Mangalitza Culatello

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.

	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!
	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”.
	“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
	After about 11 months of drying, I figured Thanksgiving was a good time to cut into it.
	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.