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Omnivoria:
My Favorite Meat
by Alice Swan, from the February 2007 newsletter
This column could focus on pork every month, to the exclusion of any other meat product that the Co-op carries, and I would be a very happy author. I think I can trace my love of pork back to when my husband and I lived in Italy while I was in graduate school. We had an extremely funky apartment—the room that could most accurately be described as the kitchen held a small table, kitchen cabinets, a toaster oven, and a small refrigerator. The adjacent hallway held a hot plate with two burners that sat on top of the washing machine, and a sink.
While I was busy working on my dissertation, Nick took daily trips to the market and managed to cook up some mighty tasty meals in spite of the odd arrangement of the kitchen. Florence is justly famous for its steak, which comes in one-kilo slabs, barely cooked, and simply seasoned with lemon juice, salt and pepper. But when cooking meat at home, we mostly ate pork. One of Nick’s favorite memories of the market is the day he was ordering sausages from the butcher, and she told him that she would not sell him the ones he was pointing at, that he had to have the ones that had just been made that day.
Almost every Sunday we had a pork roast that we bought already stuffed with garlic slivers and rosemary, and rubbed with salt. Somehow the toaster oven (which had no temperature settings, Fahrenheit or Celsius, just high, medium and low) did a superb job of cooking the pork, along with potatoes that we usually added to the pan to soak up the meat juices. It all goes to show that the quality of your ingredients is a lot more important than fancy cooking equipment.
Luckily for me and my fellow porcophiles, the Beeler’s Natural Pork that the Co-op carries compares quite favorably to fresh Italian pork. In my mind, the practices of conventional hog farmers are about as awful as any CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) could possibly get. Pigs are very smart and sociable animals, and they are typically raised in conditions that make them stressed out and psychotic. One can find plenty of horror stories about pigs whose tails have been docked so they aren’t chewed off by other pigs, and individual animals in pens so small that they can’t turn around, or even really move at all except to lie down. And as with any CAFO, many animals in small spaces means that they are extremely susceptible to infection, and are usually given large doses of antibiotics. The lack of genetic diversity in conventional pigs only exacerbates the problem.
Beeler’s pigs are raised on several different family farms in Iowa, and their pigs are treated much more humanely. They are raised in barns, but they are open barns with deep bedding where the pigs can socialize and root around (as pigs like to do), and they have plenty of fresh air and sunshine, as well as access to the outdoors. Of particular interest to me right at the moment, pregnant sows give birth and raise their young in spacious private maternity rooms, not confining farrowing crates. As far as genetics go, the pigs are heirloom varieties (yes, there is such a thing! It’s not just vegetables) that are bred for their flavor. The pigs are not ever given antibiotics or hormones, are fed a vegetarian diet, and are processed without added preservatives, including nitrates or nitrites.
What all this adds up to is some really tasty pork.
Some of the cuts are a bit fattier than conventional pork (that leanness is thanks to years of genetic selection in conventional pig farming), but as I’ve mentioned before, fat does tend to make things taste better. The texture of Beeler’s pork is nice and firm, not rubbery like much over-processed conventional pork, and as my husband said when I asked him for help in describing the flavor, “Well, it has flavor, and conventional pork really doesn’t.”
I could go on like Bubba Gump and his different types of shrimp listing all the ways I love to prepare pork, but I finally narrowed my choices down to one really outstanding recipe. This recipe may look a little daunting, but don’t be fooled. It takes a little planning ahead, but not much actual active cooking time, and it is amazingly tasty.
Pork Confit with White Bean Salad
From Food and Wine, October 2002
6-8 servings
Pork Confit
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
1 Tbsp crushed peppercorns
2 ¼ lbs trimmed pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch chunks
2 thyme sprigs
2 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
Bean Salad
2 c Great Northern beans (or cannellini, if you can get them) soaked overnight and drained
3 quarts water
1 dried red chile
2 bay leaves
Salt
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar
Freshly ground pepper
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 cups (10 oz) arugula
Grind the bay leaves to a powder and mix with the salt and peppercorns. In a resealable plastic bag, toss the pork with the seasoned salt and thyme. Seal and refrigerate for 6 hours, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 225 F. Spread the seasoned pork in an even layer in a medium enameled cast-iron casserole. Add the olive oil. Cover with a crumpled sheet of parchment paper and a lid; very slowly bring to a boil over low heat, about 30 minutes. Add the garlic and bake until the pork is very tender, about 2 ½ hours. Remove from the over and let cool completely.
Refrigerate overnight. (Remember to soak your beans tonight, too!)
Put the beans in a large saucepan, cover with the water and slowly bring to a boil, skimming the surface. Add the chile, bay leaves and a pinch of salt; simmer over low heat until the beans are tender, about 1-½ hours. Drain the beans and discard the bay leaves and chile. Return the beans to the saucepan.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Soak the sliced onion in 1 Tbsp. of the vinegar for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, slowly bring the pork to a simmer. Remove the garlic and thyme sprigs (save the garlic for spreading on bread). Drain the pork in a colander set over a bowl. Transfer the pork to a baking dish. When the pork juices have settled, pour off the oil and reserve for another use (like making this dish again next week!). Stir the pork juices into the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the pork with foil and bake until just heated through, about 12 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the remaining 1 ½ Tbsp vinegar with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add the arugula and toss well. Mound the arugula salad and beans on a platter; top with the warm pork and the onions and serve.
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