from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
The Porc Noir de Bigorre, AOP.
Pork is the most popular meat in France, though restaurants prefer to highlight more expensive cuts of beef and lamb.
Nevertheless, there will be jambon cru, cured hams,
and other costly cuts from some of the most famous porcine breeds in France on
most menus, along with farmed and real wild
boar and top-level cured ham imports. In
the French lineup of famous porkers, one pig is far ahead of all others in
quality and taste, and that is the Porc Noir de Bigorre AOP, the Black Pig of Bigorre. This ancient
breed of pigs has been raised for at least 1,000 years around the old French
Province of Bigorre, now included in the modern departments of Hautes-Pyrénées,
Gers, and Haute-Garonne. (Since 1-1-2016 these departments have been part of
the region of Occitanie).
The
Porc Noir De Bigorre is free-range for 70% of the year.
Flavor in pork comes from fat and the Porc Noir de
Bigorre is very flavorsome, coming as it does from a 55% fat to meat ratio. However,
that was too much fat for many farmers after WWII when the farmers needed
inexpensive fast-growing breeds with more meat per kilo, and so by the 1980s, the
tasty Porc Noir was nearly extinct. Nevertheless, there were always a few farmers
who kept raising these pigs as a hobby while waiting for an educated public who would
pay extra for the quality and taste of the Porc Noir de Bigorre.
By 1992 there were enough producers who
had agreed breeding and quality standards to begin offering the wider public a
uniquely tasting saucisson, a salami type sausage, and jambon sec, dry-cured
ham, with a fabulous taste, along with other cuts. The public responded, and in
short order, the farmers couldn't keep up with the demand. The Porc Noir,
however, is a slow-growing pig, and its dry-cured ham is aged for at least 18
months with its very best offerings aged for twenty-four. Long aging takes up a
lot of expensive climate-controlled storage, and they can't compete with
popular cured hams that are only aged for seven to twelve months. Altogether,
that makes for an expensive product, but at the end, the proof of the pudding
is in the eating, and the Jambon de Porc Noir de Bigorre melts on your tongue.
In 2017 the Porc Noir de Bigorre received its AOC, and a Pan-European
AOP closely followed that. (The Porc Noir de Bigorre AOP is also one of the few
hams supported by the Slow Food Movement).
Slices
of cured ham from the Porc Noir De Bigorre AOP.
The Porc Noir de Bigorre of French menus :
Carré de Porc Noir de Bigorre, Flan de Haricots Tarbais et
Jus Corsé – A pork chop from the Porc Noir
de Bigorre accompanied with a savory tart made from the Label Rouge Tarbaise dried bean and
served with a Jus Corsé, a sauce made from the natural
cooking juices. The dried white Haricot Tarbais bean was the first dried bean
to be awarded the French Label Rouge, the red label, for its unique and
consistent quality.
A Porc Noir de Bigorre sow will also have fat piglets.
Gambas et Poitrine De Porc Noir De
Bigorre Caramélisées Et Poivrées - Caramelized large shrimps with pepper accented pork belly
from the Porc Noir De Bigorre.
Porc Noir Burger: Pain Burger, Sauce Fumée, Oignons Confits,
Ventrèche De Porc Noir De Bigorre - A
Porc Noir Burger served with a burger roll, accompanied by a smoke-flavored
sauce, onions confit (slowly cooked and offered as a
sweet jam with their taste made to contrast with the meat) and pork belly from
the Porc Noir De Bigorre
A
store of Porc Noir hams.
Jambon de Porc Noir de Bigorre et Langoustine
Croustillante de Kadaïf, Assaisonnés D'une Huile de Noisette du Gers, Fraîcheur
de Pomme Granny et
Gingembre – Cured ham from the Porc Noir
de Bigorre served with crispy Dublin Bay Prawns (the
real scampi) wrapped in the thin pasta strands of Kadaïf, flavored with oil
from hazelnuts from the department of Gers and slices of chilled Granny Smith apples
flavored with ginger.
Kadaïf is a pastry with both savory and sweet versions
that were brought to France with North African cuisine, though it is found all
over the Middle East as well as in Turkey, Greece, and Albania. Kadaïf is made from pasta-like vermicelli in
very thin angels’ hair strands made from wheat flour, corn starch, salt, and
water. Kadaïf may be on menus as Knafeh, Knofa, and Kadaïfia.
Assiette
de Charcuterie: Jambon de Porc Noire de Bigorre, Rillet des d’oie, Saucisson
sec, Pate de Campagne - A platter of Jambon Noir de Bigorre served with
goose rillets accompanied by, a small salami type pork sausage and a country pate. (Goose
rillets are goose meat that has been slowly cooked in goose fat until the meat
can be made into a paste to spread on toast or bread).
Porc Noire Saucisson
The
Black Pig of Bigorre’s salami type sausage.
The Black Pig of Bigorre live freely for 70% of the
year in small herds in natural settings in open forest where they feed on wild
herbs and flowers, acorns, chestnuts, and locally cultivated vegetable
additions. The piglets are raised freely by their mothers until they are weaned
and no antibiotics or growth hormones are permitted.
In the countryside of the old
province of Bigorre:
The whole areais very much into fine foods:
- The Haricot Tarbaise dried
beans, the first dried bean to be awarded the Label Rouge, the coveted red
label for consistent quality and taste;
- The Mouton Barèges-Gavarnie AOP,
France's uniquely raised and aged mutton.
- The Volailles Fermières du Gers, Label Rouge poultry, with chickens, poulardes, capons, turkeys, and Guinea fowl.
- The
Cadours Ail Violet AOP, the unique violet garlic from
around the town of Cadours in the department of Haute-Garonne.
The Porc Noir de Bigorre AOP will not be on every
menu, so look out for it and do not pass it you by.
------------------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2019, 2023
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