Oh Mangalitsas, how we love you (even though you look kind of ugly)

Years ago, before John, before farmers markets, and before food writing, I thought a pig was a pig. Pork chops, ground pork, sausage, tenderloin... it's all pig. And one pig is much the same as any other pig, right?

Nope.

First of all, you've got pastured pigs. Skagit River Ranch is our go-to farm for just about every type of meat. Their cows, pigs, and chickens roam the farm, foraging. Only the chickens ever get grain, but that's just a small portion of their diet. They spend their days hunting and pecking for whatever pleases them.

Their cows are never fed grain. Ever. Not grain finished, not supplemented... absolutely none. Their pigs are "happy pigs". They eat a lot of veggies from their farm and in general are healthier than just about any pig you could ever find. I think I've commented before that many times a recipe will ask us to "drain the fat" and there's hardly ever any fat in the pan.

Mangalitsa pigs though, are a completely different breed. They are primarily from Hungary and the Balkans and are descended from wild boars. These pigs have a thick curly coat. They need a lot more room than most domestic pigs though, so they can be more expensive to keep. The meat is supposed to be some of the best pork in the world. Meat from Mangalitsa pigs has more than twice the amount of marbling that an average cut of pork has, and since the pigs are raised naturally, and humanely (meaning they are almost always outdoors, and are raised in a manner that does not require that they get hormones or antibiotics).

The place we bought our Mangalitsa pork from is a relatively new stand that showed up sometime last year at the University District Farmers Market. Wooly Pigs imported some of these Mangalitsa pigs and have been raising them the way they have been raised in Europe. Wooly Pigs even went to Austria to learn how to raise these pigs from the head of the Mangalitsa Pig Breeder's Association. They learned that there are actually two different ways to raise pigs: for roasting and for curing. Most farmers just raise pigs for roasting/cooking. Raising pigs for curing requires a much stricter level of control over the diet of the pigs.

Wooly Pigs has sold their meat to restaurants such as The Herbfarm and The French Laundry and recently they even sold some pigs to The Herbfarm so the restaurant can raise the pigs themselves for the ultimate level of control over the end product - their cured meat.

But this is a lot of text to just tell you that we bought some absolutely amazing ground pork for a recipe. Look for the recipe later tonight.