ASF??

 So Covid 19 has certainly been a problem for the meat industry. First plants shutting down, then reopened with staff shortages. Trucking and supply chain issues are common, like any industry. But, as of this September, the prices and profit margins are up, especially for the largest processors. Farmers are not seeing the same results with worker shortages and prices for them remaining static. Meat prices have increased by over 10% from last year except in the pork sector. Pork is up too, but not as much. That could quickly change.

 ASF or African Swine Fever has been around for many years. A hemorrhagic fever, it presents in its early stages as a high fever, cough, loss of appetite and broken blood vessels in the ears. It was originally discovered in wild hog species as far back as the 1700s. Wild hogs typically will have immunity due to their being exposed to it in the past. Ticks feeding on the hogs can transmit it. Wild hogs foraging on remains of infected hogs can transmit it. Close contact can transmit it. The problem arises when domestic breeds contract the disease. They do not have the immunities that a wild animal has. This is similar to Avian Flu, where wild birds may have the disease and spread it to domestic birds with devastating effect. This hemorrhagic viral hog disease causes the pig to basically bleed out in just a few short days. Hemorrhagic fevers are the type of disease that  are easily transmitted and there are no vaccines or preventions other than culling the infected herds. The map below show the outbreaks in domestic hogs in 2018.

 

 The disease has spread dramatically into China, Vietnam as well as Eastern Europe. Being that this disease affects overbred, domestic hogs raised in confinement the results are devastating to farmers. China has had at least a dozen outbreaks resulting in losses totally over a billion dollars. Huge herds have been destroyed to contain it as of this past summer. 

 In Europe, the first cases showed up in Portugal in the 1950s and has haunted farmers for years. Tight controls and safety measures on farms have kept it at bay but it shows up year after year with some outbreaks worse than others. Most recently Belgium has had an outbreak and Germany has discovered it in wild boars. 

 Before I continue, ASF can not be transferred to humans, unlike swine flu. It is more similar to the disease that effects wild deer, EHD, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, which devastated some deer populations in the North East US. These diseases certainly need to be observed closely for changes in their strains. 

Back to the A S Fever. There has never been a case in the US. The amount of wild hogs and ticks in the US doesn’t bode well if it spreads here. Many farms already have some strict protocol in place to keep their pigs safe but for smaller, heirloom breed growers that want to keep their pigs outside part of the time, this could be disaster. 

Recently cases have showed up in the Western Hemisphere for the first time in over 40 years. Cases have been discovered in the Dominican Republic and Haiti this fall. The implications and results of this entering the US could result in serious problems for hog farms. The current relatively low prices for pork could possibly spike to previously unknown highs. Currently, one of the reasons prices are higher here in the US is due to our companies exporting more product to other areas, such as China. If this disease were to get a foothold here, the world may be seeing a price increases like crazy. Pork futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will jump and someone, not farmers, will make a bundle.

 

Cochon 555 2020 Reflection

Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since I last posted anything here. Now that I’m stuck at home enjoying my “summer break” during this crazy crisis I thought I’d rev up my old two finger typing technique and restart this blog.
  Last Sunday, March 8th, before all the shut down on large groups in NYC and everywhere, I once again had the privilege and honour to judge and attend another Cochon 555 event at the Altman building in Manhattan. The dishes were superb, as usual, at this annual event. The chef’s creations and inventive excellence shows why the pig is a perfect nose to tail menu item. The event celebrates heritage breed pigs and its main focus over the years has been to showcase the attributes of quality heritage pork and small farmer contribution to the growing of these animals. Craft’s porchetta, Little Park’s Adobo Ribs, Hudson and Charles pressed pulled pork, Bar Boulud’s Fete du Cochon, and Almond’s Pâté almond were just some of the bites that stood out for me....and there were plenty others.
Cochon also features a whole hog butchery demo and this year featured Liz Clarke from Sullivan County Farms which delivers local meats and farm products into NYC. The pig was sold off to the attendees and some of my students assisted.

 So heritage breed is no longer a new thing in restaurants. We see it advertised on many quality trending menus. So what has changed in the pork industry overall? There are some restaurants that develop a relationship with smaller farmers and local distributors like Sullivan County. Others buy from established meat purveyors that have also brought in local or regional heritage breed pigs. Companies like Fossil Farms and Debragga and Spitler, Dartagnon, distribute very high quality pork. These mid-sized companies are where most chefs in NY find their heritage pork.
 Some bigger companies have tried to muscle in on the heritage/ high end pork market. The biggest is Smithfield/ Farmland with their Prime Pork brand which was once called Duroc Pork for the dominant breed used to create it. This pork is fed no growth promoting beta-agonists which insures more marbling etc. ( Why they grow their other pork with growth promotors is another question, and possibly another blog post later) Snake River Farms, known for their Wagyu beef, also does a high end Kurobuta pork which is basically Berkshire. These products are available nationwide and by large distributors.
  Do customers really look into where their pork is from or what it is fed? Are chefs willing to spend the extra to support local”ish” farms? I think as many customers in quality restaurants move away from a meat centric diet and eat less of it, they are willing to spend extra on something really good when they decide to eat it. The heritage breed market may have flattened out a bit but it is still strong and hopefully, once we get over this crazy virus time, we can get back to enjoying the good stuff.

Cochon 555...turns that butcher loose!!

Over the past 5 years I've been involved with the Cochon555 events that travel around the country. I typically get a bunch of student volunteers to help out at the NYC event and have helped with demos there and in Vail. If you are not familiar with Cochon check it out here http://cochon555.com/  It is an amazing competition that features five area chefs preparing five heritage breed pigs and also five quality vintners but also other great foods and distilled drinks. The chefs create numerous nose to tail menu items and their creativity is totally unleashed.
  Brady Lowe, the grand idea master who came up with this incredible party, is an advocate for locally raised and heritage breed pigs and one of the main goals has been to showcase the farmers as well as the chefs. It really is a truly great time had by all.
 There is one part of the event that trumps all others for me, and that is the butchery demo. Each event features a whole hog being cut up by a star/craft butcher. The butcher typically works with heritage breed pork on a regular basis and gets a chance to show their skill to hundreds of on lookers. This is the cool part... the hog is whole, unsplit and the butcher can cut it any way they like! So how many ways are there to cut a pig? Don't you just cut it into primals etc just like the big companies? Absolutely not. The styles I've seen at these events allow the butcher to go beyond the norm and let their culinary mind take over to create cuts that you just don't see in a supermarket or purveyor's box. The commodity pork we see presented out there doesn't follow seams or leave any fat on cuts. The breakdown doesn't take into account muscle shapes. But at Cochon they TURN THAT BUTCHER LOOSE!! and the resulting work is truly unique to that person.
 Over the years I've broken down many quality local pigs and I typically show my students the standard commercial cuts so they can recognize them when they buy it but we talk a lot about alternative methods. I've also cut pigs at my nephew Austin's after we do a slaughter. In both cases I don't use a band saw and barely use the hand saw.
 The term "artisan" butcher gets kicked around a lot. What makes a butcher artisan? All of the butchers I know or have known over the years were hardworking tradesmen or craftspeople if you must put a label on them. They cut to fill showcases or prepare meats for grind, sausage, charcuterie, salumi etc. They do it with speed and dexterity and not always thinking about "art". But on this Sunday Jan. 25th 2015, Erika Nakamura will be the artist, front and center at Cochon 555.... and I'll be watching with my glass held high!

Dry Aged Pork??

 Just over two months ago we started an interesting project in class, dry aged pork. My meat class teaching assistant, Dan Erne, and I took the loin of a locally raised hog and left the skin and fatback on the outside, placed it on a rack and left it next to the beef rib we were aging. The temp was about 35 -37F in about 70-80% humidity. Being on the top shelf, in front of the blower fan, allowed for good airflow and we also slathered a little rendered lard on the ends. We let it sit for 30 days and did a tasting for the class, then again at about 60 days. It was simply pan-seared with a little salt and pepper. The idea was to allow my students to really taste it without a sauce distracting. The flavor was certainly richer and full with slight undertones of that same distinct flavor that is dry aged beef. The older one started to get a little strong or musty in flavor. The result, in general, was that pork can be dry aged to improve taste.
 There are some things to consider when dry aging pork, the pork needs to be very fresh when starting. The preferred is from a whole carcass that you are breaking down but if you want to age vacuum packaged pork it needs to be as fresh as possible. The second thing is to have the skin on and any extra exterior fat. Again buying a half hog and breaking down guarantees a skin cover so if you were to age packaged pork the only choices would be either the ham or picnic. The loin is not sold skin-on commercially by any large producers.
 My nephew raises a few, various heritage breed hogs and we slaughter them in the late fall and he has a small walk-in cooler that we hang them in. We cut two of the hogs about a week later and the pork was very very good but a third hog hung for well over three weeks. This pork was outstanding.The flavor was like no other pork I've had.
 Aging pork is probably best at about 3 - 4 weeks and the fattier the pork, the better the result. A thick cut chop is guaranteed to be, by far, the best way to eat a grilled chop.  
 

pH and Heat = PSE Meat

Mangalitsa with slight PSE condition

Michael Clampffer, known for his superb Mangalitsa pigs and very fine cured products, asked me a question the other day. He had been experiencing a touch of PSE in a few of his pigs and was wondering why it was occurring. They were handled very well and did not travel far for slaughter. For those who don't know, PSE stands for Pale Soft and Exudative and is basically an imbalance in the pH level in the meat, making it a pale color and very watery, jello-like texture. Its cousin, RSE is basically the same thing but without the paleness (Red Soft Exudative). These conditions usually exist in over-lean pigs that are typical in a large production farm system and also where pigs might be stressed. The condition is also associated with the use of feed supplements such as Paylean but that is another article already discussed in this blog. Here is an article by Dr. Temple Grandin's on the subject  http://www.grandin.com/meat/pse.html

examples of pH values and related water loss

  So why were Michael's pigs, which are fat and happy, living in wallows and eating a varied diet basically free from stress, getting this condition? My suspicion is heat. Currently in the Northeast we are experiencing a heat wave caused by a blocking pattern known as a Bermuda High. Temperatures have been in the nineties everyday but that is only part of it. It is very humid as well. This can put a strain on the pigs but if they have cooling wallows, such as those found where these Mangalitsa are raised, they will be just fine. But the hot weather also puts a strain on refrigeration and this could result in the thickly fatted sides not getting chilled fast enough. I'm not sure of the temps at the slaughter house where Mike is taking his hogs but I do know that my days of owning a restaurant and dealing with walk-ins in summer were always challenging. If pork is not chilled rapidly, PSE can be the result.
  Another issue might be the conditions for the pigs while waiting in a holding pen. Most large hog plants have a sprinkler system that cools the pigs and keeps them from being agitated, which is another cause of PSE. Stress before slaughter is a major problem with pork quality. But Mangalitsa are not normally prone towards stress and the people handling them were all experienced. So maybe the walk-in is having trouble chilling rapidly due to the humidity, maybe the hogs are just a lot warmer before and during slaughter, but whatever the cause the real question is what to do with the lower quality meat.
 The large processors deal with PSE on a regular basis. About 10 to 40% of large farm hogs will result in various levels of PSE depending on the season and genetic background of the herd. So what do they do with all that lower quality pork? Here is a web site that gives ideas of what can be done. http://www.pork.org/filelibrary/Factsheets/PorkScience/Q-UTILIZATION%20OF%20PSE04671.pdf  This article discusses how processors can utilize PSE with some success. The use of phosphates to make the meat more palatable has been done to pork products for many years but for a small niche market high end producer like Michael, this is probably not an acceptable alternative. But the article also explains how if salted correctly PSE pork can be successfully aged and dried. It doesn't go into specifics and I think it would be up to the processor to figure out the subtle differences in recipe or drying techniques that would lead to a quality dry cured product.
  Another option is to make sausage. As long as the pork is not being used in a fragile dry cured sausage where water content is crucial, it can be used for most fresh or cooked sausage recipes, especially if mixed with non-PSE pork trimmings.

Making the Movie

There are a lot of meat fabrication clips out there on you tube; some are very well done while others are very poor. How can a chef or butcher know which ones are worth a look? I search through a lot of them and occasionally suggest one to my students or coworkers. I've seen some horrible home movies of hog slaughter where amateurs attempt to explain how its done with very little regard for food safety etc. I've also watched industry videos that over simplify the process and sanitize the view, and focus on the equipment that is being sold. Many videos are made by other instructors in culinary schools around the country. These can be informative and might show a different style or technique. Then you have the anti-meat activists that will show some poor practices done typically at slaughter houses that are not managed well. These are meant to horrify and unfortunately will often be referred to as "industry" standards while actually they are the extreme.
 My own students will often post in-class videos which I sometimes assign as pre-class views for other students to get warmed up to the lesson. As butchers, we must realize that what we do each day, is found fascinating by many. What used to be done in farm households is now distant from what we see in most stores. Not many people will cut their own chicken breast let alone a large carcass.
 Here is a set of videos that shows how to breakdown a half hog in great detail by someone doing it in their own house. It has some good detail and well worth watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsoK0gcG9as&list=PL69C2B028F82492F4&index=1  The cutter makes cuts that are not exactly industry style but much more of a custom style of cutting that many small shops are doing today. Some of the techniques are a little out of the norm but part of butchery is developing your own style. Check it out!

Is Local Always Better????

The other day we were cutting a half hog during class and it was from small local processor. It weighed just about 100 lbs., making it a very average market style hog. This size is the most popular throughout the country and is what most large processors look for. The typical processor in Iowa is looking for a 6 month old, 265 lb white haired, grain fed hog. This pig, even though it was raised in upstate NY, fit that description perfectly.
  When we broke it into it's primal cuts the pork was pink, the fat was firm but there was very little marbling and the fat back was only about a 1/2 to 1 inch along the back. I know this pig was not fed any growth promotants or fed antibiotics preemptive but other than that, is it much different than the mass produced pork I can buy for almost half the price?
  When purchasing local, you need to consider a few things. First, just because it is local doesn't guarantee it will be much different than the commercially raised large farm pork. Second, local doesn't always mean "heirloom" breed and many farmers are raising hybrid, fast growing pigs that are easy to raise indoors. Third, the feed a pig gets will be reflected in the flavor so if a grower uses a basic pre-mixed bagged feed the pig will taste pretty much like a mass produced commercial pork.

 So why would you purchase this type of pork? You may decide not to. You may choose a unique heirloom breed that was fed some forage, diverse grains, kitchen scraps, crop farmers by-products and pasture. But these pigs are very expensive and some are extremely fatty. There are some really high quality pork producers out there that are growing pork that doesn't resemble the large commercial pork. It is often reddish in color and the taste is deeper. But be ready to pay for it, an heirloom pig can be anywhere from $3 to $9 per lb!!

 A lot of chefs and home cooks would balk at these prices but still want to be part of the "locally grown" scene. Should they buy the local product that looks like regular pork? Its a tough question to answer. Our white pig was about $1.70 per lb which was more than what large commercial producers charge. Hog market price as of this post date was about $.85 per lb!!!! That is so incredibly cheap that no small producer can match it, no matter what they are feeding. 

 But here a few more things to consider, buying local pork, no matter what style, means you are keeping a local farmer in business. Most local farmers I know are allowing their pigs outside at least in summer. The pigs have a more pig-like existence and allowed some fresh air. Also most small farmers don't use gestation crates, restraining sows and they often don't use antibiotics, unless there is some infection that is not treatable in any other way. They don't use Paylean, a beta-agonist feed additive that grows lean muscle faster from less feed. These are questions you should ask about your local pork.

  Also, the local pork will arrive fresh and not in a vacuum bag. If pork is stored in bags for any length of time ( over two weeks) it starts to purge out and gives the pork a watery feel and the fat will be soaked with purge. Ideally pork should be used fresh and wrapped in paper so the fat stays nice and white. A local pork will typically arrive as a half hog and it will be nice and dry. Purchasing a half hog means you have all sorts of creative fuel for many products. Skin for cracklins or gelatins, bones for roasted stocks, some fat for rendering and the ability to custom cut your meat to create unique dishes. Fresh unbagged pork will work better for dry cured products because the skin and fat will be dryer to start with. 

  So no matter whether you choose to buy an heirloom barley fed pig or a standard market style hog, buying local will have advantages for any chef looking to showcase unique products. 

Pig Diet...Not for Slimming

My nephew, Austin Schneller, is raising four hogs this year. Each year he raises a few for his own consumption and a lucky few friends who help with the costs. A few years ago he raised four Danish Landrace prize stock pigs. They were lean and skittish, without much fatback. They grew really fast but were not what he was after. Then next year he got a Berkshire, a couple Hampshires and a Duroc cross. These were totally different, huge and very fatty. Last year he tried Tamworths, which were wonderful, large with very nice bellies etc. Some of the best pork I've ever tasted. This year I think he has the winner, a cross between Large Blacks and Old Spots. These pigs are very healthy, great foragers and getting really fat. They are a little agressive with each other but thats just pigs acting as they do.

 The feed for the pigs is pretty much the same year to year, lots of grains including corn but also some fermented barley, then as we get into fall, acorns, pumpkins, squash and apples, all byproduct waste from local farmers. This year I picked a big bucket of acorns off my lawn and they ate them like candy. The pigs are under some large oaks so they get all the natural drops in their pen as well. They always get the kitchen scraps from Austins home cooking.

  At the CIA we have the St Andrews Cafe where we try to keep it local and use as much locally grown food as possible. The attempt at sustainability is valid but I noticed we were throwing out the waste food scraps so I introduced the pig bucket. Every couple days the students from St Andrews fill a 5 gallon bucket with a wide assortment of scraps. I pick it up and drop it off to Austin's on my way home, which is typically late evening. The pigs get a very nice late night snack. I've always heard the worst time to eat dinner is late at night because it will make you fat! Well thats the goal here.

 The difference of flavor between these hogs and the commercially grown pork I work with in class is like day and night. Hese pigs are not only fed a more diverse and healthy diet, they are also allowed to mature a little more, giving a more complex meat taste. The other day we cut a half hog from Meiller's in Pine Plains. It was ok but didn't have much marbling and fat back. It wasn't raised poorly, but it was a white pig breed which tend to be leaner and it just wasn't allowed to mature.

 To get the best possible pork, such as that used for the Bellotta Iberico hams, it takes time and lots of really good feed, which means it will be expensive, but well worth it.

Sweet Meats

Check the label on almost any cured pork products and you will see a form of sugar listed. Sweetness and pork are traditional. Many a holiday ham has been glazed with brown sugar, pineapple, maple syrup, honey etc. Fresh pork dishes are often prepared with sweet fruits such as apples, raisins, pears, apricots and many more. Sugar or sweetness in general have risen to the forefront of the typical palate over the years. We as a culture, have become accustomed to the taste and when it isn't there, many people will find the food is lacking something. Sugar can be considered an addiction of sorts. We find many recipes today adding lots of sugar into savory foods.

Recently I cured a ham with my recipe tha contained water, salt, nitrite, spices and a little dextrose. I cut the dextrose listed in the recipe in half. When the ham was cured I soaked it to release a lot of the salt and then smoked it on and off for a few days. The result was a delicious flavorful ham that didn't over power the taste buds with sugar. I have to admit I did bake it with some coarse chopped onions, a few cloves and a light sprinkle of brown sugar. This added to the taste of the pan gravy and the skin's flavor but didn't add directly to the ham's overall sweetness.

I brought some of the ham to class and we compared it to a commercial sandwich slicing ham that claimed to be cherry wood smoked. First we tasted the slicing ham. Most students found the flavor appealing. I found it to be extremely sweet. Then I gave them my ham. "WOW that is sooo good!" was the comment. Then I asked what was good about it. Explain the flavor. Smoky, rich, savory were some comments. Sweet was not one of them but the results were positive just the same.

For some reason research and development teams have done studies and conducted taste panels that have found sweet sells. The more we sell sweet stuff the more people come to expect it. Sweet is found in loads of savory items. Sweet tomato sauces, crackers, salad dressings, mustards, coated chicken products, sausages, and more. Many of our fresh products are enhanced with sugar also. Butterball turkey, pumped brined pork loins, stewing hens. Our palates are being distorted by sweet. I really can't eat the super sweet ham that most deli counters sell. It tastes like candy to me yet many to many people that is the only flavor of ham they know from childhood so that is what they expect.

What role does sugar play in curing? Primarily sugar or sweetness is added to counter the harshness of salt. It is a flavor agent. Sweetness can also act as a fuel for good bacteria to grow creating acids resulting in the tangy taste we associate with a cured food. Some sugar or sweetness is necessary. But how much and what kind? Dextrose tends to be less sweet than plain sugar while corn syrup tends to be more sweet. My usual recipe for curing is 3 gallons watere, 2lbs of salt, 1 lb of dextrose, 4 oz TCM and then whatever spices I choose. This last recipe I reduced the dextrose to a 1/2 lb and it work out great.

I think another possible reason for the over sweetening of products is so the company can add more salt, resulting in a longer shelf life. Don't get me wrong, I like a peach glazed pork chop, but that is a natural amount of sugar, not a distortion created to placate to the customers palate cravings.

Pale Soft Exudative Pork

On days when we talk about pork in class there is often an acronym, PSE, used to describe low quality pork. The other day, while working on pork, we found at least 25% of the classes pork butts were very soft and mushy without much marbling. I stated that these were PSE and would not be a very high quality dining experience when eaten. PSE or Pale Soft and Exudative refers to the initial color and texture of the meat and is not caused by microbes or virus, it is more of a condition. In pork, fat and meat should be firm when chilled and the color can range from a light pink to a darker, almost red color and still be considered quality. Some breeds will have a lighter color and also the age and diet of the animal will have something to do with it. But PSE pork will lose some of its natural color and become a light blotchy pink. Its meat will be soft and jello-like and the fat will be very mushy also. If you place an opened cut of PSE pork in a pan it will ooze ( exudate) moisture and in a vacuum bag will exhibit excessive purge. When cooked PSE pork will dry out much faster when cooked and will not hold a brine or process well.

PSE is caused by a sudden drop in pH levels during chilling which causes cells to leak out moisture. http://www.asas.org/symposia/0601.pdf The fact that PSE pork has a low pH actually means it is preserved somewhat. The level of pH is part of what is considered when curing meat such as salami. Pork with a pH of around 6 is ideal where PSE pork is nearer to 5.

So what causes the sudden drop in pH? Hogs will sometimes get a condition known as PSS or Porcine Stress Sydrome. This is usually a heritable condition that has been passed on through the gene pool. Pigs that typically have PSS have what is known as the Halothane gene, and will be prone to the disease but will not always dsiplay it. Normal pigs that don't have the gene for PSS sometimes become super stressed when transported or placed in new pens before slaughter and will also turn PSE. Its a tricky thing. PSE is caused both by genetics and also environment. Weather also can be a contributor. Hot humid weather tends to trigger it too. Any dramatic weather changes can cause it. The incidence of PSE are higher in summer months than in others. Stunning and slaughter facilities can contribute to it too. If pigs are stressed at the time of slaughter they can show it at a higher rate. Pigs that are miss handled even for a short time right before slaughter can show signs.

Some farmers claim that hogs that are more sensitive to stress are those that have no entertainment. The hog in the wild is a scavenger that needs to root out its food and dig up earth. They bask in the sun when its not too hot and create wallows when it is. If they are stuck in concrete pens they get bored and understimulated leading to a stress prone pig. Hogs that are given more stimulation tend to be easier going when it comes to slaughter time.

Not all PSE is the same. There are varying levels of it. A hog that goes through slaughter may appear normal but may end up showing some PSE condition in its final cuts. One side of the pig may have it while the other not so much. Severe jello - like conditions are almost always from pigs that have the PSS gene whereas slight PSE will be in normal pigs that were handled poorly before slaughter. Also the chilling temperature can have an effect after the hog is slaughtered. If the temperature is not brought down quick enough, PSE like conditions can set in. There is also another condition known as RSE ( Red Soft and Exudative) where the pork is looking more like quality pork but still has the mushy texture. I have seen this quite a bit lately too.

So why were 25% of the pork butts at some level of PSE or RSE in my class? The pork came from the midwest and it could be the recent swings in weather had some effect. Maybe that particular load came from hogs that could have been jostled around in the truck. But there could be a systemic reason for it. In the late 1980s hogs that were considerably leaner were introduced into herds. These hogs tended to be carriers for the halothane gene, thinking they would be better producers of lean. This web site explains the entire problem quite well. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/swine/facts/04-053.htm The Landrace pig known for its fast growth and leaner muscle was found to be a carrier of the gene more often than other breeds. This breed still influences our herds today. This is not to say that all Landrace are going to have PSE or that any of the popular heirloom breeds can't have it. Any pig can have it but the trend towards leaner hogs has certainly increased the instance of stressed hogs. From my observations the small market heirloom breeds I've worked with lately simply don't have it. They are solid and the fat is super firm.

Another issue could be the use of hog food additives such as Paylean which are designed to increase muscle mass. Ractopamine is active ingredient that is used to create the larger hogs. In general Paylean makes pigs prone towards stress if handled poorly. If overused or used incorrectly it can create fatigued hogs that are no longer ambulatoryrequiring more aggressive methods to get them to slaughter. Paylean does not cause a pH drop or color change directly but if the hog is more prone towards stress because of it then indirectly it could have a negative PSS effect. The effect of super lean pork is a dry cooking product even if it isn't exudative.

Here is the website from Paylean and they state that it has no negative effects on pork color or tenderness and helps to improve yield scores. http://payleanpays.ca/pdfs/Paylean%20Technical%20Reference%20Guide.pdf My issues are with overly lean pork. Too lean and no flavor, that simple.

Another protection against PSE is to inject sodium bicarbonate into the carcass right after slaughter to adjust the pH level. This effectively stops the effects of PSE. Hormel Corporation is licensed to produce sodium bicarbonate treated pork for certain products. http://nationalhogfarmer.com/news/farming_pork_quality_2/

Whether you buy large name pork or pork from a local farmer PSE can be an issue. I've seen pork that had great marbling and solid fat in the same bag as jello pork. I wish large companies would isolate the higher quality non-PSE pork and sell it as such. I find that my local producers are raising a very high quality but very fatty pork and rarely see any PSE. My nephew raised hogs that we slaughtered and chilled. One had a slight exudation probably due to the chill time but its flavor was far superior to any pork I've eaten this year. They were very happy hogs indeed.

COCHON 555 NYC 2011

Back in December my friend Michael Sullivan, the butcher from The Inn at Blackberry Farm, asked if I could get some volunteer students to help at the opening of this year's Cochon 555 on Jan 23rd 2011. Cochon 555 is a ten city tour competition and it's purpose is to bring awareness to heritage breed pigs and small market farmers. It features five outstanding chefs, five breed of pig and five quality vintners all combining for a great time. At each tour location a winner is selected by a panel of judges and they will later compete at the final in Aspen to see who is the king or queen of pork! http://www.cochon555.com/menu/mission/ The founder of Cochon 555, Brady Lowe, then asked if I would like to conduct a demo and be one of 20 judges for the event. Hard to resist!

The event was amazing. The five chefs were given their hogs about a week or so ahead and were asked to prepare a nose to tail menu. The rules are pretty basic, prepare as many dishes that utilize the whole pig and present it with an explanation. The chefs presented at the judges table, giving a description of each item. The NYC chefs included Bill Telepan from Telepan Restaurant, Sean Rembold from Marlow and Sons, George Mendes from Aldea Restaurant, Peter Hoffman from Savoy, and the winner of this round Brad Farmerie from Public Restaurant. All presented amazing dishes and showcased their creative abilities with numerous braises, terrines, soups, crisps, pastries, pork infused everything!

Part of the mission of Cochon 555 is to showcase heritage breeds of swine and the assortment of pigs represented didn't disappoint. The pork used were all from unique niche market growers using their own particular feeding styles. There was Berkshire from Raven and Boar which was raised similar to pigs used for Parma ham, feeding them whey from cheesemaking. The Mangalitsa pig came from Mosefund Farm which Michael Clampfer feeds a diet partially of barley and acorns. There was also a Rede Wattle from Heritage Foods USA, an Old Spot pig from Flying Pig Farm and a Duroc cross from Fleischer's of Kingston. There was also a couple of butchery demos, one by yours truly featured a milk fed "porcelet de lait" mid sized pig from St. Canut Farm in Quebec which was provided by D'Artagnan distributors. The other was a competition demo between two Lowell Carson and Jose Manuel Alarcon featured a large Berkshire raised by Mark Newman of Newman Farm.

Twenty two students from the Culinary Institute of America joined the action as volunteers. The meatroom MIT Spencer Lee helped organize it and we all met at the location, The Lighthouse at Chelsea Pier. The students did a great job helping with the chefs in the kitchen, preparing appetizers, serving and generally were there when hands were needed. In return they got a chance to mingle and network with the chefs, farmers, winemakers and all of the guests.

Besides the heritage pork dishes there was a fine display of cheese presented by Murray's Cheese and wonderful charcuterie fromDebragga and Spitler. There was also some Black River Caviar Oesetra from Uraguay and Island Creek Oysters but I somehow managed to miss that tasting.

The wineries were also well representedby Copain Wine Cellars, Alysian winery, Elk Cove Vineyards, Failla Wines and Scholium Project. I enjoyed the Savignon Blanc from Scholium Project. It was slightly cloudy with super strong apricot tones that made you think it was going to be overpowering but it was very pleasant and went very well with the rich pork.

On a final note Bobby Hellen of Resto brought in a roast half hog that was carved and served on a waffle that was sooo delicious. My own demo pig, the porcelet was boned and rolled with porcetta spices and roasted. Its skin was a perfect wafer thin crisp.

Cochon555 moves on to Boston next weekend and then on from there. Check out their site. www.cochon555.com

Hog Start to Finished!

My Nephew, Austin Schneller raised 4 hogs for this year. They were born in spring and reached a little over 6 months. He fed them a combination of oats, alfalfa hay, corn, table scraps, garden scraps, pumpkins, apples, lots of acorns and a few Dunkin Munchkin treats. They lived in a nice large pen about twenty by forty feet on a rocky ledge with plenty of muddy places to wallow and a nice hay strewn shed to hang out in when it was hot or rainy. Oak and hickory trees cover the plot and drop their nuts right over the hogs. This year there was a phenomenal acorn crop. I have a few large oaks in my own yard and raked up a few 5 gallon buckets for them. Pigs love acorns, especially those from white oaks. They also like hickory nuts and can crunch them up without trouble. They escaped their pen a couple times and foraged the local woods for a few days ( hence the Munchkins to lure them back.)

All in all it cost Austin just over $2,000 to raise them. Each hog ended weighing about 300 lbs dressed carcass, with two slightly smaller, so they ended up costing a fair amount. But cost was only part of it, Austin was going for ultimate quality. Austin contracted with a few people who bought them for a price they all previously agreed upon.

These pigs didn't need an antibiotic or any other pharmaceuticals other than worming, because they started out healthy and lived an active robust life. All foraging pigs need to wormed a couple times because they can pick up parasites from the ground they root in. These were last wormed back in August.

The hogs were Hampshire Landrace crossbreeds from a quality herd. They were mostly black with a large white stripe around their middles. They were extremely marbled and had a cover fat of well over an inch on the loin. The bellies were large and almost two inches thick. The meat color was a deeper red than most pork. The fat melted in my hands and was creamy smooth. The flavor was rich and full...porky!

Last Saturday, Nov 20th, we did the slaughter. My father Robert, my brother Rick, nephews Quinn and Dean along with a few other strong armed friends were up to the task. We had a core group that knew the process. Harvesting hogs is a fair amount of work with each part of the process as important as the next. First they are stunned with a 22 caliber rifle; then bled. My nephew Dean was the "sticker", hitting the main blood vessel in the neck. I did the first one and he did the rest. Hogs need to be bled out correctly and soon after stunning to ensure there is no blood "splash" or broken capillaries in the lean muscle. Then we scalded the hogs, dipping in 150F water for a few minutes to loosen off all their hair. This requires some heavy lifting and shackling to be sure the hair is loosened. Then the scraping, which is done by all, at once, using bell shaped scrapers and knives. The hair was becoming thick due to the cold fall weather making this process difficult.

Once cleaned on the outside it was time for the evisceration. Removing the entrails of a pig is careful work. First the gambrels are opened along each foot and the heavy rope is hooked to the "spreader". Each foot is hooked up and then the hog is lifted using a pulley to a height where its nose is just about 3 inches from the ground. A sharp knife is required to cut the skin carefully but not pierce the intestines or other vitals. This work is a little rough for those who have never been around it. For me, I sort of set myself outside of the situation and just do it, similar to a surgeon. Just apply the skills learned and don't think about the gore etc. I had the opportunity to teach Austin's friend Jesse how it was done. Jesse had worked as a cook in the famous Fore Street Cafe in Portland Maine where whole hogs, already cleaned and eviscerated, were brought in from local farms from time to time to be cut and used. He had worked with cutting the meat etc but had never done the whole thing from live to finished carcass. We salvaged the liver, kidneys, heart and caul fat but we didn't feel like cleaning out the intestines. Then we loosened off the leaf lard so it would be easy to use when it hardened.

The next step was to split the carcass which requires a cut directly down the spine and no more than a 1/4 inch wide. A couple years ago we came across a new method of splitting, we used a thin long handled Japanese pull saw which slowly but very accurately cuts through the back bones.

Finally the two sides are lifted off the spreader and rope simultaneously, requiring teamwork and strength. We hung the sides in the barn and hoped for cold weather. Sunday it was cold, high around forty and low of twenty seven. Monday reached a high of over fifty but never over forty five in the barn. Austin set up fans to keep the air moving. We hung them until the Friday after Thanksgiving and by that time the fat had set up beautifully. This process of allowing the meat to hang is crucial. The carcass must stretch out and set up before it should be cut. This is one of the key lessons to Austin's quality pork. Let them chill and set up for a few days and the meat develops a very nice flavor. If the weather is right, I would hang the loin with the skin on for about three weeks for a very deep concentrated pork taste.

We cut the hogs a little out of the ordinary. Two of the hams were made into large steamships for Christmas dinners. The other hams were seamed and turned into roasts, with the top round well trimmed for cutlets. We cut the foreshanks into osso buco. The shoulders were boned out using seam butchery rather than the straight through the muscle techniques used by large commercial processors. We cut off the chine bones of the loin and then hand cut the pork chops; no band saw work here! The huge bellies and jowls were rubbed with the salt recipe for bacon and then were pressed together for later smoking. Some of the fatback was saved for cured lardon and most was cut and rendered to lard for frying. Some of the bones were roasted for a stock and later reduced to a sort of pork glace. Some of the fatty pieces were saved for making, fresh breakfast sausage, smoked liverwurst and country pates. My dad took the heads and will make homemade headcheese and scrapple. He also took the hearts, sliced them into thin strips and made a Hungarian soup with lots of paprika and sourcream.

While cutting the pigs we threw a few slices into the pan, CIA meat class style, just salt and pepper and a hot skillet. The taste was so satisfying!

The idea of raising a pig and then harvesting it is not all that fascinating. Its a lot of work and requires a fair amount of equipment and some valuable knowledge for it to go well. Many parts of the process could go wrong and ruin the whole plan. Austin is getting to the point where he is now growing a true artisan pork. A flavor so deep and rich accomplished partly by the breed but mostly by the feed style and the space allowed. The taste of place or terrior if I must use that word. His pigs taste of the place they were grown. All of the feeds came from farms nearby ( except the rare Dunkin Munchkin). They also taste so good because of the techniques used during the harvest and the aging after, and then the curing and spices used on the food itself. The garden fresh sage, the local hardwoods used for smoking, all playing a part in the taste. But there is something else about the pork we were tasting. It was about the age old traditions of families getting together during harvest times to put up food for the coming year. It was about the culmination of all that hard work finally paying off. Its about looking at what we eat and saying well there you go, I made that! Not just bought the ingredients and cooked it, but really made it from start to finish. Its about developing a product that not everyone is going to taste. I felt honored to have helped in this process and to taste such a treat. Congrats to Austin on a very successful hog harvest!

Austrian Butchery Techniques

My grandparents on my father's side were immigrants from Austria and growing up I experienced a lot of Austrian dialect and customs. Part of that was the foods my father's family would create for our large celebrations and picnics. My grandfather was a stone mason and was trained in the classic European tradition of apprentice / master. Besides his skilled craft he and my grandmother were also a part time farmers, as were many people in the days before the World War II. My grandparents always had a huge garden, some chickens, grapes etc. Farming was part of their existence. My grandfather also had a smokehouse in the back yard. He could fit about twenty slabs of bacon in it if he wanted. He would cure his own sausages and bacon and let them hang out in the smoker for weeks, weather permitting.

My father decided butchery was his craft and he opened a store in the mid-nineteen fifties. His customers were from many backgrounds but mostly German/Americans. It was a classic butcher shop with whole primal cuts being carried in the front door and sawdust on the floor. The store was filled with specialty sausages, smoked products, cheeses, specialty imports. It was a family business and we all took a lot of pride in it. My father was an innovator of sorts. His was the first market to sell Brie cheese in our area in the mid 60s. He started making pate' and smoked goose liverwurst. Some of our products were created for our German customers but my father would sometimes give it a little twist. His Austrian roots would show through. Austria and Germany, though they share a common language and many cultural similarities, will differ on some foods including meats. The Austrians are more influenced by their other neighbors such as Hungary to the east and Italian Tyrol to the south. These differences result in cuts of meat that are somewhat unique to their area.

Over the winter I had the fortunate experience to be invited to a seminar presented by Magalitsa hog producers, Woolypigs and Mosefund Farm. The hosts of the event Micheal Clampffer, Heath Putnam and Tom Canaday invited the president of the Mangalitsa Pig Breeders Union, Christoph Wiesner to do a demonstration on Austrian style pork cutting. Mangalitsa is a deliciously fatted specialty breed that is now available in the US thanks to Heath and Woolypigs. ( I have other articles on this as well, look under pork) This was a two day seminar of which I could only attend the second day so I missed the slaughter and sausage making section but I got to observe the cutting of the carcass. It was interesting to see the differences to the American style and even the German style of c utting. The Austrians will cut without cutting through the middle of muscles like we do here. Heath has been kind enough to share Christoph's cutting diagrams with us so I've linked them. http://woolypigs.com/mangalitza_cutting2010.pdf It was great talking with Christoph. He reminded me of some of the foods my Grandfather would make and how his dialect and terms used to describe pork were somehow familiar. This you tube has Christoph describing some of his bacon styles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oslQKtzG3M Someday I hope to visit Christoph in Austria and have a few slices of homemade Mangalitsa Speck. Wunderbar!

Austrian Artisans

One of the unique things about meat cutting is that each culture has its way of breaking down carcasses into the final product. The US style of cutting is well established in our food service purchasing culture and chefs are used to buying cuts a certain way. But worldwide we find a variety of methods that reflect the cooking or curing style of the meat. For instance in the US we cut our pork shoulder directly in half without regard for the muscle structure. This is done because it is very fast for the processors to break down the carcass and the end resulting primal Boston butt and picnic are often slow cooked as BBQ or pulled pork. In retail, the Boston butt is often cut across the bone to make "pork steaks" and both cuts are often boned to make a huge variety of sausages. In other cultures the cuts are divided with more regard to muscle structure and natural seams.

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending one short session of Pigstock 2010, a three day seminar put on by Mosefund farm. http://www.mosefund.com/pigstock2010_XX.htmlIt was interesting to watch an Austrian butcher, Christoph Wiesner, break down a half of a heritage breed Magalitza hog. His techniques reflected the end use. Cristoph and his wife Isabel raise this very unique breed in Austria and sell to a number of very high quality shops and restaurants. Besides raising the pigs they are involved in making many sausages and specialties from the by-products.

So how is Austrian butchery different than the US style? The shoulder was separated similar to beef or veal isolating the shoulder clod away from the chuck roll and brisket. The shoulder is divided into the Dunne und Dicke Shulter or the "thin or thick shoulder". The cuts are often cured whole, pressed and smoked and sliced like ham. My grandparents were Austrian so I had a chance to talk about some of the terms my father, a life long butcher, uses when talking about pork cuts. We sampled homemade headcheese and bloodwurst for lunch and Isabel was cooking a skin- on section of the shoulder for dinner.

Leg cuts are cut longer to include the entire sirloin so the ham is bigger and stays more moist when cured. This is similar to the style of the Serrano of Spain and the Italian Prosciutto.

The Austrians don't cook BBQ ribs the way we do so the belly or bauchfleisch is boned with all of the rib meat left intact. This results in a much meatier belly and a thicker bacon.

The loin is typically cut away from the shoulder between the fourth and fifth rib so the shoulder is longer resulting in a long " cottage" butt section that is excellent for curing, similar to the Italian Osso di Coppa or French Echine. It is known as the Schopfbraten in Austria.

Austrian food culture, especially cured meats and sausages are influenced by their neighbors. There are some similarities to German cutting but also to Swiss, Italian and Hungarian / Slovic styles. Even though Austrians speak a Germanic dialect they have a nomenclature for cuts that are quite different than Germany. Their curing and spicing techniques are different also. The sutble differences in salting and packing will change the flavors. Austrians will often smoke their cured meats creating such things as Schinkenspeck. Plus the pigs themselves will have a flavor profile that makes the bacons and hams unique. As shown in these photos the Mangalitsa has a very thick fat covering and makes for some very tasty bacon.

Some "artisan"butchers here in the US are starting to cut in these old European styles to create unique cuts and better utilize the entire carcass. It was fun to discuss these techniques with a room full of them. Thanks to Cristoph and Isabel for the chance to talk Fleisch and to Micheal Clampffer for allowing myself and my TA, Steven, to join the cutting. He ran a great program and I would suggest anyone wanting to learn some alternative cutting styles to join a future seminar. Also thanks to the folks at Wooly Pigs for chatting about the pigs and answering questions. http://woolypigs.com/index.html They are responsible for bringing in this unique breed into the US.

Get the Lard Out!

Here is a very interesting article about lard and its use in a modern society. http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food

The use of hydrogenated oils has taken over where lard was once king, but this article may change your mind about using it. Fat from hogs that are eating a diet that is higher in Omega 3 will result in fat that is also. Lately I've experienced fat from a Mangalitsa hog that was fed primarily a barley diet with lots of kitchen scraps. It was a creamy fat that is much different than corn fed hog fat. Another example of "healthy" fat was that from the wild Ossabaw hogs found off the coast of Georgia. These hogs actually have the genetic capability to create a lower saturated fat. Both Mangalitsa and Ossabaw pork are niche market and the fat is not available on a large commercial level. Here is where you can find some http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/2009/12/wooly-pigs-brand-leaf-lard-available.html

There is a producer in Canada that has developed the brand Prarie Orchard Farms that is high in Omega 3 and could help change the lard industry. This company is feeding hogs a plant based high Omega 3 diet consisting of a lot of flax seed. http://www.prairieorchardfarms.com/main.html

Some farms are supplementing with fish oil to raise up the Omega 3 acids. Here is an example http://www.willowgrovehill.com/About.aspx

The problem with any of these changes is the fact that the cheapest feed available for hog producers is corn and corn creates fat that is not as healthy. Alternative feeds and additives are much more expensive but...you are what you eat and what your food eats.

More Manga!

Here are some photos of the delectable swine thanks to Micheal Clampffer. We are now curing the belly, jowl and coppa in class. Being true to the breed and its background, we added some paprika to the cure. We made some Italian sausages from the trim.

Mangalitsa Mania!!

Hello Everyone,
On Monday Sept. 21st Michael Clampffer from Mosefund Farm brought us a half of a Mangalitsa hog. On Thursday he joined us for a day of fabrication, dinner and finally a demo for the Gourmet Society. The hog was really something! For those of you who don't know this breed it is known as a very rare and high quality lard pig from Hungary/ Austria. (View my previous posting on the breed.) The fat was thick, soft and very white and the meat was a deeper red than most pork. The feed and genetics make this hog a pork lovers dream.
Before our demo we enjoyed a remarkable dinner at St Andrews and Chef Mullooly cooked off the Mangalitsa tenderloin for our table. It was fabulous! Very deep red color and rich. Thanks to Chef and his crew!
We then conducted a tasting for the students at the Danny Kaye Theater which consisted of a slow roasted loin and fresh ham and also some sweet Italian sausages that were about a fifty fifty fat to lean ratio. Very rich all around. You simply can not eat too much of this because it fills you up so much. Michael did a wonderful job explaining the history, genetics, raising techniques, and customers that are now using his Mangalitsa. The word is spreading about this very high quality hog! Michael is offering a class on how to divide a carcass and make some very unique lard products in the early winter. Check out his site. http://www.mosefundfarm.com/mosefund_mangalitsa.html
My teaching assistant, Steven Bookbinder helped with the fabrication and we are currently in the process of making bacon, lardo and rendered fat among other things. We have photos of it and I'll post a follow up soon.

Paul, Porchetta and more....

The other day we had the honor of working with Chef Paul Canales from Oliveto, Oakland CA. Paul was at the school to work on a harvest dinner and he wanted to serve a Porchetta. Porchetta is typically a pork dish stuffed with fennel, herbs, salt and can vary depending on the chef. It is like a street food sold during festivals or picnics. Here at the school we typically use a small suckling pig and bone the entire thing, leaving the skin intact. The skin becomes a crispy addition to the dish.

For Paul, we got in a number of local market size half hogs that weighed around 100 lbs each. He conducted a great demo for my class in which he described so many ways to prepare pork. We discussed curing and also how pork is fabricated differently in Italy compared to the US style. He decided we would make the Porchetta from the loin and belly section.This meant boning all of the ribs and back bone. It was a great show of butchery craftsmanship and Paul attributed part of what he learned to the CIA's meat class. He pressed my students to absorb as much of the class as possible because the butchery skills it provides gives you so many more options in a restaurant.

Once the bellys and loin were fabbed he seasoned it with salt and an amazing ground red pepper from Scicily and some fennel flowers that he brought from Oakland. Then he rolled the belly into the loin creating a large roast.

After his demo, Chef Sebald's class arrived and I took my class upstairs for lecture. Paul was gracious enough to do the entire demo again which I know Han's class appreciated.

That afternoon my two TA's Steven Bookbinder and Kevin McCann worked on the rest of the hogs and got a chance to really hone some skills. All in all it was a great day for butchery at the CIA.... and we still have all the hams and shoulders to make into other stuff! (Steven has already salted a ham for a dry cure! Chef Elia wants the fennel flowers and shoulders for sausage.)

Is Mangalitsa the new Berkshire?

By now many of you have heard of or worked with the heritage breed of hog known as Berkshire. Berks have become popular in many quality kitchens and the popularity seems to grow every year. Berkshire is to pork what Angus is to beef, quality breeds that produce quality meat. So what else is out there? Specialty farmers have been trying a variety of heritage breed hogs here in the Northeast for the past 15 or 20 years. Breeds such as the Tammworth, Old Spots, Hampshires, Durocs have all found their way to various farmer's markets. Most are raised by small farmers who allow the pigs some freedom and feed them with a variety of stuffs such as locally grown corn, apples, old pumpkins and squash, acorns, and a huge variety of kitchen scraps.

Enter the Mangalitsa breed, a heritage breed from Austria/ Hungary. My grandfather Karl Schneller grew up in the southeastern portion of Austrian, near the Hungarian border. My Aunt Mary was born in Hungary and our family has a long food history that maintains many of the specialties from that area of the world. My father would make Speck in his butcher shop that was the same as my Austrian grandfather made. The Mangalitsa is a breed of hog from this part Europe. It is considered by many as the best tasting pork in Europe and is prized for its fat. It is unique in that it has a thick sheep-like wooly coat and does very well in colder climates. In 2006 a entrepreneur, Heath Putman, brought some breeding stock to the US and started the company Wooly Pigs http://woolypigs.com/index.html Wooly pigs is located in the state of Washington and they have recently sold some stock to Mosefund Farm http://mosefund.com/ in northern New Jersey, about an hour and a half drive to the CIA in Hyde Park. Michael Clampffer , CIA alumni, manages the raising of hogs and is involved with selling the meat to chefs in NYC.

On Saturday my nephew Austin and I met up with my teaching assistant Steven Bookbinder and his girlfriend at the Mosefund farm to ask some questions and see the old/ new breed. Austin raises a few hogs each year in Stone Ridge NY and this year he has a Berk, a Hampshire and a crazy mixed breed that is part Duroc. Both of us hadn't seen anything like the Mangalitsa. Michael was an excellent host and answered our many questions about feed and raising techniques. He explained that some of the forty or so hogs were either purebred or crossed with Berkshire. The smaller pigs were all 75% Mangalitsa and 25% Berk. They are fed restaurant scraps, and a mixture of barley and wheat. They are allowed to graze on fields of chickory and clover from time to time which they destroy in hours! Like most heritage hogs, they love to root and dig.

Mangalitsa has been praised in articles recently in the NYTimes and Saveur to name a couple. It is touted as the best tasting pork and has a fat that is lower in saturated fat. Don't be mistaken. It is not a low fat pork but the fat is higher in monosaturated fat as opposed to most pork on the market.

Michael wanted us to experience the pork so we received a fresh ham and I broke it down into subprimals and tied some roasts. While cutting it I trimmed some of the fat and rendered it. I also cut a small steak off the sirloin side and panseared it with nothing but salt and pepper. It was very nice! I gave a slice to my 16 yearold son who also knows something about pork and he said only one word which tells the the story "Good".

Michael will attend a demo, lecture and tasting featuring the pork at the CIA this fall and he will be hosting the president of the Austrian Mangalitsa Society this coming winter for a three day seminar demonstrating traditional cutting styles and curing techniques.

As we as a food society constantly search for the best flavors it is exciting for me to find a hog that I never knew existed gaining in popularity. Mosefund farm is located in north Jersey which is very much like the foothills of the Catskills where I live and the hogs are in the shade of a beautiful mountain side, like somewhere in Austria.