The Gasser Family's Farm
Lunch
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The Gassers live up in the Alps, in Vorderkoflach, surrounded by pine trees. We went up an extremely steep, twisty and narrow road to get to their farm.
You can see videos from their farm on the videos page.
Our day at Mr. Gasser's farmhouse began with a wonderful meal prepared by his wife. We had roast pork, ribs, bread dumplings and Grammelknödel.
Her roast pork was fantastic. The fat attached to the meat was extremely light and tender - not tough or chewy. That's due to Mr. Gasser raising pigs with high levels of monounsaturated fat via a special diet.
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Mr. Gasser's pigs are particularly fat, because he's raising them for cured meat. As a by-product, he's got a lot of fat to render into lard, and therefore a lot of Grammeln, which is a by-product of making lard.
Grammeln, or "greaves," aren't very well known in America. They are deep-fried crispy bits of protein. Mangalitsa greaves are particularly delicious because their fat is very "light." Unlike cracklings, they don't contain skin. There is a special technique that one must follow in order to get the best greaves.
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Grammelknödel, dumplings filled with greaves, aren't the only use of greaves. Some chocolatiers put them into chocolate. We spoke with one farmer who was asked to provide tons of Mangalitsa greaves per year, but it was simply beyond his capacity.
After eating, it was time to get out and see the pigs and how Mr. Gasser raises them.
Speckschweine
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Mr. Gasser raises pigs to make Speck, a generic term for cured meat or fat.
His system of raising pigs is quite different from that of Mr. Dunst, because follows the Austrian system for making the best Speck: he raises Mangalitsa, a breed with fantastic marbling, to at least 300 pounds (140kg), allowing them to run around his mountainside farm. He feeds them barley and rye so they develop bright-white monounsaturated fat that can survive a long cure without yellowing and going rancid. Hay, wildflowers and wild herbs in the diet keep the pigs healthy, give the Speck a special flavor and increase antioxidant levels in their meat.
To get his pigs to their final weight he needs roughly 18 months, and he feeds them 4 times as much grain as Mr. Dunst - 2kg (4.4 pounds) per day.
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Christoph Wiesner explained that the Mangalitsa, particularly the swallow-bellied ones that Mr. Gasser raises, do well in his harsh, steep environment. They are amazingly surefooted on the steep mountainside.
His pigs are outside all year long (even in the alpine winter), except when he pens the ones to be slaughtered apart from the herd to fatten them up before slaughter.
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Mr. Gasser ensures a stress-free slaughter by slaughtering them in their pens. He butchers and cures them in his farmhouse. Typically he cures his meat many months. He didn't have any that was ready to eat yet, so he let us taste some that would typically hang two more months longer. It was great, particularly the fat.
Diet
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Mr. Gasser emphasized the importance of proper diet and slaughter to us. His pigs are with him at least 18 months, more than three times the life of a normal meat-type hog. He is extremely careful with the diet and slaughter, because otherwise he can't make cured meat of the highest quality.
So he explained his basic rule: no "junk" (corn, rapeseed, bread, etc.) in the last two months. He'd learned the hard way. Unlike Mr. Dunst who sells younger pigs, Mr. Gasser has a huge investment in each animal. His pigs are very fat, so he has to make sure the fat has the right composition, or it will be worthless for curing.
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In Mr. Gasser's area, Carinthia, one traditional way to make Speck is to cure entire half-hogs at once. The farmer debones the carcass to form a giant sheet of meat and fat, which he then cures. This is called Bachenspeck.
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