Hidden Treasures of Pork

Roughly you can interpret it as „poultry is fine, but no bird can be compared to the pig“. Or the other one – Dok ne probam lava, svinja je kralj životinja. This one is easier to translate: “Until I try lion, pig is the king of animals.” You get the point. Pork is more than staple and Croatian cuisine would be quite empty without it. Traditionally, November has always been the pig slaughter month (kolinje, we say here), when whole families gathered in this ritual of obtaining meat, processing it and preparing all those wonderful products that keep us happy in the winter. Apart from the best known and most popular things coming out of this activity, like prime cuts of meat, bacon, ham and sausages, let's focus for a moment on some less attractive, but nonetheless tasty and wide-spread traditional pork products and dishes.

“Pork is an eternal source of delicacies.” Image credit: Julio Frangen

We all know what lard is and where it comes from. Abundant, available and easily stored, it was the number one, if not the only cooking and baking fat before people had various vegetable oils that we can get nowadays. Then came the era when everybody propagated healthy food and freaked out over cholesterol, so lard was getting bad rap for a while. Luckily, people are now going back to lard and all the benefits of this high-quality natural fat. It's all about being moderate anyway. When it comes to cooking, lard is unbeatable in some recipes. You can't get better fried eggs than those fried with lard, and many traditional desserts are inferior if you substitute lard for butter or margarine. Lard is also very often used as a spread, similar to butter. Spread it on a slice of bread and sprinkle with sweet paprika and you get a snack that fed generations and generations in the old days. Now it's making a comeback as an authentic Croatian tapas and chefs like to give their creative input to kruh i mast (bread and lard).

“Lard turned into an irresistible spread.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

With all this lard at hand, you have to experiment and upgrade it. When you add some garlic, parsley and seasoning, a delicious spread called zaseka is born, comparable to the best pâtés. Yes, it's fatty and filling, but that's exactly what makes it the perfect winter comfort food. In Istria, this type of lard mixture is called pešt and it is a standard ingredient in their famous thick soups. Our next item on the list, čvarci, can be cut into tiny pieces and added to the spread mixture for a special effect.

“Some desserts and pastries, like salenjak and čvarkuša, owe their existence to pork products.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

Go to any butcher's or farmers' market and you'll see heaps and heaps of something brown and crispy resembling overdone and shrunken crisps. Čvarci are similar to pork cracklings, yet it's not the rind, but pure pork fat diced and deep-fried in a large cauldron with the addition of milk (to achieve the brown colour) and onion (for aroma). They can be larger and softer, chewier, or pressed for extra crispiness. The original Croatian crisps, as we say. You wouldn't believe, but they are excellent when paired with local sparkling wine, especially rosé.

“Once you find the courage to try prezvuršt cold cut, it’s easy to get hooked on it.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

When folks would slaughter and butcher a pig, they were left with a bunch of stuff that could appear useless and barely edible at first sight. But they couldn't afford to leave anything behind, so all those heads, feet, hearts, tongues, tails and similar parts had to be used somehow. That's where hladetina comes to the rescue. It's a type of seasoned meat jelly, our version of brawn. When it's more like a cold cut, stuffed inside a pig's stomach and often slightly smoked, it goes by the name prezvuršt around Zagreb (from the German Presswurst). You'll also hear names like švargl or tlačenica, but these are all variations on a theme, with smaller differences in the recipe, depending on the local tradition. Finicky eaters can have prejudice when confronted with this seemingly unattractive dish, but when prepared knowingly and with good ingredients, it's really a delicacy of its own.

“The magical process of transforming pig fat into čvarci.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

You see, just when you thought you have absorbed pork, taken for granted as the most often consumed type of meat around the world, it can still surprise you with the treasure chest of traditional products and specialties that come into the limelight during the pig slaughtering season. You only have to know where to look and be open-stomached for new experience.

Header image credit: Mila Batinica

Author: Morana Zibar/ Taste of Croatia