BERKSHIRE: TASTE THE DIFFERENCE
Berkshire pork, also referred to as Kurobuta, meaning black pig in Japanese, was discovered over 300 years ago in Berkshire County in the United Kingdom.
Berkshire pork is exquisite because of its rich flavored taste, deep coloring, and fine marbling which is akin to that of a well marbled steak. The shorter muscle fibers and lots of marbling, contribute to both the unparalleled flavor and tenderness. This heritage breed is thought by many to be the Kobe beef of pork.
In 1992, the National Pork Board tested nice sire lines for their meat and eating quality. Berkshire pork places first in nineteen of twenty traits. These traits included loin color, loin tenderness loin marbling, best tasting in all test categories, and superior cooked moisture content.
Pork pH has a great influence on the palatability and quality of the meat. Pasture Raised Berkshire pork tends to have a higher average pH compared to the commodity factory farmed produced pork that has a lower pH. The higher the pH, the richer in color, the more tender, juicy, and the more flavorful the meat.
Berkshire pork is “by far the best tasting pork I’ve encountered…it not only tastes great, with a strong porky flavor, it's also quite tender and juicy.”
- Bruce Aidells, food writer and author
Slower growing than many of the commercial breeds, Berkshires are compact, with thick muscling, short legs, and deep bodies. The slower growth rate produces meat with higher concentrations of fat that is marbled throughout the meat opposed to a leaner meat with a think layer of external fat. Compared to commercial pork, which tends to be dry and bland in flavor due to the nature of quickly grown lean breeds, Berkshires consistently produce sweet, tender, moist, and juicy meat. There is truly no comparison to the pork found in your local supermarket to that of a Berkshire.
Chef Gordon Ramsay has raised Berkshires and has this to say about them "The meat I have from my own pigs far surpasses anything I can buy. It has a beautiful consistency, good colour and a generous serving of fat which melts away and gives the meat tremendous flavour. The crackling is just amazing and you don't have to put salt on to get it."
Michael Kaplan, chef at Strata in New York says Berkshire pork has “a natural juiciness to it that you can’t compare to any other pork."
Chef Corey Lee at the The French Laundry in California has gone to great lengths to get purebred Berkshire and says “it has a very specific taste.”
Marian Hines of Tilth in Seattle says “Berkshire pigs have the most wonderful flavor of all the pork I’ve ever tried.”
Bruce Aidells, food writer and author, says Berkshire pork is “by far the best tasting pork I’ve encountered…it not only tastes great, with a strong porky flavor, it's also quite tender and juicy.”
"Once you've tasted well-raised pork, you really can't go back to the old stuff. I tell people it's the difference between a January tomato in a supermarket and a nice summer tomato from your garden; factory pork and well-raised pork is that different."
-Barry Estabrook, journalist and author of Pig Tales
HERITAGE VS. COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION
Many Americans have only experienced pork from commercially run CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operation). Heritage breeds, inducing the Berkshires, do not do well in these highly unnatural environments where concrete replaces dirt, and overcrowded pens replace vast open pastures. In order to raise pigs in this new environment, Big Agriculture needed to engineer new breeds that could withstand the confinement and quick processing of the industry,
Historically, Berkshires and other heritage breeds were prized for their flavor and versatility. They were hardy breeds that could be left to themselves in pastures and wooded areas, thriving in these natural environments. As industry grew and the demand for quicker returns and higher quantities took precedent, the pork industry in turn refocused their production processes to quick growing breeds that didn't need natural environments to survive.
The end of World War II also brought on a change in commercial use for pork byproducts like lard (a key ingredient in products ranging from cosmetics to explosives to pharmaceuticals). Lard, which was once harvested from slow growing breeds like the Berkshire, was now largely being replaced by cheaper vegetable-based fats in the American diet and by petrochemicals in commercial and industrial processes. The declining market for lard caused the demand for lard-type pigs (including the Berkshire breed) to collapse and breeders began selecting leaner hogs.
Unfortunately, while these lean breeds satisfy the industry's growing needs, their fast growth rate, poor diet, numerous antibiotics and growth hormones, and the poor lifestyle they live in CAFO environments, result in meat that tends to be dry and mild. Processed foods and American diets often use additional chemical additives to cover these taste discrepancies.
There is a crucial link between a pig's diet and the flavor of the pork. These animals are unique because the fat they eat is redistributed into their muscle fiber. This means that pigs are, quite literally, what they eat. Therefore, a pig's diet has a significant impact on the pork's flavor. Pigs that are raised in industrial environments are fed feed mixes to entice quick growth and given antibiotics to repress sickness in the over-packed confined spaces they live in. The lack of fresh air, the repression of their biological behaviors to dig and root, the lack of diverse foods to provide complex macro nutrition, and the general absence of exercise produces very unhappy pigs and bland meat. This meat is laced with residual antibiotics and hormones given to the pigs during their lives.
"The most memorable sight was when I went into a low, dark barn and saw 1,500 sows. These huge animals spent their entire lives inside metal cages that were so small the pigs couldn't even turn around. Their sides pressed out. They were like fat people on the middle seat of an airplane. Their sides pressed out through the bars. This is the way they lived their whole life, just producing piglets. They were like machines."
-Barry Estabrook, journalist and author of Pig Tales, about the commercial pork farming reality that produces our supermarket meat.
While not suited for large production models, slow growth in heritage hog breeds can be hugely rewarding in the quality and taste of the meat that results. The slower growth rate produces meat with higher concentrations of fat that is marbled throughout the meat opposed to a leaner meat with a thin layer of external fat. These heritage breeds tend to be compact, with thick muscling, short legs, and deep bodies. The Berkshire breed is said t be genetically predisposed to producing high quality pork due to it's shorter muscle fibers and the high amount of marbling that occurs within the heritage breeds.
As industrial farms crowd out the small farmers, many are turning to heritage breeds like the Berkshire pig, and raising them in the old ways, in small-scale operations. Thanks to this consumer-driven demand for good meat, Berkshire numbers are again climbing. The rich color, juicy and tender texture, and overall depth of flavor is pushing chefs across the country to gladly pay more for naturally raised and pastured heritage breed pork.
"Once you've tasted well-raised pork, you really can't go back to the old stuff. I tell people it's the difference between a January tomato in a supermarket and a nice summer tomato from your garden; factory pork and well-raised pork is that different."
-Barry Estabrook, journalist and author of Pig Tales
*Barry Estabrook talks about his journey in researching the pork industry for his book, Pig Tales:
Study found at eatwild.com:
Pigs raised on pasture have 300 percent more vitamin E and 74 percent more selenium (a vital antioxidant) in their milk than pigs raised in confinement, according to Don C. Mahan, professor of Animal Sciences at Ohio State University. This bounty of nutrients promotes healthier litters, shorter farrowing times, and good milk let down. The pigs' meat is enriched with vitamins as well. Fortifying the pigs' diet with synthetic vitamins, the standard practice in confinement operations, does not achieve the same results because the artificial vitamins are more poorly absorbed.
(Mutetikka, D.B., and D.C. Mahan, 1993. Effect of pasture, confinement, and diet fortification with vitamin E and selenium on reproducing gilts and their progeny. J. Anim. Sci. 71:3211.)