November 21, 2009 8:52 pm

Mangalitsa Jowl Bacon: This Little Piggy Ain't Just a Flash in the Pan

Here's the thing: I know that bacon is a "meme," which is to say that People On The Internet got excited about it in the abstract, like zombies or cats, and this annoyed some people, because Who Cares About Bacon, Why Are You Guys Getting So Excited About Bacon, I'm So Over Bacon, etc. So when I tell you that the prospect of finding, purchasing, and consuming Mangalitsa Jowl Bacon caused me to literally drool on the table in a public place, I was not excited about it in the abstract. I was excited about the very real, physical possibility of cooking and eating it: the ribbons of fat, the slick feel of it slipping through my fingers, the multi-textural phenomenon of chewing and swallowing.

But let me back up. Mangalitsa is an Austrian breed of heritage pig different from current breeds insofar as it is "an extreme lard-type." It's only raised a few places in America, all of which got theirs from Wooly Pigs, and isn't widely available, though it is used at a few restaurants. Various cuts are sold, though given the high fat content, it is especially good when cured. Also, the pigs have long fur, which is not really relevant to our current subject, but still.

I decided to go with jowl bacon partially for practical reasons—I could get a small amount of it and eat it a little at a time—but also because the jowl, though rarely offered, is maybe my favorite part of the pig. I picked a package up for $19 from the Wooly Pig stand at the U District farmers market here in Seattle, and gave it a couple days to defrost. Once I did, I found the broiler was a better place to cook it than the skillet; though the pork was thick-cut and meaty, it really shone once it got crispy, and the broiler let that happen.

How did it taste? Well, perhaps I can best describe it with a side-by-side comparison. I cooked a couple pieces of regular store-bought along with the jowl bacon and consumed each in turn. The store bacon was good; it's bacon, after all. But the first bite of jowl bacon knocked me back with an almost narcotic feeling. The fat came out clean and soft but intense, concentrated bacon flavor encased within a slight base of regular porkiness. It's incredible, like the abstract ideal of bacon come to life, bacon like exactly what you want bacon to be.

That ringing endorsement made, I can't speak objectively to the worth of Mangalitsa as pork, since my experience was so definitively one of bacon. But I'm certainly excited to try.

Photo credit: woolypigs.blogspot.com

— Written by Michael Barthel

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