THE HISTORY OF THE MANGALITZA
Before the 18th-19th century each region had its own typical porcine variety. The Trans-Danube region had the "Bakony" and the "Siska" varieties, on Moorish lands the "ground" or "meadow" hog was kept, the Lowland had the "Szalonta" type, the Carpathian region was the home to the setose mountain subrace, while the Transylvanian subspecies were the "Báznai" and the "Oelyves". There were two ancestral regional varieties used widely. The "Szalontai" from the Lowland was heavy in build, had long legs and body, floppy ears, reddish-brown in colour, it was bred for its meat, and most probably it had arrived to the Carpathian basin together with the Hungarians. The Trans-Danubian variety with reddish-brown or greyish brown colour, mildly curly hair, bony and short body and producing thick bacon was called "Bakonyi", which had already been living here on the Northern bank of Lake Balaton before the arrival of the Hungarians.

After forcing the Turks out of Hungary there were very few hogs left on the areas that used to be ruled by the Turkish Empire. The sovereign Serbia started to trade with the so called "sumadia" hogs. By the middle of the 1840's the Hungarian "Bakonyi" hog had already disappeared, and breeding of the mangalitza hog crossbred with the Serbian variety has been prospering. The mangalitza develops slowly, yet reaches maturity rather quickly and is considered to be a fertile hog (5-6 piglets), that requires outdoor breeding, therefore it was fed with acons of the forest's oak trees and lived under the sky. By the end of the 19th century, due to deforestation and the dropping demand for fat-hogs, together with the plague, the livestock has been decimated: During the 1890's the number of livestock reached nearly 4 million, by 1960 the number of livestock dropped below 1000, and was included in the list of endangered races. Due to different genetic banks and private farms today, the threat of extinction is over, the process of identifying and breeding the remaining individuals has started; and the world-famous Serrano ham was also based on its excellent quality meat, enjoying ever-growing international success.
The mangalitza is our variety, forgotten for decades, yet in 2004 it was included in the list of our national treasures, as the Hungarian Parliament reached a decision on bred protected- or native Hungarian animal varieties.



MANGALITZA VARIETIES
The most common one is the blond mangalitza, bred into a heavier and more fertile red version, due to crossbreeding with the curly haired "Szalontai" hog. Later it was crossbred with the black hog from the Szerémség, resulting in a more resistant black type. Then, by crossbreeding it with the black mangalitza version (extinct in the beginning of the 20th century) the so called "swallow-bellied" mangalitza of a lighter body was formed. In the mountains even crossing of the blond mangalitz with the wild-boar was not uncommon. After World-War I the English meat-hog varieties started spreading; the varieties crossbred with these were "bercsi" (berkshire), kese (yorkshire) and the korvaj (cornwall).
NAMES: Before the age of 6 months it is a piglet, then until it reaches the age of one it is called a porket. The young female hog is a yelt, the grown up is gilt, the pregnant one is the sow. The male is named a boar, while the castrated male is a barrow; the gelded sow has its ovary removed. The group of hogs sent outside every day is called a bunch, the hogs living on the meadows between the spring and the autumn form a herd.

OUTDOOR BREEDING AND FEEDING
The number of mangalitzas living on farms is growing every year, since outdoor keeping is essential for this animal. You can see it on the large area separated next to the sties, where the animals are free to run, to lay on the ground, to grout the ground or to wallow in the wallowing-place created for them. It is a long way from keeping the livestock to the processing, the aim is again to create a natural product of excellent quality: "the meat of the animal will reflect the way it had lived". The animals are fed on a regular basis: with Jerusalem artichoke, cattle-turnip, sugar-beet, pumpkin, fresh and grinded alfalfa, prince's feather, corn, rye, triticale, wheat, oat, and herbs' middling.

BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS
There were several commonly known beliefs and superstitions regarding hogs, primarily in connection with the health and the fertility of the animal, but the behaviour of the animals served also as a basis for foretelling the turning points of human life. As a counter-charm the sty has been protected by a red ribbon. In order to prevent perishing of the hog, the head of the snake caught before Saint George's Day has been placed into the feedbox of the hog. In order to get the hog accustomed to the house the new pig was led into the sty going backwards. If a pregnant woman grooms a hog, or steps into the place of burning, her child will be either hairy or dirty; the first ablution of the newborn child was given to the hog to drink; the child not sleeping well received some litter of the hog into its cradle. Couples planning to get maried kicked the side of the sty on Saint Andrew's Day: the grunt of the animal suggested marriage by the carnival. Eating pork on New Year's Day is a lucky sign, for the hog will grout out good luck.

WHY HEALTHY?
The mangalitza develops slowly, yet reaches maturity rather quickly and is considered to be a fertile hog (5-6 piglets), that requires outdoor breeding. It lives outdoors, can pasture, run or relax, meaning it lives a stress-free life. Due to the free breeding it develops dark and marbled meat that is eaten by people fancying bio food products as well. The mangalitza's meat has lower water content than the meat of the hog from intensive breeding; therefore it is particularly fit for producing dry products of good quality including meat to be roasted, bacons and hams with longer aging period. Its vitamin and mineral content is remarkable, its meat has more thiamine, riboflavin, iron, zinc, copper and unsaturated fatty acids than the other hogs' meat.
The cholesterol content of the mangalitza is similar to the domestic hog, however the composition of the mangalitza's triglyceride is more favourable from a physiological point of view due to the higher ratio of unsaturated fatty acids.


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ECO BREEDING-ECO FARMING
Ecological farming (ecological or bio farming) is a kind of natural farming, that is a natural way of producing food, is sustainable from an ecological and economic point of view, and it is based on the creation and restitution of the harmony between human beings and the environment. Therefore it is not only a new method, but an agricultural form that existed in its entirety until the end of the 18th century, and the farming by the peasants reserved it until the middle of the 20th century. It eliminates the materials and technologies that are harmful to the environment and to health, together with the use of herbicides, gene manipulation and hormone treatments. It is a natural way of farming based on a biological cycle. In past decades, or even past century, several problems arose in agriculture however, when using any possible solutions, environment protection and economic measures should also be considered. It does not mean returning to the past, but the combination of the traditional technologies with up-to-date ones with scientific innovations.

SLAUGHTERINGTHE HOGS AND MANGALITZA PRODUCTS
Traditionally the store-pigs were slaughtered during the winter, the typical season for hog slaughtering remained the winter months. Of course today it is done in accordance with the requirements in force within the European Union, but traditional products are prepared: ham, sausage, bacon, products to be filled, flanks. As "a hog can be used from nose to tail" the chitterlings and sausages are filled into natural casing, seasoned with local seasonings and paprika, then smoke cured in the local smoke curing facility.
The all-year flesh of the mangalitza ends with the sanguinary events, where during the slaughtering the leaking blood is collected, cooked and baked with onions. What is left from breakfast will be processed into black pudding. After having the first brandy, the hog is slaughtered, then its hairs are burned with a bundle of straws, finally it is washed. When slaughtering a hog today a shocker is used in accordance with the requirements of the European Union. Today burning is done by gas instead of straw.
The hog is opened, and its parts are processed. They do their best in order to save all its parts, therefore its casing are also washed till becoming span-clean, then its completeness is checked by blowing into it, if has no faults then it is filled by chopped meat when preparing sausages, or by chitterlings when making pudding, black pudding. Its bacon is preserved by salting, smoking, frying in fat, or boiling. The meat can be roasted, stewed, while cracklings are made out of the small pieces of bacon. The parts with bone serve as a first class raw material for soups and meat-jelly.
Our meat products are prepared by using the meat of 2-year old mangalitzas from a stress-free breeding, living a quiet and balanced life. Bacon, fat, cracklings and sausages made of mangalitza - participated at the Salone del Gusto, the World Exhibition of Slow Food Biodiversity foundation with great success as a Presidium.

PORK IN THE HUNGARIAN CUISINE
The consumption of pork became more common in the 19th century. The strong dominance of beef consumption during the Middle age and the early New age disappeared by the end of the 1800's. Between 1934 and 1938 the ratio of pork reached 45% and beef dropped to 22%. The change was primarily due to the changing customer habits, by the end of the 20th century Hungarians joined the populations preferring pork over any other type of meat.
Pork played an ever-growing role within the Hungarian cuisine due to its simple ways of preservation including salting, smoke curing and frying. In the Trans-Danubian region salted pork was fried in its own fat, then stored till the Summer in a wooden pot (called vindő) in which pork was covered with fat.
Bacon was highly appreciated in the kitchen, since people working hard evaluated foods according to its energy content. So it was with a good reason that bacon became one of the most important components of the breakfasts taken by the farmers.
It is the general feature of the goulash-type of dishes that the chopped meat is cooked with different spices, leaving only limited volume of liquid on the meat. The dish has two basic receipts, from which countless number of varieties had been developed. The most archaic version the meat is stewed without fat, onions and water, it is steamed in its own gravy until it is soft.  It is called goulash, with goulash, goulash meat, meat with goulash, coal meat, stew. According to the other receipt the onions are roasted on fat, tasted with dry-grinded paprika, then the meat is tenderized in water. Its most frequently used name is "paprikash" (with paprika). It was prepared mainly from beef and sheep meat, but later pork was also used; and it became generalized during the 20th century.
Frying a slice of meat was an old tradition, but this solution was only a rarely prepared one of the several meat dishes known. It was more frequent to have breaded meat slices, however in the first third of the 19th century its raw material used to be the leg of the veal. In the 1900's the civic kitchen prepared it from pork. By the first third of the 20th century it appeared also in peasants' weddings. By the end of the 1950's the fashion of having fried meat slices on Sundays for lunch started to prevail.
Pork had a special role among foods, for example eating fried pig on the New Year's eve or eating pork on New Year's Day was the symbol of bounty and wealth for the next year. Some Catholic villages followed the tradition of having the so called "Angel-sausages" at Christmas time, these were the first sausages filled when slaughtering the hogs.

SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT
In 1986 an Italian journalist, Carlo Petrini organized a movement against a fast food restaurant to be opened in Rome at Piazza di Spagna and against the phenomena represented and created by the fast food restaurants. Their aim is to protect the pleasures of the table, to protect the local values against globalization and homogenization, thus the snail became the symbol of the movement. They established small local communities; all of these propagate that all communities, regions, and nations have the right to enjoy their tastes, foods, and products: their own cuisine.  In order to do so they have the right to have their own products, their own dishes, and to have those produced, and of course to consume those. Their most well-known activities include to searching for, listing, saving, classifying and protection of local tastes, products, and receipts sinking into oblivion. That was our aim when launching the project called "the Ark of tastes". We want to follow the footsteps of Noah and his ark and to save foods of good taste and high quality, which can be circumscribed both historically and geographically. Thus they facilitate the meetings of farmers and consumers in bio markets. Their traditions and ambitions are represented in the education, in vocational trainings, they have already founded a university for gastronomy. International exhibitions, (e.g. Salone del Gusto), fairs and conferences are organized. However they made sure to keep their small communities alive, to be among their friends, within the so called conviniums, where they cook together, sit at the table together, and take the time to enjoy eating and drinking.
During the past few years six Hungarian communities (located in Budapest, Pécs, Penyige, Debrecen and Kiskunság) joined the movement which has more than one hundred thousand members from over a 100 countries all over the world.
Since 2000 awards have been given out to farmers and to all the people who work in order to protect biodiversity. There are several food products under international protection as a protected food in Europe, but there is only one Hungarian product among those, the mangalitza sausage of the Rendek family from the Kiskunság.

Support of Exhibition: Nemzeti Kulturális Alap (NKA)