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pork....

post #1 of 33
9/6/07 at 6:43pm
Thread Starter 
Interesting developments.....I've got several parties where the only meat is pork. These are nice parties.....not BBQ's. I've seen it happen more and more. What are you finding in your area?

The pork is a mixed heirloom variety....duroq, berkshire, tammworth...two more I've forgotten.....but marbled and 1 1/2 + inches of fat between the skin and the meat. Gorgeous.
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post #2 of 33
9/7/07 at 10:50pm

Pork is king -beef is boar-ing

I've noticed over the past few years there's a kind-of pork revival going on, not that it was ever really gone. Five or so years ago it was a tough sell if I ran a dinner special like fennel encrusted roast pork belly, people were like "isn't that mostly fat?! eww". Now (mabey thanks to food network) it's no problem, the more pork fat the better. I butcher a birkshire every month or so. I love them, they make lovely panchetta, flavorful chops and lions...and lets not forget the headcheese. I just got a wild boar in from Nicky USA and am planning a wild boar tasting dinner for the end of the month. VIVA LE SWINE.
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post #3 of 33
9/8/07 at 7:47pm

Pork Belly

I have been serving pork belly since I started serving Dinners at my restaurant (Oct 23 06.) I tasted this wonderful pork in NYC and fell in love with it. Said: " I may not sell any but it will not come off my menu even if I have eat it all myself" :lol: Well it took a long time for anyone to try here in Vermont. It took me to leave the kitchen and talk to patrons. AND I adressed the selections on the menu. Not overselling mind you. Just suttle. Instrestlly enough! The more I get into the dinning rm the more "I" sell the more interesting (at least to me) items that are on the menu. Anyway, I have used the berkshire and tammworth pigs. I braize them and make the belly the star on the plate. Anyone who orders it loves the dish and suprised that its not TOO fatty. I do tell my customers that it IS a llittle fatty-and it is a tastefull thing. They like it. So, now I am selling alot of Pork Belly UM!!
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post #4 of 33
9/8/07 at 8:27pm
My take on it, if we don't think of meat as something to eat 3 pounds a day of, may as well have what tastes best. I think that's a great idea. If we're going to have meat, have the best whether it's pork or turkey breast or buffalo or whatever. Don't starve your taste buds :D
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post #5 of 33
9/9/07 at 2:03pm
hey buonaboy - I know its just a typing error but your Pork 'lions' cheered me up on a really miserable day - thanks!!:lol:
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post #6 of 33
9/9/07 at 6:49pm
Once at school we made a wild boar pate. It was perty good. Had a nice texture. At the resturant we normaly have a pork special weather it be boneless chops or tenderloin. My fav is the curried pork tenderloin with a carmalized apple and toseted almond yogurt. Rosted popatos and mixed veg.
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post #7 of 33
9/14/07 at 4:11am
Pork tenderloin obviously in not fatty but there are some breeds that might be raised a certain way and therefore fatty. Look at kobe beef tho....when people go out to eat they want something that taste good. At least the large portion do. Myself, I go for taste. I may eat less but I deprive myself nothing.

Can someone post that pork belly recipe? Is that was you call it on the menu?
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post #8 of 33
9/14/07 at 7:20pm
I'm doing a 5 course meal for the local Boy Scout District Dinner (for adult volunteers) next month and I'll be featuring pork for the main course. I didn't realize that I'd tapped into a trend.

Good to know. (I am a bit curious as to how many "I can't eat that" whines I'll hear before the meal. I'll have both vegetarian and non-pork meat substitutes in the wings.)
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post #9 of 33
9/15/07 at 7:06am
shroomgirl I don't find this very surprising given its price/lb. As prices for other meats go up, inventive and creative chefs & cooks look toward the lesser recognized (read, more cost attractive meats/cuts). I'm just surprised it's taken this long to spring back from it's bad rap given by the fatophobes...

As an example, just look at the popularity of beef shortribs! It seems every bistro or "upscale restaurant wannabe" has a dish of beef shortribs. ****, too. Their price/lb has gone crazy. They were one of my favorite cheap cuts right up there with pork neckbones before it all went "so very wrong"...
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post #10 of 33
9/18/07 at 3:29pm
We menu a pork rib roast, and baby-back ribs, as well as features such as pork tenderloin, stuffed pork loins roulades, pork "steamship"(fresh ham), braised shoulder chops, and pretty much anything else I can get my hands on. Pork specials always sell well where I am in Maryland. We also do wild boar once in awhile; sausages, chops, rib roasts..... Good pork is seeming to be coming back, especially with the new pH information.
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post #11 of 33
9/20/07 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
broke down a whole 260# pig yesterday....I'm getting faster....shoulders and ham are in the oven going on 16 hours, 225-250*.
Loin is in fridge.....ribs are in belly :)
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post #12 of 33
9/25/07 at 4:09pm
Thread Starter 
I'll not leave the skin/fat on meat in the oven that long again....8-10 hours max next time.
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post #13 of 33
9/25/07 at 4:37pm
What happened with it?
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post #14 of 33
9/25/07 at 4:45pm
Thread Starter 
all non skin covered surface was hard/black...had to be discarded. All of the fat had leached out and there was a few inches of fat....should have saved it for frying chicken but just did not have space in the fridge for one more extra. The meat was not dry....I just hated having to throw out what stuck to the bottom of the pan and the open edge meat. It did not need to cook that long. Lesson learned. Pig was still good....there was a solid 2" of fat lining the back between the skin and flesh. Good Pig. Really good with homemade BBQ sauce, caramelized onions and hamburger (read sweet) rolls.
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post #15 of 33
9/25/07 at 4:48pm
Thread Starter 
Getting in a half this Wed to make pate for the annual STL chef's wine country BBQ...aka James Beard picnic. lavosh, pate and I told them grape chutney. Pull out my handy dandy 1000 watt sausage grinder and have at it.
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post #16 of 33
9/25/07 at 9:23pm
That's kinda funny. For a second there, I thought you were roasting a whole pig. Man that was a big pig!


When I do pig like that in the oven I always slide a pan of liquid in there, I also protect the open meat with the rub/paste. Then again I like the crispy bits in pulled pork. This is also why I heart AltoShaam.


Ever cook pig for the crispy skin? I don't see that much here. I guess you guys in St Lous tend toward the slow BBQ.

I've got pig on the brain now! I'll have to see if I can get the boss to start selling carnitas parties.
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post #17 of 33
9/26/07 at 2:57am
Thread Starter 
no I leave the skin on the shoulder and ham to insulate the meat/fat. I too love crispy bits chopped into my Q....but what I got last week was not edible.
Way way to hard.....as in chip a knife hard. Right past it the meat was tender and tasty but the edges had gone too far.

I skin the loins to roast, love the searred off brown fat.

Got fresh hot tortillas, spring onions, limes, crema and some hot salsa and made tacos with some of the pig for lunch during prep. YUMMMY.
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post #18 of 33
9/26/07 at 9:04pm
Thread Starter 
ok this is too cool....got in a pure breed tamworth 1/2 today......oh man fat as deep as my index finger running the length of the back. PATE!!!!! Hurray~~~ The meat is a darker cooler, the loin same size as a much smaller pig. This was one fat pig. 195 live weight for the half...so aprox 400 whole weight.....that is alot of pig.

Broke it down fairly quickly, called my buddies that know how to make lardo to see if they wanted to see this pig.
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post #19 of 33
9/27/07 at 2:05pm
I forget how sometimes you guys never get out of the kitchen!
Here are some things you need to jump ahead on; just follow the links to suppliers...
ARK varieties: Slow Food USA
ALBC list: American Livestock Breeds Conservancy - Conservation Priority List
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post #20 of 33
9/27/07 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 
thanks ozark but I find my pigs at the farmer's market a mile from my home.....most have never heard of Slow Food.
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post #21 of 33
9/30/07 at 6:55am
Here's shroom's piggy..

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post #22 of 33
9/30/07 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
thank you Kuan... it was a 400# live weight tammworth. made gorgeous liver with Grand Marnier pate....actually sieved the shtuff...major PIA but worth it.
country pate with pickled green beans and coarse mustard on lavosh....now to post pix of the James Beard picnic.
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post #23 of 33
10/1/07 at 6:22am
Thread Starter 
out of 45ish chefs at least 6 had Berkshire pork as their dish.....apparently PFG-Middendorf is pushing shipped in berkshire. It was really funny to think about it after the fact....not sure what the growing specfics on PFG's pigs are nor where they are accessing them. But it's a start for one of the biggest meat wholesalers in town to start selling heirloom breeds of pigs.

I'm betting they are broken down into primal cuts and not delivered halved skin on bodies.
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post #24 of 33
10/2/07 at 2:02pm
The berkshires have been in demand for a while for the Japanese market = dark meat. So the supply system has been established and they even have the litter size up to 9 ,so look for the breed to be more and more availabe.
195# is quite large for 1/2 side Tam. ; they are the "bacon" hog. You might see if your grower can adjust his ration do that you do not waste your $ paying for all that fat.
I'm raising HampshireXTamworth crosses this year. I have to see what they will do to my pastures before I go full Tam (they are known for their supreme ROOTING=long nose)
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post #25 of 33
10/2/07 at 2:17pm
Thread Starter 
actually Rose I really really am excited about the fat......there are great cross bread pigs but this tammworth was exactly what I was looking for.....
the head was very different from the 260# tamworth/chester mixes....lots more jowl meat....long nose, longer ears, flater face.

the smaller tam/chester mix has great 2" thick fatback, marbling, meaty loins almost the same size as this huge tam......lighter meat. tender skin a friend uses to mix in his sausages, where the tam's was too tough.
shorter legs proportionally on the tam.

Rose after that pig hit the table I called 6 chefs to tell them about the fat thickness and pulled my office neighbors in to take the photo....chef's that make charcuterie want white firm gorgeous fat.
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post #26 of 33
10/4/07 at 1:21pm
It will be alot cheaper for you to go to a butcher and buy their trim fat if fat is what you want.
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post #27 of 33
10/4/07 at 1:24pm
Thread Starter 
This is really thick fat, and I know the pig farmer who raises these pigs....he actually gives me a deal of fat bought separately.
Funny what those chef's value, huh?
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post #28 of 33
10/4/07 at 10:41pm
Learned an interesting fact on a trip to Williamsburg this past weekend.

If you walk to the Historical area there is a small Plantation Farm set up on the right just after crossing the foot bridge at the visitors center. And at this far the have some livestock. Among this livestock are some Heirloom pigs. These pigs are the direct decendents of the same pigs that were raised in the 18th century. They have not been introduced to any of the enhanced genealogy (good or bad) that seems to be floating around our food chain at the moment. I really have to wonder what the meat would yield as far as taste is concerned. Just an interesting historical tidbit I believed worth sharing.
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post #29 of 33
10/5/07 at 1:08am
Thread Starter 
a good friend is a pig geneticist and has been combining heirloom breeds for 25+ years. He's developed a great tasting pig....long loin, marbled with some not alot of fat, protective but not outrageously agressive, nurturing......
he's selling 200 pigs a week to D'Artagnon in NY, I've fussed at him for not marketing and selling locally.....ah well, Karlios Hinkebien is reliable and raises great pork too.
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post #30 of 33
10/8/07 at 11:57pm
I completely support forementioned pig's "genetisist" opinion regarding marbeling. However, Tamworth is bacon-oriented breed. Berkshire (Kurobuta) bread beats it 100% being butchered right for a-la-cart and portioned. For future consideration, ther is a helpful link as follows:

Breeds of Livestock - Swine Breeds
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