Breeds Apart
Food Biz—Chefs are once again leading the charge for improving flavor profiles—this time in the revival of Berkshire pork, Red Bourbon turkeys, and other strains of animals raised at a time when taste was what mattered most. Katy Keiffer reports.
Katy Keiffer
Posted: May 5, 2009
Heritage breeds, OMG, they are so trendy right now. It's Berkshire pork, or more exciting, the Red Wattle, the Tamworth, Red Bourbon turkeys, or Buff Orpington chickens… belted Galloway cattle or Limousin veal. With romantic names like these, no wonder they're all over menus. However, there's much more at stake here than just promoting the next big thing. The revival of "heritage breeds," perhaps an already overworn term, is part of a fundamental change in our food culture. As always, this movement is being driven by chefs and will prove invaluable for all meat eaters, no matter where they are dining.
Animal breeds have always been selected for specific traits such as yielding better bacon, more marbling, or larger size carcasses. Most commercial protein producers already breed for what they consider the ideal traits. Typically those include rapid growth, prolific breeding, and hardy constitutions. In the face of the economics of raising commercial protein, flavor is often very low on this list of desirable qualities. The metamorphosis of pork from succulent and tasty is a perfect example of the unfortunate consequences of breeding for a single dominant trait, such as leaner meat.
Commercial hog farming, or what Paul Willis of Niman Ranch calls "chickenizing the pork business," really picked up speed in the 1980s and '90s with concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, though confinement was certainly not new. Willis started raising his pigs outside as they had been for centuries. Then, he began experimenting with genetics, taking different qualities from different hogs in order to improve the key characteristics of flavor and texture, as well as advantageous qualities such as big litters, good maternal instincts, and rapid growth. Though he does not sell heritage breed pigs, he's a staunch supporter of the importance of maintaining the breeding stock of all the heritage breeds so that essential qualities are not lost in the rush to make a buck.
Many heritage breeds, such as the Red Wattle pig, the Buckeye chicken, or the Pineywoods cow are very close to extinction, thanks to the economic dictates of the commercial marketplace. Identifying and preserving the desirable characteristics of specific breeds have helped to revive interest in them among farmers and consumers.
Fernando Maíllo of the venerable Serrano ham company Monte Nevado, went in search of a smaller ham to create a gift-sized product for the ham-loving Spaniards. In Hungary he discovered the Mangalica, an ancient breed that had nearly disappeared. He arranged to have Hungarian farmers produce the breed in numbers sufficient for his needs. The Mangalica almost perfectly resembles the very large Ibérico, save for a more petite size, so the hams are little, just right for a gift. A perfect example of how a specific genetic quality served a specific consumer need and revived a dying breed.
Heath Putnam of Wooly Pigs is breeding and selling Mangalica pigs in Auburn, Washington. His breeding stock is now being sold to other producers, who then supply restaurants. Because the Mangalica is a very fatty pig, it lends itself to cured products in a way that the Yorkshire pig, one of the most common breeds here, does not. The ability to work with the pig as charcuterie makes it more economical. The Mangalica also yields a delicious medium-rare roasted loin and a braised leg or shoulder, according to chef Michael Clampffer at Mosefund Farm, a private equine facility in Branchville, New Jersey. Clampffer recently hosted a tasting of Putnam's Mangalica. Mosefund Farm, which is now raising its own herd of Mangalica, is the brainchild of investment banker Chris Anderson, who decided to set out to find and breed a pig that he and others could truly enjoy eating. He contracted with Heath to buy Mangalica and raise them in New Jersey, making them more accessible to the local chef culture.
Gilbert Butler, president of Butler Capital Management, has also gotten into the game of preserving rare breeds. Deeply involved in environmental causes on many fronts, Butler maintains the sustainably correct Potato Hill Farm near Utica, New York. Among other animals, he has a herd of Welsh Black Mountain sheep, an endangered breed. Though his herd is small, he sells the exceptionally tasty lamb to Patrick Martins of Heritage Foods, who then gets it into the hands of chefs such as Daniel Boulud. "We lose money on them, but we want to show the people who come to the farm how animals should be living," Butler reports. However, his mission, to educate youth on environmental causes and to support specialty breeds, is served on Potato Hill Farm.
Heritage breeds play a key role in the continued and future success of our food chain by preserving genetic traits that would otherwise be forever lost with the breed's extinction. The American Livestock Breed Conservancy is dedicated to helping farmers get back to the "genetic package" that initially defined a breed. It's crucial to understand and reproduce the original specimen in order to use it effectively as a breeding tool. As Marjorie Bender of the ALBC put it, "Paul Willis knows that he wants some pieces of this, and some of that, and he puts them together in a very thoughtful way. His crosses bring in good flavor and hybrid vigor, which is the strength you get from putting together opposite characteristics."
It's much like heirloom vegetables where farmers want to get as close to the "original" as possible, but at the same time not find themselves with product that is "strained through the sheets" as they used to say about royalty. If the gene pool is too small, one sees the inherent weaknesses of inbreeding such as: inferior specimens, weakness, vulnerability to disease, not so good at reproducing, much like the Hapsburgs. Or to take a more ag-specific example, consider genetically modified grains that require special pesticides since their natural antibodies no longer function.
Among restaurant chefs, however, the selection of protein is frequently based on the dominant flavor trait of a specific breed. Bender is happy to see that "chefs are discovering the flavors specific to each breed." Fostering those connections is Chefs Collaborative, an organization that, among other activities, helps chefs connect with farmers producing these breeds.
Seamus Mullen of Boqueria in New York City, serves a "pancetta," a square of roasted fat with a narrow streak of meat. Which pig delivers that high fat content? Among others, the Ossabaw Island pig. You might wonder as you prepare to dig in, "Does it come with a defibrillator? Can I order a side of Lipitor?" Why would anyone want to eat this? Well, because it's delicious—light and creamy in a totally unexpected way, with a delectable, slightly sticky caramelized skin. And, as it turns out, nutritionally it is by no means the bomb you might expect.
The quality of the fat from these naturally raised heritage breeds is high in omega-3 fatty acids, and thus has a lower cholesterol footprint. Grass-fed and free-range animals in general are much healthier for human consumption in all sorts of ways, including being very high in conjugated lutein acids, a known antioxidant, as well as boasting much higher vitamin and protein counts. As Martins of Heritage Foods points out, "Raised indoors, those genetics do not manifest. Part of the components for "heritage" are the protocols of how they're raised. We should be looking for both, not just genetics divorced from free-range or vice versa."
Inconsistent and inaccurate labeling of breeds has become a serious problem in the marketing of heritage breeds and is being addressed by the ALBC and by companies such as Allen Brothers in Chicago. Todd Hatoff, president of Allen Brothers, is adamant about the proper genetic labeling of animals and has taken numerous steps to ensure that what he sells is exactly what he says it is. To that end he took the initiative to source sustainable meadow-raised veal with a specific list of qualities he can count on. Thanks to a long-standing relationship with the Wisconsin-based Strauss Family brand, the two companies entered into a partnership to produce a heritage-based, sustainably raised veal calf.
Over a period of several years, the Strauss Family experimented with different strains and crosses in their cattle until they found the ideal qualities of tenderness and flavor that had largely disappeared from commercial veal. Together, the Strauss Family and Allen Brothers have agreed on a proprietary genetic mix that must include at least 50 percent of an ancient French breed called Limousin.
According to Lori Dunn, executive director of Pasture Raised Programs at Strauss Family, the Limousin cow is a breed dating back 16,000 years. It's the original "fatted calf," and the Strauss Family "ensures through a rigorous series of protocols that these animals are raised as they were hundreds of years ago, on pasture, eating grass, and nursing. There are no confinement pens." Strauss has producers all over the country working with this set of protocols, giving them a year-round supply.
Bender notes that breeds should be identified by their names. "Heritage has to have historical length in the United States for it to be heritage, or it's a misnomer. If it's Pineywoods cattle, then call it that. And it must come from purebred stock." The ALBC is trying to provide the consumer and chefs with something they can rely on. "The name must be a guarantee of pedigreed stock."
Lastly there's the economic piece to this puzzle, and that is the hardest to slot into place. Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York, raised some "heritage" breed chickens, but it took twice as long from egg to table, more than doubling their cost. He went back to a hybrid, the Cornish Cross that was developed by the poultry giant Tyson. Why? Because when this hybrid is raised outdoors on natural forage, grass, seeds, and insects, it's delicious. As Barber tells it, "Chefs bring to the table a story about the chicken or the pig or the cattle in terms of history and breed. That allows people to consider that they're paying for better flavor, husbandry, and lineage to justify the higher price. But as a chef you don't want to be on the side of the fence that advocates $50 birds; it's very elitist. You have to balance that with feeding the population as a whole."
Mullen justifies his use of heritage breed pigs by wasting absolutely nothing. He buys the entire animal and is able to butcher and process its various components into products that work in the context of Spanish cuisine, which uses pork in many different forms. Keith Luce at The Herbfarm in Woodinville, Washington, who is raising Mangalica, points out, "The number of prime cuts, chops, loin, and tenderloin from one animal is a very small percentage of the total protein that animal produces."
Martins says, "The chefs' challenge is to make all the cuts accessible financially. Better use of product makes it easier to pay for the higher cost of animal husbandry."
Jay Theiler of Snake River Farms in Idaho is fostering the breeding of the Berkshire pig, also known as the Kurobuta in Japan. "The Berkshire," he says, "do not grow as fast and produce one or two fewer piglets per litter. They are not a breed to raise on a commodity basis because of lower birth rates and lower carcass weights. And they spend 10 to 15 percent more time on feed than commercial pig breeds."
Americans are so fixated on the middle meats—steaks, chops, and hams—that much of the animal cannot be sold here. "We sell almost half of what we produce to Japan," Theiller says. But he also notes that, though Snake River has further plans to expand their distribution, "Our products will never be mainstream due to costs. The consumer who is looking for that type of product will find us and pay the premium price."
Like Snake River, other small- to medium-sized farmers are recognizing that there is a growing public willing to pay a premium price for an outstanding experience. John Ubaldo of John Boys Mountain View Farm in Cambridge, New York, raises a variety of specialty breed chickens, such as the Rhode Island Red, the Barred Rock, and the Araucana, along with his Berkshire pigs. "I like to stick with heritage breeds for flavor and meat quality as in my Berkshires. They all take longer to raise, breed, et cetera, but I believe the flavor and texture are unmatched."
Bev Eggleston, who runs Eco Friendly Foods in Moneta, Virginia, brought up a key point in the relationship between chefs and farmers. "We're asking chefs to buy and organize and facilitate farmers and processors before they need it. Can you order the cow or pig a little further in advance? If chefs can give us letters of intent, contractual agreements, or deposits, that will help us to expand. Hey, it takes two years to grow a cow!" Letting farmers know what to expect will help them build a herd, both in numbers as well as in the characteristics chefs are looking for.
Eggleston also mentions that, unlike commercial producers, when he makes a delivery he spends some time with the front of the house doing a Q&A with the servers. Educating servers helps them educate their customers. If restaurants are truly committed to supporting local agriculture, then they must be able to explain to their customers why they must pay more for it. Understanding and effectively communicating that relationship is key to making the sale.
Chefs and operators have an exciting opportunity now to propel food, and especially protein, into new territory with consumers. After many years of dozing at the switch, consumers are recognizing that husbandry and agricultural practices have a direct impact on their health and their environment. That mandate includes protecting and fostering our agricultural heritage for the generations to follow.
