The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowThe Field Guideby Moss & Marrow
Also called varken, varkens.
Outdoor pork is available all year from Dutch producers. The best months are November. Outdoor pork is sold all year.
Pork from outdoor pigs is available all year; many farms sell it as packages a few times a year, with lard and bones included on request. The old rhythm was to slaughter the pig in November, slachtmaand, once the cold could keep the meat, and the sausages and balkenbrij of autumn come from that.
Free-range pork has a thicker fat cap and darker meat than supermarket pork.
Protein, thiamine (B1) in amounts no other meat matches, vitamin B6, zinc and selenium. Outdoor pigs on pasture have more vitamin D in their fat.
To get the most: Thiamine is water-soluble and heat-sensitive, so roasting keeps more than long simmering unless you drink the broth. Lard from pasture pigs carries vitamin D.
On our nutrient density chart, a normal serving of pork chop (125 g) gives about three-quarters of a day's selenium and about three-quarters of a day's vitamin B3, counting what your body absorbs. That puts it 5th of the 16 meats we scored.
Content per NEVO, the Dutch food composition database. This describes what the food contains, not what it does for you.
Render the back fat into lard for roasting. Slow-roast belly; brine chops for an hour before grilling.
Belly, trotters, head and back fat are all on offer from a farm that sells whole pigs. Render the fat into lard; make stock from the bones.
45 producers in The Field Guide sell outdoor pork, each checked against our inclusion criteria and listed by province.
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