Hog Wild

The one where I review Acorn Bluff Farms' pork + some of my favorite recipes.

I come from a long line of pork connoisseurs. My dad and my papaw raised hogs from time to time, and while we enjoyed the roasts and ribs, it was the old hams (the Virginia equivalent of prosciutto or jamon iberico) that I remember my elders getting obsessed over. Different families had their own secret curing methods, and there were some idiosyncratic methods of cooking them as well — one older gentlemen from our church boiled his hams in ginger ale.

Growing up eating homegrown pork made me turn up my nose at the conventionally raised equivalent. Marketing campaigns like “Pork: the other white meat” hammered home the visceral disgust I felt at the tough pale grey meat that had to be soaked in barbecue sauce to mask the musky flavor. And that disgust was before I found out about the conditions that factory farms raise pork under. Factory farms are feeding industrial food waste — still wrapped in plastic — to pigs in cages that they can’t even turn around in, inside of warehouse size sheds. They never see the sunlight, they never get a chance to do any of the normal things that pigs do. It’s cruel and it also yields a low-quality meat that doesn’t even begin to compare to properly raised pork.

The great news is that we are beginning to shrug off the post-WWII paradigm of mass production wherein quality is sacrificed to the false god of brute efficiency and artificially low prices. The pandemic shortages and supply chain breakdowns showed us just how fragile and vulnerable to disruption that our industrialized food system is. Consumers are wising up to the fact that there are no free lunches; the savings are an illusion and they come at the price of health and taste. More and more people are willing to pay for quality. And this has opened a door for conscientious producers to bring culture back to agriculture.

Two such producers I’ve had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of are Seth and Kenan Todd, owners and operators of Acorn Bluff Farms in Columbus Junction, Iowa. I started following them on social media because they raise a special breed of pig that I have had an ongoing fascination with; the Mangalitsa, a breed that was created as a royal breed under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, bred on the estate of Archduke Joseph by crossing Hungarian and Serbian breeds with European wild boar. Check out their Instagram account to see their farm and animals.

Mangalitsa is often described as “the Kobe beef of pork”, and for good reason. The meat is crimson red, encased in snowy lard, and the flavor of both the meat and the lard are out of this world.

I ate my way through an Acorn Bluff Farms sample box and here are some my favorite cuts. Maybe you order some and try. Be careful though - you will not want to go back to regular pork after you’ve had this.

Pork Chops

Industrial pork breeds have been bred to have very little fat, which is why it’s always so dry and has to be wet-cooked or drowned in sauce. The fat in conventional pork chops tends to become rubbery and unchewable, with a foul taste to boot. This pork chop is an entirely different experience. The fat melts in your mouth like butter and tastes incredible. The meat is tender and scrumptious.

I cooked these in a cast iron pan with sel gris de guérande and a bit of chopped rosemary. The rendered fat and cooked bits made for a delicious pan gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes and apples fried in butter to complete this classic southern dish.

Jowls

These jowls are really something. I got the ends and pieces which are perfect for what I wanted to make: spaghetti carbonara. Most carbonara in the United States is made with belly bacon but the traditional Italian way is with cured pork jowls and the difference is subtle but palpable.

Here’s how I do it:

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

10 ounces of jowl meat cut into rough 1/2 inch cubes.

1 and 2/3 cups of finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 cup of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

Freshly ground black pepper

1 lb of dried spaghetti - preferably one made with European wheat

Preparation

1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over medium-high heat.

2. While the water is heating, fry the jowls over medium-high heat. You’re aiming for golden brown cubes that are slightly crispy but never burnt. 7-9 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the Pecorino Romano, 1/2 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the whole eggs and egg yolks, with a nice amount of pepper. Add the jowls to this mixture along with some of the fat (don’t get it too oily - the rest of the fat can be saved and used for frying).

4. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente according to the label. Transfer pasta to bowl with egg and cheese mixture, tossing well. Add a ladle of the pasta water. Serve with remaining 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano on top.

Voila!

Belly Bacon

Bacon is bacon. I don’t need to tell you how to eat it. But my favorite way to eat it is alongside the blueberry-ricotta pancakes served at Lil Dom’s, my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbs + 1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp kosher salt

2 cups whole milk

6 oz unsalted butter, melted

4 large eggs, separated

2 tsp vanilla extract

12 oz ricotta cheese, broken up into small pieces

2 pints fresh blueberries

Preparation
1. Measure dry ingredients and place in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
2. In a separate bowl, combine milk, melted butter, egg yolks, vanilla extract and ricotta cheese. Mix well.
3. With a rubber spatula, fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Combine, but do not over mix (lumps of dry mixture are ok).
4. Place egg whites in a kitchen-aid bowl and whisk on medium speed until foamy. Switch speed to high and whisk until stiff but no dry peaks form. With a rubber spatula, fold whites into batter in thirds.
5. Heat cast iron skillet on medium heat. Add 1 T butter and scoop pancake batter into skillet.
6. Add a handful of blueberries to each pancake on the griddle.
7. Cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side serve. Serve with butter and real maple syrup.

Sausages

Acorn Hill has some seriously good sausages. From wild boar to breakfast patties to chorizo, polish, and bratwurst. They’re all delicious without much adornment - I like the brats on the grill (cook on lower heat though, the fat in mangalitsa seems to liquify at a lower temp and that can cause flare-ups - I like to cook them with indirect heat).

It was a close finish but I think I landed on their Italian sausages as my favorite. Slice up some peppers and chop up some sausage and you have yourself a quick and easy weeknight meal.

Ribs

My favorite recipe is a simple one I got from a Memphis grill-dad. Dry rub and cook for two hours at 225F, then wrap in foil with pineapple juice for another 2 hours. Then unwrap and put BBQ sauce on it and grill for 10 min if you like caramelized sauce.

These I did a little different though, I smoked them over oak in my cinderblock barbecue pit and stuck to a dry rub so I could really get a sense of the meat flavor without sauce getting in the way. The softness and flavor of the fat on the ribs really drives home the superior quality of this meat. You’re left with clean bones and that’s it.

Final Thoughts.

The cost gap between properly farmed food and its industrial counterparts has been shrinking and will continue to shrink. Food that is raised well is much more nutrient dense and filling, and doesn’t result in chronic disease that robs you of your health and is expensive to maintain. The industrial model of agriculture is in a state of decline and cannot continue into the future. Crowded conditions have led to the emergence of increasingly virulent strains of infectious disease among animals — which at some point could plague humans. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics for livestock is leading to the emergence of resistant strains of bacteria. Soil depletion has made crop farmers dependent on fertilizer, supplies of which have been disrupted by sanctions, war, and supply chain failures. Anticompetitive FDA and USDA regulations have created such monopolistic conditions in the meatpacking industry that one outbreak of Covid in a major slaughterhouse can cause grocery store shortages across several states.

Regenerative agriculture is our only feasible way out of this mess. By supporting these farmers we are investing in a better future. But it’s not even altruism. We literally get to eat like Austro-Hungarian royalty in the process, with the knowledge that these animals were raised humanely and lived and died according to divine purpose.

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