The book is an homage to the pata negra. In fact, he drools so much, the pages are sticky. After having tasted it in Spain, he finds that ibericos run wild on an island off of Georgia when the Spanish would drop off pigs during their explorations so that they would have a meat supply.
His grand experiment was to raise the bloodline as close to the environs (the 'dehessa') of Andalucia. If you want to read it, I won't give away the ending.
Never mind. Yes I will. The whole book is a lead up to replicating his experience with the iberico he had in Spain. Finally, he is in Brooklyn and gets to taste it.
" -hot, fatty, tender. Not meltingly tender like the secreto that I tried on that January night in Aracena, but still quite good."
That's it? What a wet dream.
BobinGa and I discussed the book and he had some really interesting experiences to relate.
We heard about Ossabaw's several of years ago and became
interested in acquiring some. We only found couple of breeders
in the country -- mostly sanctuary type places. We inquired
about buying some pigs and for some reason never got back
with the breeders when the pigs were to be available.
Ironically, we received an email during this same time
from someone named Alison (and Emile) DeFelice in South
Carolina from the Pig Perfect book), wanting to know how
we could raise hogs without finishing them on soy. Evidently,
they were attempting to raise pastured hogs for the high-end
market and one of our customers told them that we didn't
finish on soy. I'm not sure whether or not he had any
Ossabaws at the time or not.
When we finally convinced them that we thought the two keys
were to raise feral type hogs and PATIENCE, they didn't seem
interested. His idea was to turn out #1 hogs (approx 250
lbs) in 5-6 months or so. Ours generally take 14-16 months
or longer to reach this. The one Bruce gave you was over
a year old and still under 200lbs, if I remember right.
If he already had Ossabaw's at the time, it wasn't working
as he expected.
If he acquired them afterwards, I'm sure he is making more
money selling breeding stock than he ever would have selling
meat, considering all the recent hype and publicity given
the Ossabaw breed. And he doesn't have to worry about the
time and expense of actually raising a proper pig.
We had straight feral hogs, (Piney Woods Rooters), up
until several years ago when we started selling meat. This
was due to my obsessive quest to make the absolute most
perfect barbecue in America. <G> Ginger wanted to mix
them with some percentage domestics because of the
incredible amount of fat they had in relation to meat--
which was becoming our livelihood. In recent years, our
hogs have been 50%-75% PW Rooter.
We're now going back to the 100% rooters and just had
10 born recently. We do feed them a certain amount of
soaked corn and they eat tons of pasture along with
pecans, acorns, persimmons and whatever the can root
up.
Supposedly, any hogs that turn feral will return to the
same traits and characteristics in three generations.
(the ones that survive, that is) Their color will
change, the noses will elongate, the hair will become
coarse and bristly, an they will convert mast and feed
into fat at a much higher rate, etc.
According to history, DeSoto brought the original hogs
(known as Piney Woods Rooters) to the mainland in 1539.
Kaminsky's claim that none of these today could have
DNA that traced back to the original Spanish stock
seems a bit bold -- unless he's tested all of them.
The Ossabaw's, being stuck and isolated on an island,
would obviously be easily traceable.
But in practice, I doubt that there would be any
meaningful difference in today's Rooters and those
of yesteryear as well as the Ossabaw's as far as
characteristics of the meat. But since I've never
(knowingly) tasted one, I can't say for sure. My
guess is that raising practices would govern meat
quality much more than breed, assuming that you
were comparing a feral breed to a feral breed.
The domestics fall way short regardless of how
they are raised, in our experience.
So, reckon how much ole Emile wants for a couple
of Ossabaw gilts these days? <G> Maybe we'll write
him and find out. We would like to have some of
them, if for no other reason, the novelty of it.
I wonder how vigorous they would be? Generally
speaking, most pure-bred stock is a bit on the
weak side. But they might be different since
they have not been coddled by breeders over the
years. But just wait a few years and a few
generations in the hands of breeders chasing
the latest pot-of-gold -- they won't be worth
a plug nickel !
Kit
duck fat rules