Lion Brand Notebook ®
One of our friends on Facebook called it “the original pig in a blanket” The Mangalista is a breed of pig that was developed in Hungary in the 1930s to provide a fattier meat. The delicacy of Mangalista meat was initially reserved for the Habsburg Royalty, but the rich, fatty flavor made it a popular choice by the end of the 19th century.
Times have changed and tastes and health concerns make the Mangalista a much less desirable pig to eat. It also takes twice as long to raise a super fatty Mangalitsa as it does to raise other pigs, taking over a year for them to reach 300 pounds, rather than 175 pounds.
The curious look of this animal is what we love. Like a character out of Star Wars that sprung from the imagination of a yarn-loving film-maker, the Mangalista post on Facebook turns out to be one of your favorites this year. If you’d like to discover more extraordinary images, stories and ideas, we welcome you to join us on Facebook.
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Deebee
Has the fleece ever been spun into yarn?
Petrina
Not the Mangalista, specifically – but it’s distant cousin the Lincolnshire curly coat has had its fleece spun into wool to make sweaters and vests for field workers because of it’s high water-resistance. So it is entirely plausible.
Audrey
Can I jump in and say that the Lincolnshire Curly coated pig is now extinct but was in fact the forefather to the Mangalista. Blood lines of the Lincolnshire was imported out to Hungary where they cross bred with their own native pigs and voila the Mangalsita. These pigs have now been impoted back to the UK.
Irina
Um… If it was developed in the 1930s, how could it have become a popular choice by the end of 19th century? Was it 1830s? Or 20th century? Something doesn’t add up!
But the pig does look cute. 🙂
Petrina
During the end of the 19th they only just begun to cross-breed to create the Mangalista, and by the 1930-50s they’ve been successfully established as its own distinct breed. Hope this helps. Since there are other food sources now available they are less in number and have been importing them to various countries to increase the now “rare” breed.