094/18 – Fire Bowl Mangalitza Pork Chops:
In 089/18: Mangalitza T-Bone Pork Chops I cooked a pair of big chops on my Kamado Joe. I had planned to cook another pair over logs in my WSM but it was a sunny day and the Indian Firebowl was sitting out looking at me. Time for Fire Bowl Mangalitza Pork Chops!
The Meat:
As with the last blog post:
Very hard to source and this will be limited availability at Rogers and Son. If they have some in stock it’s £28 per kg.
I do love to know what my meat is, where it’s come from, how it was raised etc. Have a read of what Olly sent me:
Your pig is a pedigree blonde mangalitza, bred at Penlan Farm from pure pedigree stock supplied by Christoph and Isabell Wiesner’s farm in Austria. Our pigs live outdoors, and for at least 18 months, to yield meat with outstanding flavour. The pigs are fed a totally natural, soya and GM free diet comprising whey, cheese, fruit, vegetables and brewers’ grains all of which we source locally. The pigs are slaughtered at the small family run Cig Oen Caron abattoir at Tregaron and are transported with great care by Peter Mitchell’s Black Mountain Foods chilled distribution.
I love reading information like that. Try and get that from your local supermarket!
The Prep:
Salt and plenty of it along the fat!
The Cook:
Three Oak logs over kindling. The logs were massive and took a while to burn through. I was running out of time (kids, dinner, etc) so had to put the meat on sooner than I should have done. The logs were still flaming so I kept moving the meat around to stop it burning.
Just a few minutes in, starting to take some colour.
Great view from above.
I was moving the meat between direct heat and indirect but also moving the fat towards the heat when possible to crisp it up and render it a bit.
Throughout the cook I was using the Thermapen v4 to check the temperature. I was aiming for an internal temperature of 60c before taking the meat off to rest.
Time to Rest:
Once the meat hit 60c on the Thermapen I took it off and wrapped in foil to rest for 20 minutes.
Great colour on this one too.
Time to slice the meat open – nice and pink inside.
2nd chop was also nice and pink. Not bad for cooking over live fire!
Summary:
Love the taste of this Mangalitza pork, very hard to explain but it’s not like any pork you have had before. More steak like in it’s taste and texture. Cracking bit of meat though! Was also good to cook on the Indian Fire Bowl, need to do it more often as it’s great to take some time out from life and just watch the fire! I put the meat on too soon, after we had eaten and tidied up I went back out to the firebowl. The logs had burnt down and left glowing embers, the heat of that fire was ideal for cooking on and was the point I should have started cooking this time. Note for next time, at least an hour from lighting the logs to cooking and probably chop the logs a bit smaller too.
| Cook Difficulty: | 4/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Short: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Indian Fire Bowl |
| Cook Method: | Direct/Indirect |
| Charcoal: | Oak Logs |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | Hot |
| Cook time: | 15 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 60c (Thermapen) |
| Notes: | 1: Let the logs burn through and cook when the embers are glowing. |
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