Eh Farms’ cute and curly Red Mangalitsa pigs bring a new kind of pork to the table BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
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ot all pigs are the same. This is something that most people who are knowledgeable about their food realize — just like there are different breeds of cows that dictate the distinction between an Angus or Wagyu steak, breeds like Berkshire and Duroc hogs have their own characteristics, both as animals and in the end meat product. But both Berkshire and Duroc pigs fall into the category of what we usually
22 Culinaire | April 2021
think of as standard pork. The Red Mangalitsa is a different kind of swine all together. Christina Stender, the force behind Eh Farms doesn’t even call her animals “pigs,” she calls them “Mangalitsas” because they’re almost an entirely different animal than those that produce the white pork chops that most of us are used to buying in the grocery store. The pigs themselves are quite cute to look at: they’re big but are covered in a woolly
red fur that makes them a good match for Alberta winters. More importantly, they’re often referred to as the “Kobe beef of pork,” thanks to the rich and fatty red-hued meat that is often mistaken for beef when it hits the table. Most Albertans haven’t heard of Red Mangalitsa, which isn’t a surprise. Stender is the first to bring them to Canada from their native Hungary and her operation is fairly small (though some other local farms are starting
