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Monday, June 1, 2009

Food & Drink / Food Chain La Quercia's Acorn Edition coming soon

Posted by Mike Sula on Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 11:25 AM

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Here's the latest Sky Full of Bacon podcast, this one on Iowa prosciutto makers Herb and Kathy Eckhouse of La Quercia, whose rare and delicious guanciale I wrote about many moons ago. The Eckhouses, whose products tend to make people fall to the ground convulsing with pleasure, talk about their forthcoming Acorn Edition hams made from, according to Mike Gebert, Berkshire/Chester White cross pigs, raised by farmer Jude Becker, and finished on--you guessed it--acorns, just like the pigs raised for Iberico hams. Since this was a rather expensive and risky experiment for the Eckhouses and Becker, who incidentally supplies pork to the Publican, they sold each pig upfront. 

Says Gebert: "Subscribers who paid around $3,000 per pig got the fresh meat and sausage at slaughter. Other stuff has been sent to them over time.  Some individual subscribers (Robert Parker, Mario Batali) bought for both restaurant and home, but mostly restaurants."

The ham is set to be released in July, and you might get a taste of it at one of four Chicago restaurants who bought into the program--Blackbird, Charlie Trotter's, North Pond, and Spiaggia.

Sky Full of Bacon 10: Prosciutto di Iowa from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

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Last I read, Jude Becker's pigs finish on corn in addition to the acorns. The pigs in Spain generally don't eat that sort of feed, because the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the corn work against the organoleptic and keeping abilities of the cured products.

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Posted by Heath Putnam on June 2, 2009 at 11:03 AM

One source I saw said that they get 60% of their diet from acorns. Of course, Spanish pigs or Italian pigs of a century ago or any other "acorn-fed" pig that foraged freely wouldn't have had a 100%-acorn diet, either.

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Posted by Mike G on June 2, 2009 at 1:29 PM

Corn works against fat quality, so if the pigs eat any of that in their finishing diet, it will negatively impact their fat quality. The Spanish iberico producers understand this and act accordingly.

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Posted by Heath Putnam on June 3, 2009 at 2:45 PM
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