Butchers of the world are visiting the New York area. After French star Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec came to show us the beef between French finesse and American brute force, here come the Austrians.
Christoph Wiesner and his wife, Isabel are the stars of Pigstock 2010 at Mosefund Mangalista Farm in Branchville, New Jersey.
The event is in progress, last day is November 18.
Christoph's approach, described below, seems to have a lot in common with Yves-Marie:
"Christoph has been trained by Austria's best butcher, Marcel Kropf, in slaughter and seam butchery. Seam butchery comes from Continental Europe. It is a way of breaking down carcasses that minimizes cutting through muscles. You use special tools and techniques to get all the meat off the bones and maximize the value of the carcass."
Here's what 3 day program included (November 16-18):
"All CLASSES are hands on. Christoph will demonstate and then supervise the students as they do it themselves. By the time you finish the course, you'll know how to slaughter, eviscerate, butcher and cure your own Mangalitsa.
- Day one will be at Mosefund farm. Christoph will demonstrate on a Mangalitsa. Then you'll slaughter, scald, gut and split yours – under Christoph's supervision.
- Day two will be about how to clean and cook all organs. Heart, liver, lung, kidney, heads and feet.
- Day three will be about seam butchering, cutting, curing and making products. Christoph will demonstrate the cutting then you will cut a carcass, with Christoph supervising. Christoph will show you how he makes his cured products back in Austria.
Christoph is the President of the Austrian Mangalitsa Breeders' Association"
(*picture of Mangalista pig above by Mosefund Mangalista)