams, famous for its world-class traditional dry-cured ham and (also dry-cured) bacon, is another American company that just makes us proud. New York Times writer John T. Edge said it best: “Allen Benton is the rock star of American bacon. There’s just something very primal about his bacon. It’s like barbecue and is so distinctive.” Chef devotees of Benton’s intensely, beautifully smoky bacon are many, and include David Chang, Sean Brock, and Hugh Acheson, to name just a few.
Get It: Four 1-pound packs of Benton’s famous hickory-smoked bacon cost just $26 via Benton’s website, but bear in mind that there may be a 5-week delay in delivery–which you will totally understand once you taste this extraordinary bacon, which would satisfy even the pickiest one-percenter.
Originally posted: 2/18/2014 : http://www.epicurious.com
A Place For Fat
Original post: http://www.breakingbutcher.com/
This post is about a certain Mangalitza breed of pig and the beautiful fat that IS this pig. I had no idea how much fat these pigs had until I worked with Yorkshire/Duroc breeds the entire time I was in France and then returned to Indiana to work on my first Mangalitza. I had exposure to the breed before, but that was when I would only watch someone break down a pig, before I knew how to handle one myself. This was before I had seen any other kind of pig except a Mangalitza. I assumed all pigs had this much fat. Then I started hearing commentary about the amount of fat, mostly negative because to raise these pigs just wasn’t financially feasible with the amount of meat available. I didn’t know, I took what I heard and stored it away for a time I figured I would get to form my own opinion and that time is now.
I may have lost a few of my readers already, for that I apologize. Allow me to back up a few steps and try to get everyone on the same post. An increasing number of heritage breed pig farmers have been popping up in the United States, heritage breeds are a special, sometimes rare breed of pig. From what I have gathered most farmers, cooks, and informed consumers have a preference as to which pig he or she fancies. Mangalitza is a type of heritage breed and happens to be the breed of pig that is raised at the farm that supplies meat to the restaurant where I work. This really isn’t a debate about which breed is better to me. I have had delicious products from many different breeds of pigs and I have come to decide that in the right hands basically any pig can be turned into something delicious. However, with that said, the most best breed of pig I have ever eaten is the Black Gascon.
Enough about what is better, I am talking about the Mangalitza and everything else can wait until another day. When I saw the back fat on a Mangalitza the first time after I had returned from France it shocked me. Literal shock, I froze, collapsed, and started convulsing on the floor… that isn’t true. So I picked that bad boy up and tossed him onto the chopping block. I wish that I would have measured the length of the solid mass of fat that towered on the crest of the pigs spine. Just from memory I want to say it was roughly 5-6 inches of beautiful creamy white fat. Fast forward to after three sides of pig where broken down, all products were fabricated, including right around 30 four inch by four inch chunks of lardo ready to cure, and enough back fat to add to freshly trimmed ham meat for saucisson. After everything was cut and salted I was left with pounds and pounds of the best back fat a pig can offer. I rendered some of it for lard and then found myself contemplating what to do with the rest. It seemed a shame to simply render the fat for lard and I didn’t want to freeze it for a later use. I felt that there had to be something to do to showcase this delicious fat and the fact that this is what these pigs are known for. When in doubt, eat.
I have heard people say that chops from Mangalitza’s aren’t really worth the money and hassle of raising the pig. After cutting my own bone in chops and leaving a beautiful cap of fat on each one, enough fat to say to a consumer, “I am a Mangalitza pork chop,” I have to say I was skeptical myself. There just really is not a lot of lean meat to be had in the loin section. I saved part of one of the loins for rillettes and after trimming the fat completely off the meat section of the boneless loin was almost laughably small. Then I had a bite of a seared Mangalitza chop, then another bite, and another, there is hardly a need for meat with fat that flavorful. My opinion quickly shifted and instead of viewing this breed of pig in comparison to another breed of pig I started to view the Mangalitza as the deliciously fatty pig that it is.
It was this feasting moment between myself and a fatty Mangalitza chop that inspired me to make more from the leftover fat than just lard, although the lard is great. I felt that if I was going to be receiving Mangalitza pigs to fabricate and put on a menu then the fat should be showcased. I wanted to leave more fat on the chops, make more lardo, and figure out how to make all these pounds of back fat into something that could serve to make delicious back fat shine as the main component in a dish. I hit the books and thumbed through multiple pages before my eyes stumbled upon Jamie Bissonette’s book, “The New Charcuterie Cookbook.” In his book he has a great recipe for whipped flavored lardo. He cooks the fat, strains the liquid, presses the fat, and then whips the cooled fat with different flavors to make spreads. This sounds delicious and it is what I intended to do with the fat I had. One of the first things I learned my one and only semester in culinary school is to read a recipe the entire way through before starting on a dish. I was only in culinary school for one semester so I clearly forgot this lesson. What I did was mess up Jamie’s recipe. I added all the flavorings to the raw fat, rendered everything together, and pressed the cooked, flavored fat. I knew that I had messed up, but at this point there was no return. I had no intention of whipping the fat like Jamie recommends. My mind was still in France and it was thinking about one of my favorite dishes called grattons that were made from pressed rendered fat. I went ahead and pressed the flavored mass overnight. The next day I came in and released the now beautifully pressed block of fat from its mold. What a fantastic result, it sliced like a cheese, it showcased the pressed ivory white chunks of fat, and retained just enough flavor to be extremely interesting when eaten like a fatty cheese.
I have sense waited to add most of the flavorings until after the fat is cooked, right before pressing, but the finished product is a thing of beauty. The flavorings get into all the nooks and crannies and cook a slight amount when added to the hot cooked fat, the different shaped fat chunks form a beautiful mosaic presentation, and the flavor is outstanding. A small slice set on my tongue easily melted away and left my mouth coated with fat and flavor. I have converted about 30 pounds of fat back into this cheese like fat product and sense returning from France it is the one thing that I most excited about at this point in my culinary life. In conclusion, I now love the Mangalitza for what they are, extremely fatty pigs. Isn’t this what I trained to do, use every part of a pig for the optimum benefit? If it is Mangalitza’s that I am dealing with I will now find a way to showcase the fat, not shy away from it, because that is what is special about these pigs. So for today, let us raise a glass for the delightfully wooly beasts that are the Mangalitza’s. Enjoy.
