Europe's Gourmet Market
Continental Europe has a large high-end pork segment, where farmers raise the best they can, often for the cured-meat market.
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Farmers and scientists have discovered what techniques work to produce the best meat, and why these techniques work. Although some farmers have more or less access to the best pig fodder, they generally agree on what one needs to make the best pork.
In America, almost all large producers have instead focused on producing as much meat as cheaply as possible. They have done amazingly well: commodity pork is available year-round at very low prices.
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Furthermore, meat products like air-cured ham, increasingly popular in America, are strictly limited by the quality of the raw-ingredients, because the curing process (salt and time) is so simple. As long as America lacks the best pork, she will never produce cured products the equal of Europe's.
Unfortunately for American farmers and consumers, it is nearly impossible to find information in English about how Europeans produce their best pork, and until Wooly Pigs imported the Mangalitsa, America didn't have any breeds like the tastiest European ones.
Back To Basics
In order to learn how Europeans consistently produce superior results, we visited farms in Austria, and met with many different farmers and experts. We've also studied scientific material available in English and German about what farmers do to produce meat of the highest quality.
Austria's "Meat-Culture"
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The Austrian food scientist, Dr. Franz S. Wagner, has written a nice book which explains how Austrians go about making their cured products. His book contains all the standard wisdom of Austrian farmers, plus instructions on how to make traditional Austrian specialties.
As he explains (in translation):
"In order to make great cured products, one must pay particular attention to the raw material. The best recipes and preparation methods can't make high-value products from bad raw materials."
"Important criteria are the animal, his feed and keeping, slaughter, hygiene and ripening."
Animal
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Dr. Wagner explains that modern pig breeds are too lean, so there's little flavor. He encourages picking a breed related to the traditional breeds, so that it will have marbling.
Some breeds, like the Mangalitsa, tend to produce fat that is more monounsaturated than the modern breeds. That difference is always important, but critical when making cured products.
Dr. Wagner advises raising a pig whose meat will be cured to at least 120kg (260 lbs). A bigger pig has better marbling and flavor. The animal should also be allowed to run around and exercise, developing flavorful red meat.
Master-butcher and farmer Marcel Kropf, in contrast, advises that a hog should be at least 9 months old. He says that meat quality improves until about 24 months, after which it holds steady. Similarly, Mr. Gasser, advises that 2 years is best for his Mangalitsa products.
In addition to tasting better, older animals eat a lot more, are much riskier for the farmer and have fatter, less-economic carcasses - explaining why almost nobody raises such animals anymore.
Diet
Farmers and scientists stress the importance of the animal's diet, as it has a direct impact on the type of fat the animal produces.
Controlling Fat Composition
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Controlling fat composition is very important. As mentioned previously it is critical that meat not have large amounts of polyunsaturated fat, or it will quickly go rancid.
Although some breeds naturallly tend to produce more monounsaturated fat regardless of the feed, it has been proven that diet is decisive, because pigs don't produce polyunsaturated fat; they get polyunsaturated fats in their diet. Hence the importance of the farmer giving the pig the right feed.
Additionally, farmers can ensure that pigs get antioxidants in their diet, which will lead to their meat containing antioxidants, which help to keep any polyunsaturated fats in the meat from oxidizing, turning yellow and smelling off. Food chemists do something similar, when they add antioxidants to vegetable oil to help it keep.
The consensus of farmers and scientists on feed during the critical finishing period (where the pig gets fattened just before slaughter) is:
- Acorns and similar nuts are some of the best feeds - very high in monounsaturated fat, low in polyunsaturated fat.
- Pasture greatly improves flavor and antioxidant levels.
- Avoid corn (the grain), and any feed containing vegetable oils like corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, etc., as they all have too much polyunsaturated fat.
- Grains lower in polyunsaturated fat, like barley, rye, wheat and triticale, lead to better quality meat. Use them instead of corn.
- Hay and peas give meat good flavors.
- Herbs like oregano and sage help the meat to keep longer, due to antioxidants.
Slaughter
People slaughter pigs by stunning them and bleeding them to death. Stunning the pig before bleeding it ensures that it does not suffer. When done properly, people stun the pig when he least expects, then bleed him to death before he revives. His last moments are hopefully happy ones, like getting fed a treat.
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Farmers and scientists agree that one should slaughter the animal without alarming it. Stress causes the animal to release chemicals into the blood that will produce PSE (pink, soft, exudative) meat, which isn't suitable for curing. It doesn't cook well either, because it loses too much water. Sometimes the entire carcass is a loss.
Modern breeds are more prone to stress than the Mangalitsa and similar unimproved breeds.
Just sending a pig to the slaughterhouse stresses it, because it isn't used to riding in a trailer. If something goes wrong at the slaughterhouse, the animals can get even more stressed. Unfortunately for consumers, meat may not be sold unless it is federally inspected, which normally requires taking an animal to a slaughterhouse.
It really is possible for a farmer to ruin months of work with a few minutes of rough handling and stress.
Farmers who want the best meat slaughter at home. Often the hogs are moved into the kill area well in advance of being slaughtered, so that they'll be maximally relaxed when their day comes. If the time comes and the hogs are stressed, the farmer puts it off another day or two. If the farmer doesn't slaughter at home, he has to work on the schedule of the slaughterhouse, which may mean compromising meat quality.
Ripening
A chemical reaction takes place in the meat after death - glycogen gets converted into lactic acid, which lowers the pH of the meat and helps it to keep. To make this happen, the butcher hangs the carcass in a cool place for a day or two until the pH drops and the meat is ready to use.
Some butchers skip this process and cut up a carcass immediately, which can lead to the meat going bad sooner than it would otherwise.
Master butcher Kropf recommends feeding the pigs sugar just before slaughter. It leads to the muscles having more glycogen in them, which means they'll ripen more completely. The meat keeps longer.
Typical Problems With Pork
A quick review of the points above shows why most pork isn't good enough for making the best cured products.
Breed: all readily available pigs have too little marbling and flavor.
Feed: most pigs eat a lot of foods with polyunsaturated fat (e.g. corn), because they are cheap and plentiful in the major hog-producing areas. That leads to the meat containing a lot of polyunsaturated fat, which goes rancid during the cure.
Confinement: most pigs are raised in confinement, so they don't develop good muscles. Even hogs not raised in confinement are normally killed young, so their flavor and marbling isn't as developed as in older hogs.
Distance: In America, the distance to the slaughterhouse is often far enough that the animals get too stressed when going to slaughter. That's worse for meat quality.
Ripening: some slaughter houses cut up a carcass before allowing it to ripen. That keeps throughput higher and costs lower, but isn't good for quality.
Next: What Wooly Pigs Does to Ensure Meat Quality
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