A new cross breed Heritage Pork: Mangalica, Red Waddle & Berkshire. These heritage breeds are prized for their well-marbled, toothsome, flavorful meat, not to mention a wickedly decadent abundance of fat.
Meet the Mangalitsa, the Hairy Pig That’s the Kobe Beef of Pork! Mangalitsa meat is lightly gamey, with a sweet, nutty, intense flavor.
With flavor that’s unbeatable, Mangalista is the Kobe beef of pork. If you’re familiar with pigs, you’ll know that most pigs in the last 50 years have been bred to have virtually no fat, but be mostly lean meat. But it turns out when you breed the fat out of the pig, it becomes tasteless. So people are starting to look for pork that tastes better, that tastes like real meat. And you can only do that with fat and marbling, so that’s what we’re offering.
HERITAGE PORK: THE MANGALICA PIG HISTORY—
Known variously as the Mangalitsa or Mangalica, this Old World breed pig is indigenous to Hungary. Its name means “hog with a lot of lard” and is pronounced mahn-ga-leets-ah. Not only does the Mangalica pig have a lot of lard, it has a lot of curly hair which makes it resemble a sheep. The fleece can be black, or red, but is most commonly blond. The Mangalica is the last pig in existence to sport this unusual fleece, and it was nearly lost to extinction by the 1990s, when fewer than 200 pigs remained in Hungary.
How does a pig go from being the most popular and commonly raised breed in the mid-1800s to near extinction by the 1990s? The answer lies in the fat. Mangalica are “lard type” pigs, and before vegetable oils were introduced, lard was the cooking medium of choice, and used for candles, soap, and cosmetics. Even industrial lubricants and explosives were produced from this valuable fat. Lard fell from favor in the mid-20th century when modern science declared that saturated fats were dangerous to human health.