Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Mangalitza Culatello

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I think by now pretty much everyone who is into pork and heirloom pig breeds has heard of Mangalitza pigs. Long story short; they’re an old world Hungarian lard pig, and when properly raised are about as good as it gets for curing.

I had the opportunity to purchase a leg from a Mangalitza pig, and I immediately thought “culatello time!”

I’ve gone into great detail on my last culatello post, so this one will just be some pictures showing the big differences between that commercial one and this one.





I used a little less salt on this one. 3% instead of the previous 3.5%, as the last one was a touch salty.








20120204-IMG_6845 Here’s the leg as it came to me. You can clearly see this is no ordinary pig leg. The fat layer is incredibly thick!
20120204-IMG_6850 The culatello extracted from the leg. Again, if you want to know how to do this, see my previous post.



Certainly NOT the “other white meat”.
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20120204-IMG_6852 “Outside” side of the culatello.

This was tied and salted with 3% salt and some pepper, and refrigerated for about 3 weeks.

It was then cased into a beef bladder
20121121-IMG_0890 After about 11 months of drying, I figured Thanksgiving was a good time to cut into it.
20121122-IMG_0896 Fantastic. The difference between this one and the commercial one is completely obvious. This is sweeter, much much richer in flavor and just tastes much much better.

I think I might have spoiled myself.

10 comments:

Bill said...

Nice work J....Beautiful shape to this Culatello. Did yyou go by feel or weightloss on judging its doneness?

Jasonmolinari said...

thanks Bill.
Given the amount of fat going by weight loss is hard b/c fat doesn't lose weight like muscle does.

I went by feel and time.

Noshvegas said...

Fantastic Job. Where did you get the bladder?

John said...

Beautiful Jason - Where are you sourcing the meat?

John

Jasonmolinari said...

John, i got it from Tommy @ Gum Creek Farms

Thiago said...

I've been following your blog for a while, but never posted anything. I was wondering if you ever considered making culatello out of a Mulefoot Pig? The guys at "Maverick Heritage Pork Ranch" have some beautiful hogs.
Keep up the great work.

Unknown said...

absolutely. Any breed can be used, it'll just be a different size.

Unknown said...

If you can't get your hands on Mangalitza pork then Mulefoot is the next best thing. We raise several heritage hog breeds and find it to be pretty superior. The fat caps are huge!

Unknown said...

Check us out on FB @ Faulkner Bent Farm!
We are located in Kentucky.

Jasonmolinari said...

Kristen sounds great. I think a guinea hog would be good too.