Cute furry happy piggy. Even without fur and you'd still have a happy piggy, and a happy piggy is a tasty piggy. The Mangalitsa hogs at Mark Baker's farm (Baker's Green Acres) in Marion, MI are in fact both furry and happy...and I can attest to their being very tasty.At the beginning of the month, some two dozen chefs and other food professionals, including Brian Polcyn, assembled in Traverse City for an event called PigStock. This was the first meeting of its' kind in Michigan. The events to unfold included going to the farm for the slaughter and processing of a few hogs, followed by the preparation of the animals over the next two days. Master butcher and President of the Austrian Mangalitza Breeders' Association will take the group through the technique of seam butchery along with his wife Isabell. Isabell will assist in the slaughter and by showing us (among other things) various preparations of the internal organs the following day. Blood sausage and spleen on toast? Polcyn inflating a bladder with a drinking straw? Damn straight.
Day one, 6:30amWe assemble outside the Bayshore Resort and load onto a charter bus to head out to Baker's farm in Marion. The sky is dark and it's cold... bitter cold. With the exception of a few calling in orders for their restaurants by the light of their cell phones, the atmosphere is fairly quiet.
We arrive a little over an hour later and are in the immediate presence of the Mangalitsa pen. The smell of smoke is in the air from a few fires burning close by. Even with a hard frost over the area the pigs are playful and happily trudging through foot-deep mud filled with shards of ice poking through. They are curious about us and come to the fence, offering some great pictures, and then take off running, ears flopping and giving chase to each other.
It was not long after we arrived that we all headed into a winter chicken house converted for our use during the event. We had breakfast and introduced ourselves and our purpose for being there and went outside to get to work. Fires were lit under a large cast iron cauldron and an old cast iron bath tub, heating water for scalding the pigs after the slaughter. Mark gives a demonstration of the use of the captive bolt stunner and then divides us into groups.
Enter the Weisners: Christoph and Isabell. Christoph and Isabell demonstrate the first pig to be slaughtered. The first pig is led up a ramp and arrives at a dead end to find Christoph waiting and Mark directly behind. Christoph fires the stunner just north of between the eyes and the pig drops instantly. They hastily remove a metal pole serving as a barricade and pull the pig out. Christoph turned the pig on his side and pierced the throat with a slender knife and severed the jugular artery. Isabell was quick to catch the blood with a bowl securing our supply for blood sausage and red headcheese in the days to come. Still atop the pig he explained you must take hold of the front leg and pump it back and forth to aid with the proper and complete bleeding out of the animal. Start to finish, maybe 5 minutes. Probably less than that. While we wait for nervous activity to cease, Isabell retrieves a bag of pine pitch; dehydrated powdered sap that she dusts and works into the fur on all sides. With some of the water from the scalding pot dumped on the pig and the pitch applied, they hoist the pig up and into the bathtub for scalding, 170F. Lying across the tub are two chains, used for initiating the removal of the fur by resting the pig on top of them and with a sawing motion the chains catch the fur now sticky from the pitch and begin to pull it off. After a few moments of the chains the pig is lifted out of the bathtub and placed on a ladder over the tub and the bell scrapers are used to finish the job.
While Christoph and Isabell wrapped up the scraping Mark moved a front-end loader closer toward the site. Once the scalding and scraping was accomplished, Christoph took a large propane torch and singed off all the remaining hair. Nothing like the smell of burning hog bristles in the morning. It was now time to eviscerate and split the pig.
Christoph tied the pigs feet and threw the bindings over the front of the tractor and Mark lifted the front end up to bring the pig to a workable height. Christoph began with some introductory score marks to line his path and began cutting. First, the removal of the bung and bladder was shown. The removal of the viscera and specific instructions as to the cutting to avoid damaging the organs was thoroughly explained and demonstrated with a few different approaches. After the organs were taken he removed the tongue and used a meat saw to halve the pig, finishing the job with a cleaver half way through the head.
Following Christoph and Isabell's demo, the groups took turns following their example and processed 3 additional pigs. Eric Patterson of The Cooks' House had prepared dinner for us using the first pig and it was delicious. The last job finished up at around 6 pm if I remember correctly and shortly after we loaded back into the bus and headed back for TC.
The ride back was an unexpected surreal experience. People had known each other better by the end, engaging in conversations about the events that had taken place throughout the day. Nearly all of us had shared a new experience for the first time together and we were all excited about the days to come. The clouds in the western sky burned amber on the way back blending perfectly with the fall leaves and the smell of the fires clung tightly to our clothes. This was such an appropriate, even perfect setting for the onset of the traditional pig killing season, and the end to an amazing day.
No comments:
Post a Comment