Mangalitsa Pork Hits U.S. Tables For The First Time

Spokane's Wooly Pigs is on a mission to bring sustainably-grown Euro-style bacon (and other cuts) to American tables -- and more importantly for us, to Seattle plates.

You'll be able to find their first-ever "crop" of Mangalitsa pigs at Lark, Le Gourmand, Sitka & Spruce, Stumbling Goat Bisto, and The Herbfarm. (Probably. If it's your sole reason for visiting, call the restaurant first and make sure they still have some.)

The wool may have tipped you off to one of the differences between Mangalitsa (and Berkshire) and the less hairy pigs that make up the U.S. stock. However, that's not the main reason for their popularity.

To the left is an Austrian-style roast. You'll notice that there's a good chunk of fat. Wooly Pigs' Heath Putnam tells us the slaughterhouse measured an inch of back fat on his young pigs. You get great marbling and a more unsaturated fat to boot. (Mangalitsa fat is lard-like, and can even be whipped.)

Heath will be at the U-District Farmers Market (Saturdays, 9am-2pm) all this winter selling Berkshire and, as of January 19, Mangalitsa. Cuts include belly bacon, shoulder bacon, ham slices, sausage, pork steak, ham hocks, boneless loin roasts, back ribs, fatback or leaf lard and more.

UPDATE: Heath wrote us with some interesting clarifications and specifics.

1) The French Laundry got the first Mangalitsa pig - so it hit their tables last year. But this Jan. 19th is the first time any normal Americans have been able to walk up and buy the stuff retail. And it is the first time we've ever done a batch of them and sold them to restaurants.
2) The products you listed us selling in Seattle are our Berkshire products. As soon as we know what cuts we'll have from the Mangalitsa, I'll let you know.
3) Regardless of what Mangalitsa we sell, We'll only sell fresh Mangalitsa meat - nothing cured. Although Americans cure young pigs, those can't make the best cured products. As a result of our practices, our cured stuff looks very different from typical products.
4) The poor pigs have colored marks on them because we had to sort them. So we marked them with greasepaint. If you've never seen this done, it might seem odd.
5) The Herbfarm changed their order from one pig to two. So that's less meat for the farmers market, more for the Herbfarm.