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Mangalitsa Pork Chops

3,654 Views | 15 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by rather be fishing
TheFirebird
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AG
I live overseas in Slovakia and the weather has finally gotten consistently good enough to fire up my balcony Weber. Getting good quality beef steaks here is still a challenge, but it's almost made up for with the quality of pork.

Today I grabbed some Mangalica bone-on chops. The Mangalica (Mangalitsa) is usually thought of as Hungarian but as Slovakia was part of Royal Hungary, it has a tradition of producing similar food products, like Tokaj (Tokay) wine. Raw Mangalica pork is easy to spot in the butcher counter. It has veins of very creamy-white fat and the flesh is almost as red as beef. When Emperor Franz Jozef dined on porkchops, Mangalica was on the table. The fat melts a much lower temperature than regular pork, infuses the meat, and makes everything taste like your average pork chop turned up to 11. Breeders feed hogs on a combination of fodder and pasture. Most Mangalica ends up as the best sausage, bacon, and ham you've ever eaten (sausage spiced with plenty of garlic and paprika), but the neck and loin meat is kept aside for cooked dishes.

For these chops, I just gave them a quick bath in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, paprika, and bay. Grilled over a medium fire and served with grilled veggies. This is a rich meat and so I poured a local red Dunaj dry wine.

In the U.S. this is a luxury product but it easily worth trying as a break from high-end beef steaks. There are producers that sell online. Pick up some chops and don't skip the bacon.
La Fours
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Take pictures next time and post them for us.
GAC06
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I just looked up mangalica pork, and holy crap what a weird looking critter. It looks like a pig sheep with all that hair
Belton Ag
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It sounds great. Most domestic pork comes from stock that's bred to be so lean you almost have to brine the chops to keep them moist. I'd love to be able to get some of that here.
TheFirebird
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AG
This is the cooked chop with grilled sourdough and asparagus. Finished with a pat of chive butter I made. Next time I'll take a photo of the raw meat so you can see the difference.

It's like cooking a different animal than American pork. In the US I always cook pork to medium, or else it's shoe leather. With this, you want to let it go longer and melt the fat, you have no problem with texture or flavor cooking almost to done.

Matsui
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Y'all don't eat much over there
Matsui
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Reminds me of a lamb rib


Looks great
87AustinAg
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Very popular these days at some of the high end restaurants in Vegas
Especially bacon and chops
TheFirebird
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Matsui said:

Y'all don't eat much over there
Ha, believe me that this is rich, rich meat. You feel satisfied after chop that size.

We also had a sausage, ham, pickle, and mustard board to snack on while we waited for the grill to get going.
TheFirebird
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Walking through the store the other day and grabbed a photo of the raw meat so you can see what these look like.

[url=https://ibb.co/xjdhrRw][/url]
schmendeler
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there's a youtube channel of a guy in the netherlands that does grilling that i watch. "pitmaster X" is his channel. he's frequently got this great looking pork. also often from spain. iberico pigs. yum.
HTownAg98
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I've often considered having a pig custom fed so it can develop some decent fat and marbling. Then I realize I would end up with 200 pounds of meat with no place to put it.
La Fours
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HTownAg98 said:

I've often considered having a pig custom fed so it can develop some decent fat and marbling. Then I realize I would end up with 200 pounds of meat with no place to put it.


Sounds like a good reason to buy another deep freeze if you have somewhere for it go.
texas.aggie.2010
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Looks great! Thanks for posting, I have not heard of this before and will try it one day
DallasAggie2012
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Wow that looks awesome! Closest thing I have tasted is from a farm in Texas that breeds a cross between Mangalitsa and Red Wattle for a lot of local restaurants. It tastes vastly different from anything I've bought at a store.
rather be fishing
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Bumping this.

I picked up 6 mangalitsa chops from a Mennonite family out of Heron, MT a couple of weeks ago and will be grilling them tomorrow. I'll get some pics of them to compare. I haven't taken then it off the plastic yet, but they seem to be a lot more marbled than the ones you posted.
rather be fishing
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These things were by far the best pork chop I've ever eaten.


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