How a Mangalitsa pig is raised affects the taste of your pork chop… but why is that?

Did you know that how a Mangalitsa pig is raised affects the taste of your pork chop? It’s true. Believe it or not, how and where a pig is raised affects its flavor and healthfulness enormously.

If you think about it, this isn’t a new idea. In fact, it has been with us for a very long time. Many factors go into influencing the taste of a vegetable, wine, or meat. But the main one is what grape-growers like to call terroir.

What is Terroir?

Terroir is a term much used by the great French and Italian winemakers. It’s the idea that soil impacts the flavor of grapes and therefore the flavor of the beverage itself. The concept is more than simply scientific, though. It’s an approach predicated on the notion that the way a crop or an animal is raised impacts its flavor as much as the place.

As Jamie Goode explains in his wonderful article, “The notion of terroir is fundamental to the wine industries of old world countries such as France, Italy, and Germany. It’s a philosophical framework within which wine growers work. Local wine laws center around the concepts of appellations, which lend official sanction to the idea that a combination of certain vineyard sites and grape varieties create unique wines that faithfully express the geographic origins.”

For instance, you cannot call any white, sparkling beverage champagne unless it actually hails from the Champagne region of France. This might seem restrictive. But it ensures that the growing conditions and approach stay true for every bottle.

Terroir and Your Food

What does this tell us? Several things:

• The name matters: You can’t just raise any ol’ animal and call it a heritage breed.
• The place in which a product is made changes the product itself.
• Growers and ranchers must respect the fundamental needs of their crops/animals.
• Consumers should recognize that not all farming conditions are equal, just as they recognize that not all wine regions are equal.

There’s a little bit of mystery at play, of course. How exactly does a place affect the taste of a product? How much can philosophy impact your food? Here at Chickadee Hills Homestead, we believe the answer is “a lot.” Especially since new research is beginning to show that soil components do indeed flavor veggies a certain way.

Ideal Growing Conditions and Food

There’s lots of scientific evidence backing up the fact that growing conditions affect the taste of food. As Dan Barber explains in his book, The Third Plate, carrots grown in cold ground product more sugar to keep themselves from freezing. Tomatoes grown in hot weather develop deep, robust flavors. Foods grown in ideal conditions are loaded with the vitamins and nutrients we need to stay healthy. Dan is such a firm believer that soil impacts food flavor that he’s gotten involved with a start-up company called Row 7.

Even animals understand the importance of self-medicating to strengthen their immune systems. Cows can brush grasses with their mouths and tell which are the most nutritious for them at that moment. They will also dig in the soil to find the minerals they need. Soil, we know, also has a big impact on both human and animal health.

This is as true for pigs as it is for other animals. Our pigs here on the farm will definitely pick and choose among the available plants depending on which nutrients they need at that moment. They will also root beneath plants to get to the soil if they can’t find what they need in the greenery. That tells me we need to pay attention to the microbiology of our soil to provide the healthiest and richest possible sources of minerals.

Where Does Flavor Come From?

Soil, atmosphere, growing conditions, and flavor are a package deal. If those factors meld together well, the result is a healthier, better-tasting food, whether we’re talking about a tomato or a pig.

We can’t definitively prove that certain foods make our pigs taste better. But we know intuitively that they do. For instance, we give our pigs pumpkins, which research shows may influence the flavor of the pig fat. We might not be able to point you toward a study, but we can definitely attest to the fact that our pigs taste better than any pork you’ll find in a store. In the same vein, we put our pigs under acorn trees, which gives their meat a mellow flavor and raises the Omega-3 content of the meat.

And exercise? That matters too. Pigs who are out in the pasture moving around develop much more muscle than pigs confined to pens, shoulder to shoulder and nose to rump. Those pigs develop hardly any musculature at all. Those conditions are inhumane. Plus, they neglect the development of good flavor we’re talking about here. Taste depends on the quality of that muscle.

Some claim that more exercise makes for tougher meat. However, we see that more exercise makes for better marbling or intramuscular fat. In many ways, this makes for a more tender pig. As Joshua Applestone, founder of Flesher’s Grass Fed and Organic Meats, says, the confluence of soil, flora, climate and increasingly a meat’s backstory has ignited a global love affair with forest fed pigs.

Plants Doing Their Jobs

Bringing it back around to terroir, it is critical we understand the role that plants play in the raising of pigs. We could simply give our pigs selenium supplements. But it’s much better to rely upon plants to draw the mineral up from the soil and make it bioavailable to the pigs.

That means creating an environment where the plant can grow as healthy as possible. We work to provide the right soil, microorganisms, fungus, and the right growing conditions in general. That plant then has a better immune system, can fight off pests and disease, and can weather storms. Thus, it will be around for the long haul, helping create rich, healthy pigs that we enjoy on the supper table.

Learn More About Mangalitsa Pigs Today

We invite you to get in touch today to learn more about why how a Mangalitsa pig is raised affects the taste. Or you can head to our website to find out more about us. We’re extremely proud of who we are and how we work. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about pigs, soil, terroir or simply a great ribs recipe. Don’t hesitate to call or email today.

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