Portuguese Black Pork or Porco Preta

Back in the summer of 2015 our Portuguese friend Marco was driving us from our self-catering apartment Lagos to Faro airport.  The usual conversation took place in relation to holiday rentals in Albufeira mainly  villas in Albufeira available for holiday rental to the price of fuel in the Algarve.

Iberian Black Pigs

Conversation turned to climate and informed us that the Portuguese province of Alentejo.  Which he explained was north of the Algarve on the Spanish border.  As he travels alot he was aware that in this province there are extremes of climate.  Winters can go to minus 4 where summers can be as much as 40 degrees.

I was aware a lot of wine sold in the Algarve is harvested in Alentejo.  It tends to be a dry wine because the soil here gets a lot of sun.  During the course of this conversation Marco mentioned and other excellent product of Alentejo is black pork or in Portuguese porco preto.

Of course my curiosity was heightened and I kept an eye on menu and meat counters for porco preta.  Strangely the first time I came across it was in the fresh meat counter in Iceland in Algarve Retail Park.  Of course I purchased some and yes it was delicious in a stir fry.

The Alentejo porco preto also known as  Iberian black pig, also known in Portugal as Alentejo black pig, is a race of the domestic pig  that is native to this area of the Mediterranean. The Iberian pig, whose sole origin can be traced back to ancient times, is found in herds grouped in the territory center and south of the Iberian Peninsula
the most accepted theory is that the first pigs were brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Phoenicians in the east coast of the Mediterranean (current Lebanon), where they crossed with wild boar.
 This cross breeding  became the first Iberian breeds, whose origin, in this case, can be traced back to around the year 1000 aC.

The production of Iberian pork is profoundly linked to the Mediterranean ecosystem. It is a rare example in world production of pigs, where the animal contributes in such a decisive way to the preservation of the ecosystem. This  Iberian race of pig is currently one of the few examples of a domesticated race is totally adapted to its local environment as it consumes oak nuts and bark from the Cork Trees all found locally.

The numbers of the Iberian breed were drastically reduced since 1960 due to various factors such as outbreaks of African swine fever and the reduction of the value of the animal fat. In the last years of the decade of 2010, however, the production of pigs of the Iberian type increased to meet the new demand for meat of superior quality.

The iberian pig is dark in color, goes from black to gray.    As the animals are free ranged living freely in the forests, they are constantly moving and therefore burn more calories than other species of pork.
If in  self-catering apartment in Lagos or a villa in Albufeira you will find poco preto on Menu and also in fresh meat counters all worth a try.

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