Alanis the hog update, or, where's the rest of me?

A very disappointing visit to Watts Grocery led to last week's reflection on the vagaries of restaurants that push local sourcing of their ingredients as part of their appeal. I noted the irony of a restaurant, located in the heart of the #2 pork producing state in the Union, pushing local ingredients, obliged to source its pork from an outfit based in California (an inquiry to Niman Ranch as to locations of their hog farms got no response). Several comments, however, made me think that I missed the point, slightly. Several folks pointed out that there are local, non-industrial hogs being raised in the Triangle, but likely not in the volume that would support a restaurant that needs a reliable supply of certain cuts (in the case of Watts Grocery, loins and chops, evidently).
Loins and chops are probably still what they teach you how to cook at many culinary schools, and there is a value to being able to crank out a number of covers of chops and loins and have them not come back. It is, however, a model that depends upon a supplier who can reliably deliver cases of loins and chops. This is, unfortunately, not how hogs grow, so one has to deal with a relatively high-volume supplier, be it Niman or Smithfield.
Is there any way out of this bind? Well, Fergus Henderson might have an idea or two. Henderson, and Stateside nose-to-tail adherents like Tony Maws at Craigie on Main, have the advantage of needing fewer animals, because they are putting the whole beast on the menu. If Watts Grocery were willing to go a little further into the hog, they might not have to go as far for each hog.

Comments

[Jay]

Damn, Cragie on Main looks great, and worth it. Sometimes I briefly wish our restaurant could operate at that price point, but then I realize I probably would have to stop drinking at work.

Speaking of whole animals, if I recall correctly (and I may not, cf. the drinking thing above), a couple years ago the main distributor of pastured animals in NYC stopped selling individual cuts and went entirely to quarters, halves, whole. I think they invited their restaurants to send chefs up to their facility to learn how to break down the carcasses.

I think I read about this in Meatpaper or Diner Journal (that's the magazine from Williamsburg, not the blog from Manhattan, which has a possessive, right?).

Anyway, as a result, I gather that a lot of the places that serve pastured meat in New York are now using only whole animals. Which is really cool.

Also, there's a neat bit in Farm City about the chef from Eccolo breaking down a whole pig, Italian-style. The book is a good light read.

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