Mangalitsa: A breed apart
We searched long and hard to find the best breed of pig to help us provide the highest quality pork available. Genetics play a big part in pork’s taste, and after exhausting all of the domestic options, we decided that we needed to look outside of the United States for stock that had not succumbed to lean breeding.
Due to both cultural and gastronomic differences, we knew Europe’s pork has fared far better than our own over the last century. During our research, we kept hearing about a funny-named pig from Austria that was hailed as superior even to Spain’s beloved Ibérico pigs—the breed used for that country’s famed jamón. The Mangalitsa (also spelled Mangalica or Mangalitza, and sometimes known as Wollschwein) looks nothing like a “normal” hog, sporting a long, curly-haired coat. But it’s not just different on the outside: Instead of the pale pink flesh of its more-modern cousins, the Mangalitsa’s meat is beautifully marbled, sporting a rich, crimson flesh that more closely resembles beef in appearance, swathed with a deep layer of flavorful fat.
As luck would have it, in 2007 a small herd of premium Mangalitsa pigs were imported from Austria to grow and sell to Americans searching for tastier pork. In February 2010, Revival Meats will be the first ranch in Texas to acquire first-generation pigs from this initial American herd of Mangalitsa pigs.
Acorn-finished Mangalitsa
Each year, Revival Farms hand-selects a small number of our best pigs to finish on local acorns. Acorn-finished pigs—highly sought-after in the charcuterie world—offer a spectacular end-result. The acorn should simply be deemed “Miracle Pig Food”. For reasons beyond our understanding, acorns do something to a pig’s fat and muscle that seemingly nothing else can. When acorn-finished pigs are cured into hams and other products they almost become transcendental—akin to experiencing one’s first oyster or partaking of foie gras and sauternes. In our opinion it could certainly be argued that it could be one of the most important food experiences a person can taste; and thusly should happen at least once in a lifetime.
Our home farm in Yoakum enjoys an unusually long acorn season due to the presence of three different species of oak trees that are native to our area. Each fall and winter, acorns from Live Oak, Blackjack Oak, and Post Oak trees will be harvested, sorted, and stored for the following year, when they’ll be fed to select Mangalitsas for a minimum of 70 days. In years with a bumper acorn crop, finishing will extend to 110 days, as is typical with Spanish Ibérico pig.
