Young Mangalitsa Pig

[pep.]

An acquaintance of mine notified me that his favorite supplier will slaughter a young Mangalitsa pig in two weeks (young means it will weigh about 60 kg). So what parts should I get to do something interesting? I don't have the equipment for making my own sausages, but I do own a meat grinder (well, two if you count the KA attachment). And a sous-vide kit of course ;-)

[pep.]

I got about 10 kg of bone-in loin, all the fatback thereof and the skin. Also, half a tenderloin (had to split). About 2 kg miscellaneous meats for mincing, as well. Not really cheap (125 Euros for the lot), but very tasty.

Only the skin is not for the squeamish. It's almost impossible to remove all the wooly hairs because their roots are embedded very deeply. I tried using my trusty flamethrower, but it was of no use. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the special pig menu I cooked for some friends, but here is the list of courses:

• Country-style pâté (based on a Catalan recipe in Colman Andrews' Catalan Cuisine), supplemented by some (store-bought) Italian truffle salami.
  
• A crisped cube of fatback with vacuum-compressed pineapple and chile strips
  
• Pork roast with roasted cherry tomatoes and sous-vide root vegetables
  
• Cuban-style chicharrónes
  

The first two courses were a complete success, however, due to timing issues I could only par-cook the pork roast sous-vide and had to finish it in the oven. Of course, things dragged on and the roast cooked far too long (even if it was in a watered clay pot, i.e. a Römertopf). Still very much edible, but not what it could have been. The root vegetables were very nice, though. The chicharrónes were very nice by themselves (if you didn't know that there were some hairs hidden in them). Unfortunately I didn't make a dip sauce and they really would have needed one. I didn't think that they would be so dry and crispy.