Royal Mangalitsa

04/26/2026

Spring is coming…..

04/25/2026

Healthy Cacao lard spread. Most chocolate spreads nowadays contain palm oil and corn syrup (your body can digest it!!). So it’s far from healthy to serve that to your kids.

Scientific studies prove that Mangalitsa fat contains high concentrations of Omega 3 fatty acids, like fish oil!

In the chocolate spread I made has only pure ingredients and is actually a healthy one:

Mangalitsa lard
Honey
Cacao powder
Almond flour

You can spread it on bread or pancakes or you whip it and use it as a filling for cakes.

Next time I will use Pistachio flour instead of Almond, should be also delicious!

You have to store it in the fridge as otherwise it will melt too quickly.

04/22/2026

The new business cards are ready…..

did a good job!

04/22/2026

A journalist interviewed me recently and wrote a beautiful article about the Mangalitsa breed.
So I thought I will send her a special thank you gift!

This was hair from my first Mangalitsa (I called him Manga) in the Netherlands. He was a barrow and never shedded his hair, it only grew longer each year. He was almost 5 years old when he got butchered and I kept a lot of his beautiful fur.

And if you wonder if it smells: NO zero
I will post the links to the 2 articles later.

— Barbara Meyer zu Altenschildesche

Www.Royal-Mangalitsa.com

04/19/2026

The Royals in Japan …..

04/17/2026

Creating Mangalitsa and Whitetail Rillettes is a wild adventure worth taking.
This project started with a rebel yell - or rather, a rebel recipe deviation! This time I used venison, hunted by Terry Usiak, instead of Mangalitsa neck.

Sure, the 7-8 hour slow-cooking process might make you question if that’s worth it, but trust me, the end result is a velvety spread so luxurious it'll make your taste buds do the tango on toasted baguettes or crackers.

Feel free to get creative and tweak this recipe to your heart's content, I did as I mostly don’t stick to recipes.

I used the combo of fresh rosemary, 4 bay leaves, 6 juniper berries, lots of garlic (12 cloves), salt, and pepper.

If you need recipes….
Some might know him from Hunt, gather, cook group on Facebook:
https://honest-food.net/how-to-make-rillettes/

A video:
https://youtu.be/aMcXnXmfSng?si=OvLupbc7Xz5wrQMb

04/03/2026

Do you know what the delicious PawPaw fruit is?

I have seeds from our trees at our farm in Michigan. They were in the fridge all winter and I tried germinate a batch of 30 as test and they did great (picture), like the last year.

If you are interested to plant some on your farm or in your garden look at the pictures below and the video where you can see the fruit and trees at our farm.

They are from 7 different trees.

Here some information about this only native North American fruit tree!! Called also: “Indian bananas”

Information:

The common pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a small, native North American tree known for its large, edible, tropical-flavored fruit, often described as a mix of banana, mango, and citrus. It's a deciduous understory tree with large, drooping leaves that turn golden in the fall, and it produces maroon flowers in early spring that attract pollinators like flies and beetles. Pawpaws thrive in moist, fertile soil and full sun to part shade, and once established, they are low-maintenance.

Good article to read:

https://www.southernliving.com/garden/trees/paw-paw-tree

I will ship the seeds to you.
They sell mostly for 1,- a seed on Internet or more. (Ex shipping)

More than 10 each 0.90 cents
More than 25 each 0.80 cents

The seeds I germinated last year 95% came up!

You can send me a message when you are interested or have any questions.

The last picture are Chestnut seeds also from our trees at the farm. They also germinate perfectly.

Greets Barbara
(Feel free to share the post)

03/19/2026

Those little Red Mangalitsa beauties arrived in Belgium 🇧🇪 in January!
Bart Callens, a butcher in Belgium contacted me in June 2025 if I could help him get pure Reds of good genetics. As I am not breeding in the Netherlands anymore I contacted Angeel (Angelika) from ARCHE Austria (the Austrian Mangalitsa Breed Organization ) if she could arrange something from there.

As she and I did an export of Mangalitsa genetics from Austria to the UK 🇬🇧/ Lisa and some others, I knew Angelika would do a great job!

After a lot of work, time and a long transportation (done by Joseph Wantensliker), these 3 Red Mangalitsa piglets arrived in Belgium beginning January!

Look at the big smile on Bart’s face…. It says it all I think :-)

Always beautiful to be able to help people fulfill their Mangalitsa dreams!!

03/15/2026

Great article about the Mangalitsa breed.
Lots is written in Magazines and Newspapers how to raise and feed Mangalitsa pigs, which is far from the truth.
This Farm Magazine did a great job and will help people understand more about this old, slow growing lard breed with healthy fat, rich in Omega 3 fatty acids!

Most people nowadays know that the „animal fat is bad for you“ story was created to sell us margarine and is a lie.
Humans need those omega 3 fats, to keep our brain healthy, especially when we are getting older. Studies show that healthy Omega 3 fatty acids play significant a role in slowing down dementia and improving brain health.

In young kids Omega 3 is essential for brain development and better concentration. Look up the science behind it, it’s true.
Mangalitsa fat melts below human body temperature (90F / 32C) so is even healthier than butter, tallow or other pig breeds fat. It is more like oil than solid fats. Put a little bit on your hand and it will get liquid, you don't need science to know it's healthy.

I have an easy recipe on my website how to create delicious “Mangalitsa Nutella” with the rendered lard, which is full of those amazing of Omega 3. Use the fat of the outside of the animal ,not the organ fat/ leaf-lard as thats not as silky and smooth. Add honey, cocoa-powder and if you like a little almond flower.

Let’s give our kids bread with Mangalitsa Nutella instead of fish oil pills! The real Nutella is also full of sugar and palm oil, especially the palm oil is something that we should not put in our body, as we can not digest it.

Here the link to the recipe
https://www.royal-mangalitsa.com/recipes-and-butchering

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/the-mangalitsa-pig-may-be-the-perfect-porker/

The woolly, low-maintenance Mangalitsa pig provides succulent meat for a small farm. Here's what you need to know to start raising these heritage hogs.

03/08/2026

Mangalitsa Liver? Ohhh nooo - Ohhh YES!

As you maybe know I am from Germany and in Europe we use the liver, heart, kidneys and such in delicious dishes. Americans used to do that also, but it sadly became “poor people’s food” and many don’t know how to use those organs anymore.

That’s a shame as there are a lot of valuable nutrients in them, like iron, vitamin A and B and pasture raised pigs (or other animals) have better livers than confirmed raised animals !

So here a recipe for you: Mangalitsa pig Liver Dumplings … you can use any liver!!

Here the recipe:
https://mygerman.recipes/liver-dumplings-leberknodel/

I added more breadcrumbs to the recipe after all was blended together and I added the fried onions at the end into the paste, as I wanted them whole and not blended.

You also can add other herbs if you like that better.

I used 700 grams of liver so I had around 20 Dumplings, I froze them to use later when I will make Beef soup. You for sure also can eat them with fried onions and potatoes or rice and some gravy.

Wilhelm, my husband loves them as it reminds him of Austria 🇦🇹, he was born there.

He doesn’t like to eat fried liver (which I LOVE!!) but he absolutely loves his LIVER DUMPLING SOUP

“You feel good after eating liver due to its dense concentration of energy-boosting, mood-regulating nutrients like iron, B vitamins (especially B12), choline, and copper, which combat fatigue, support brain health, and provide a sense of well-being, acting like a natural multivitamin”

Have you ever had this dish?
If not…..use the liver and….Enjoy!!

02/18/2026

Some important education:
So many pig breeds now use the “Kobe of pork” phrase to market their breeds.
Did you know it wasn’t used to describe the marbling in the meat, but the silky fat of the Mangalitsa! Read below in the picture:

I personally think we should be careful with telling people it’s highly marbled meat or put it on our websites, as mostly it’s not. Yes there are some pigs (mostly older ones 3-4 years of age) which show extremely marbled loins, but to find it in the whole litter at 16 months of age is rare.

Do you know, you will probably get more marbling when you breed another breed like the Duroc, Berkshire or Red Wattle with a Mangalitsa? But remember, the fat of those crosses will not have the quality of the pure Mangalitsa nor will the water holding capacity be as good in the crosses as it is in the pure breeds!

Sure there are some breeders who might have a certain boar x sow combination that gives animals with more than mediocre marbling, but as soon as you change one of the two it is gone and when you buy offspring of those and breed it to your genetics it mostly doesn’t reproduce. It’s not in a certain color nor in a certain line!

But do we really need this “marble marketing”???

The story is way better, our pigs don’t need the highly marbled meat!!! Even without being highly marbled, the meat is juicy and full of the healthy silky fats! The water holding capacity of the meat cells is higher than most other pig breeds (studies show that) that’s why Mangalitsa meat stays juicier and more tender.
Don’t fry it like pork, fry it like a steak!

If you want the whole story with the scientific background:

www.royal-mangalitsa.com/_files/ugd/8d6388_2253517b7c994f90ab1866e0d22a48fe.pdf?index=true

Maybe we should start telling/market that story, which is better than using a phrase so many pig breeds use nowadays “Kobe of pork” ….

Let a Kobe be the cow…. A Mangalitsa is better than that!!

01/03/2026

Handsome boy :-)