Here’s one that definitely gets filed under “only in Hungary.” Yesterday afternoon, some producers of Hungary’s famous Mangalica pigs gave away some 1.5 tons of rendered Mangalica fat worth approximately Ft 1.5 million (€5,800) to 54 grateful educational and social institutions and non-profit organizations in Csongrád County. According to velvet.hu, which for some reason tagged the story as ciki hírek (“tacky news”), the Homokhát Mangalica Cooperative (Homokháti Mangalica Szövetkezet) and a company called Mangary Kft were the generous donors of the tasty white zsír, which Hungarians use both to cook with, and often just to slather on bread with a sprinkling of chopped red onions and salt.
“If we process a 200-kilo Mangalica in the traditional way, and make all kinds of delicacies from it – sausage, ham, and bacon – then one animal gives 30 kilos of fat,” said breeder István Fackelmann, one of the organizers of the charity drive. Fackelmann said that Homokhát’s Mangalica breeders had decided to offer all the fat that came out of their animals when they were fried to charity.
Mangalica, an indigenous species in Hungary, was nearly forgotten during the 1970s, when only 35 of them were registered in the entire country. Today, however, there has been a Renaissance of interest in meat and products made from the pig. Finally, if you think it’s tacky to give lard away for charity because it’s unhealthy, it’s not. Mangalica fat is allegedly much healthier than other types of pork fat, because it contains more polyunsaturated fatty acids. One reason for this is that the pigs are kept outside and on a natural diet, and otherwise treated with unusual charity.
