The new mindset that’s pushing pork beyond “other white meat” status.
I may be one of the few meat-eating Americans yet to be seduced by pork’s rise beyond “other white meat” status. And now the “snout-to-tail,” whole animal utilization craze has made pork all the more popular. Who better to tackle the topic with an objective viewpoint than one not so easily swayed by the succulent scent of bacon? The preponderance of pork is hard to deny. It receives primo placement on restaurant menus and on the supper plate, and at wine-centric events like ZAP’s (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Good Eats tasting in San Francisco, where pork dishes threatened to outweigh Zinfandel pours. Pair that with national pig-out celebrations like Cochon—putting pork at the forefront in exciting and competitive ways. Pork has become a gourmet mainstay.
A name isn’t just a name
Heritage breed pigs are perched at the front of the snout-to-tail movement. These animals descend from bloodlines that date back centuries, to a time when livestock was raised on multiuse, open-pasture farms, and breeds yielded distinct characteristics—from signature marbling and fats to rich and hearty tastes.
Flash forward to the current day, and these same breeds are in danger of being lost forever, because they can’t compete with large-scale, commercial operations. “In the past 40 to 50 years, pigs have been bred to be leaner and leaner,” says Marie Nguyen, one of the owners of Suisun Valley Farm (just east of Napa) that specializes in Mangalitsa, heritage breed pigs.
Luckily, a movement is under foot…er, hoof…with organizations like Cochon 555, a series of annual events with a chief mission to heighten awareness of these breeds on a national level. The initiative started as a way to promote breed diversity among communities through a coast-to-coast competition that connects ranchers raising heritage breed pigs with top chefs known for whole animal utilization. The 555 moniker speaks to the structure of the event that features five chefs, five pigs and five winemakers, each fueled by the mantra: “Eating them to preserve them.” Founder and creator Brady Lowe, also principal and creative director of Taste Network, speaks to the evolution of the touring competition, now in its third year, “When the events started, there weren’t a lot of options in some cities when making chef selections [for the event]. Now everybody is using whole animals.”
Lowe hand selects five competing chefs in each city of the competition (10 total) with an eye on three key ingredients. “First we look for what people are doing in terms of whole animal utilization and if they’re naming farms and breeds on the menu,” he says. “Second, are they a ‘porky’ chef [menus showing dynamic approaches and whole animal utilization]? And third, how do they fit into the food scene? Are they a component of the good food movement, promoting local farms, putting on events and educating? Basically, are they a local ambassador?”
The events continue to escalate in popularity and reach and are receiving widespread, national notoriety while never straying from the initial purpose.
Each city crowns a prince or princess of pork, and those finalists move on to compete at the Grand Cochon for the ultimate title, king or queen of pork, during the 29th annual Food and Wine Classic in Aspen in June. Winner selection is based on a combined score that’s weighted 51 percent to people’s choice and 49 percent to a panel of judges. The event has enticed such renowned chefs as this year’s Dave Cruz of Yountville’s Ad Hoc, and Brandon Sharp of the Michelin-starred Solbar in Calistoga. Also unique to the event is a butchering competition, where two trade butchers go head-to-head with a live pig breakdown. “It’s a way for us to expose a whole new group of people who’re working in cutting shops. They’re typically not recognized, but need to be,” says Lowe.
The hand that feeds
Be it pig farmers, chefs or culinary educators, there’s an overwhelming consensus about the importance of getting to know the “source” from which you eat. Many snout-to-tail proponents point to witnessing a pig’s final day as their a-ha moment.
One such educator, Patrick Clark, chef instructor at CIA, saw the importance and acted on it by taking his students on a field trip to Calistoga’s Beer Belly Farm (specializing in Mulefoot pigs). “Seeing that [the butchering process], now more than ever, I’m motivated to use every part of that animal. Anyone who eats meat should see the process. You’ll have respect for the animal and what you’re doing in using the meat,” says Clark.
This point is reiterated by this year’s Napa Princess of Pork, Duskie Estes. She and her husband and winning teammate, John Stewart, raise pigs at their Sonoma County home, MacBryde Farm; they source for their Black Pig Meat Co. from Magruder Ranch in Potter Valley, Walnut Keep in Suisun and Pure Country Pork in Oregon; and they own Zazu Restaurant + Farm in Santa Rosa and Bovolo restaurant in Healdsburg (see “Bringing Home the Bacon,” Feb. 2011). “We started raising pigs two years ago, and I was present for their final day. When you see that happen, you’ll use every part,” says Estes, who was a vegetarian for 22 years until a chance encounter with a slow-roasted pork shoulder seduced her to the meat-loving side of the fence. [Update: In June, Estes and Stewart took the top prize at this year’s Cochon 555 finale event.]
“You don’t want to waste anything,” agrees Nguyen, who, with husband Shane Petersen, raised one of the competing pigs at this year’s Napa Cochon 555.
Educational affair
Educational institutes like the CIA are at the forefront of the snout-to-tail movement. “It’s all about utilization. We promote this at the school,” says Clark. “Heritage breeds can [cost] twice as much, so there’s a need to understand and know how to use the whole animal.” He furthers the cause by teaching a garde manger course (the art of the cold kitchen preparation of such foods as pâtés and sausages, plus curing and smoking techniques for meat) which centers on making use of the whole animal. The concept extends beyond the classroom into the Greystone restaurant, where students go through a rotation focused on sustainable, local farming and biodynamics.
In addition to his post at CIA, Clark also sits on the board of Slow Food Napa Valley (see “Take It Slow,” Jan. 2009). The organization, in concert with the Culinary Institute, hosted the “Tale of Two Pigs” event in April, which featured Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop. The book focuses a lens on the prevalent abuses in factory farms, from torturous conditions of animals to the externalized costs of environmental abuses and worker conditions, as evidenced in mass market hog farms.
Clark brings the discussion back to the importance of education: “As people become more aware of what’s happening in factory farms and begin to realize what’s served, there will be more of an outcry for local and family produced food.” He’s also aware of the instrumental role chefs play in impacting change and raising awareness to the general public. “Events like Cochon 555 are surfacing all over the country,” he says. “More chefs are becoming interested in this type of thing—charcuterie, whole animal utilization, heritage breeds. As chefs we can push the envelope.
“It’s about having enough respect for what you eat to dig a little deeper and learn where your food comes from.” Clark’s students seem equally impacted. “After students go through the rotation in the restaurant and talk about sustainability to the extreme degrees we do, they change their eating habits by the time they leave.”
Raising it right
Suisun Valley farmers Nguyen and Petersen are directly affected by snout-to-tail usage. They chose to raise Mangalitsa pigs (known for their hairy, fleece coat and high-quality, lard-type fat that doubles that of average pork) a little more than two years ago. “We’ve noticed more chefs becoming interested [in whole pigs], and ours are ideal for charcuterie and salumi,” says Nguyen. She’s thrilled to see heritage pigs finally getting their day in the spotlight. “It’s about time and appropriate. In the last 10 years, consumers have become more aware of what they eat. People seem ready for it and are looking for that type of cooking and meals in restaurants.”
Winning chef and farmer Estes also believes in the importance of the movement but says she sees some of the local challenges of raising heritage breeds. “One of the issues is the cost of land in Sonoma County. The best money off the land comes from grapes, which leads to a monoculture. It takes a person with real will to raise livestock here, especially with the USDA laws that support the mega industries in the middle of the country.”
Cooking it up
Executive Chef Brandon Sharp of Calistoga’s Solbar sees not only the chef’s side of snout-to-tail but also the educational aspects. “Chefs get into it because the product is so superior—it’s satisfying in a different way to serve the whole animal—and it’s a very exciting way to cook. You’re in the position of teaching 99 percent of the time, so [whole animal utilization] is great to teach to cooks,” he says. He too is aware of the impacts to farmers and the commerce aspects. “In almost all arenas of the culture, smaller producers and local products have been consolidated. Agricultural conglomerates have bought up swaths of farmland and eliminated a lot of diverse family farms to consolidate those farms into biologically monocultural factory farms,” Sharp shares, “this is how we get products year-round in the supermarket. Bioengineered plants and animals are bred to produce consistency at the expense of flavor and varietal distinctions.”
Sharp sees how chefs are well-poised to positively affect the cause. “There’s no reason for farmers to raise [heritage breeds] unless chefs are going to support them,” he says. “It comes full circle to spending money with those farmers and buying into the products. Customers can taste the difference on the plate. There’s a lot of untapped agriculture waiting to be discovered by chefs,” says Sharp, who also competed in this year’s Cochon 555. When asked about the event, he shares, “The vitality and vivaciousness of that setting reminded me, for better or worse, that when monkeys eat vegetables they eat alone, but when they eat meat they all come together. It’s a very communal experience.”
Family verses factory
In speaking with this pork-friendly bunch, advocacy for family farms is a common bond. “It’s knowing the face that feeds you. I’d much rather put a dollar in the hand of somebody I know,” says Estes. “If I put the dollar here, they spend it here, and it creates a strong economy, locally.” Her partner Stewart voices a different-yet-similar sentiment: “A big cause of a lot of the recent food scares is that farming and agriculture has gotten so big and impersonal. You can’t track and trace things. Small farms are about personal relationships, and that creates safety—you’re not going to sell something bad to someone you know. Duskie and I take field trips to different farms where we go and see the animals. They’re happier and running around. It costs more money, but it’s safe. It also lets the farmer have a life.”
Mangalitsa farmer Nguyen is keenly aware of the benefits and challenges, “As a small farm [they currently raise 60 to 70 pigs], you can focus on quality at all times, versus a factory that’s doing everything to save costs. All of our customers are local, our meat isn’t frozen, and we’re shipping usually no more than 50 miles, so we can provide fresh pigs.
“The environment our pigs are raised in is quite different. They have a lot of room to move around,” she continues. “The unique thing about our Mangalitsas is, they take a much longer time to grow up before they’re ready for sale. Most regular pigs are ready in six months, where we hold [them] for sometimes a year-and-a-half to two years. Older pigs have more flavorful meat, and since we aim for the best quality in our animals, we grow them two or three times longer than any other type of pig you commonly get out there. You couldn’t do that on a large scale,” she says.
“The challenge is, people don’t expect the price. We feed a custom, barley-wheat based diet, one that’s non-corn based. Because Mangalitsa is best used for charcuterie or salumi purposes, you want to keep the polyunsaturated fats to a minimum. A corn-based diet, which is very common, contributes polyunsaturated fats. Our goal is to have extremely clean-tasting fat in our pigs, and you don’t get that by feeding a corn-based diet.”
For Stewart, this directly relates to the importance of snout-to-tail cooking. “Now that commodities are so expensive, it’s about using all parts and making great foods. You need to experiment and develop relationships with the butcher,” he shares. “People are getting pigs raised on pasture and letting the animal’s natural fats develop. It’s not the lean meat it once was. Pigs are the next continuance of things. Contrary to the American belief that bigger is always better, it’s a different framework to raise smaller, higher quality animals and sell at a premium. It’s letting people stay in business.”
Passing fad or built to last?
When asked if the snout-to-tail craze is here to stay, Lowe speculates, “I see a healthy, growing conversation about heritage breed pigs and increasing demand. The community is moving in the right direction—into the promotion of tasty, healthy food and providing people the choice to buy tasty, local heritage pork.”
In Lowe’s mind, there’s a lot more work to be done, and he’s got some ideas on how to keep the movement rolling. “Four to five years from now, there have to be serious programs in place to get food off of pasture and onto plates. There could be piggyback carpools to get animals more easily processed. The system needs improvement; there have to be more options to help local farmers pick [pigs] up and get them processed.”
Nguyen sees things from the farmer’s perspective: “Small, local farmers need a small slaughterhouse. When you take it to USDA houses, they work with a larger number of animals, so customization isn’t very easy.”
Lowe hopes to also see “farmers’ markets flushed with meat stands. The ratio of vegetable stands to meat would become equal.” So, is snout-to-tail a fad or built to last?
“We tend not to be in touch with trends; we don’t even have a TV,” says Estes. “The reason pork is trendy is that it’s so delicious when raised right and with the right breeds. There’s so much you can do, and it works with so many different flavor profiles and every wine profile. It’s a flexible and delicious meat. I hope it’s hip for all time.”
Learning firsthand about the merits of heritage pigs—from the snout to the tail—my view of pork is forever changed. At last, I’m ready to stick a fork in it—as long as “it” is a heritage breed.
