"dartagnan" news and stories

Getting tired of plain ol' bacon? How about trying some tasty sheep pig? Yup, that's right: Sheep pig. It's not actually a cross between a sheep and a pig, but rather a really woolly pig -- imagine a pig with a perm and you get the picture.

The pigs are an ancient rare breed hailing from Hungary. They're called either Mangalica, Mangaliza or Mangalitsa hogs (depends what suburb of Budapest you come from) and their maroon hued meat is very rich and fatty. They fell out of favor because they can't be kept in small pens and the demand for marbled pork fell, but in the last few years the breed has been revived.

In the 1990's, a Spanish jamon company established a breeding program in Hungary and now D'Artagnan (a specialty meat purveyor) distributes the ham throughout the New York region.

I remember once, while I was around 7 years old and playing at a friend's house, my mom stopped by with lunch for me (they were doing her a favor by watching me and she didn't want to impose on them to feed me as well). It consisted of a napkin-wrapped hot dog that she pulled out of her purse. I remember looking at with distaste, as the hot dog was wrinkled and grey, and the bun was also a sad affair. It was edible, but certainly not exciting. That experience colored my perception of hot dogs and it was years before I ate them with gusto.

Fast forward to the present day and I am singing a very different hot dog song. This conversion is in large part due to gourmet meat producer D'Artagnan's new line of exotic (and very tasty) hot dogs. They come in four varities - pork, beef, buffalo and duck and they are made from meat that was never treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. They are uncured, which means that they are nitrate-free. For all the fancy varieties of meat, they do still taste much like your classic hot dog. Larger than the traditional frank, they are filling, which means that while the pack only comes with four dogs, you'll only need to eat one to be satisfied, so there's plenty to go around.

I recommend eating them with potato salad and some good, whole grain mustard. Very tasty!

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