User:Puro Cut Catering By Don Rodrigo/sandbox

Background of Current Venture
Rodrigo saw a potential market for the famous and elusive Alentejano pork. Italy’s prosciutto di Parma, Spain’s jamón ibérico, and Portugal’s presunto do Alentejo are among Europe’s most coveted artisanal, dry-cured hams. But while the gourmet delicacies from Italy and Spain can be imported for sale in the United States, Portugal’s exquisite presunto cannot.

“When I landed, I thought I would learn something new. But then I realized I had something to offer,” he says. Referring to his homeland’s Alentejanos, he adds, “I knew the value of the breed. We didn’t have that here in the US. No Portuguese meat from Portugal.” - Rodrigo

US consumers buy $700 million worth of cured meats and hams from Spain, according to Duarte. “Wouldn’t it be nice if part of that $700 million would be made in America and help local farmers?” he says. And so, while working at Kings, he asked himself, “How can I do it?”

In 2005, Rodrigo was ready to cease the opportunity. He contacted a pig genetics laboratory in Alentejo and obtained a USDA permit authorization to have semen of pure Alentejano pigs flown in. He used his uncle Orlando’s farm as a test bed for cross-breeding the native pigs. The result was domestic sows that were genetically tested to be 85 percent Iberian, and therefore qualify for the prestigious “Pata Negra” designation.

In 2010, he began selling dry-cured Pata Negra legs which he aged for two years in the cellar of Rodrigo’s specialty food shop operated by his wife - Caseiro e Bom.

In 2016 and 2017, Rodrigo competed in the Charcuterie Masters competition in Flushing, New York. Rodrigo’s Alentejano ham was named the “best dry-cured ham.”

Current Venture (The Farm)
Historically, pig farming has played a fairly big role in New Jersey, but in 2017 there were only about 9,000 pigs on 347 farms in New Jersey, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Most of them—about a fifth—are in Burlington County. Specialty breed farmers like Duarte represent a niche market, says Westendorf.

In 2016, Rodrigo obtained USDA authorization and the permission of the Portuguese government to import 10 pure Altentejo hogs. These hogs were purebred and raised in the Altentejo region.

Before Duarte could bring in the Alentejanos, the animals spent 90 days in quarantine at a Portuguese government facility in Vila Nova de São Bento in the Alentejo region, close to the Spanish border. Then, they were trucked some 140 miles to Lisbon for their transatlantic journey on September 16, 2016—aboard a newly inaugurated direct flight between Lisbon and JFK on TAP, the Portuguese airline.

On arrival, the hogs were transported 70 miles north to a quarantine facility in Beacon, NY, where they spent another 30 days before Duarte could claim them. Accompanied by his uncle, Orlando Almeda, who farms in Hope, Duarte was met with a bonus: Despite the rigors of the odyssey, one of the sows had conceived, and had given birth to a litter in Beacon. Today, Duarte’s herd of Alentejanos numbers about 500.

Rodrigo operates a modern 12 acre farm in Wantage, New Jersey and several satellite fields in Sussex and Warren counties. There, he raises both crossbred and pure-bread Alentejano hogs on separate properties.

A local veterinarian visits the farm once a month to check on the pigs’ health, and each year a breed technician from the ACPA inspects Duarte’s operations to ensure that they adhere to Portuguese protocols.

Since 2019, Duarte has been selling 24-month cured whole legs made from the offspring of that initial herd under his Don Rodrigo brand. The sole ingredients: pork and salt. The label reads “100% Iberian Pure Breed Certified”

Challenges
Now 41, the affable charcuterie master says that the premature gray streaking his hair is the result of worrying about his herd. “There were no studies on how the hogs would react to New Jersey weather,” he says. “Portuguese winters are milder.” On a chilly overcast day last February, a trio of hogs jointly dug a trench that they lined with twigs and then huddled together in it. “I’ve never seen this before,” says Duarte.

After losing pigs to harsh weather in 2018, he was so upset that he put the boars in separate corrals from the sows so they wouldn’t breed. To protect piglets from the cold, he installed heat-lamp warming chambers for newborns alongside the farrowing stalls where the sows are kept for about two weeks before they’re ready to drop (give birth) during late fall to early spring. This year he built 30 wooden shelters, which he calls cabanas, where in milder weather the sows can drop their litter on the earth beneath their hooves, and easily move about and attend to their piglets, safe from predatory birds.

How Animals Are Raised Free to forage the grains and grasses that carpet the landscape, the hogs are also fed an ample supply of blueberries, broccoli, bell peppers and other excess locally grown fresh produce, along with leftover artisanal bread from Teixeira’s Bakery in Newark.

Duarte also supplements the hogs’ diet with the foods that the breed has traditionally been raised on—chestnuts and acorns from Iberia’s Extremadura region. The taste of the meat from his hogs, he says, “comes from nature, from the farmland, whatever herbs and flavors they eat.”

Acorns, in particular, are rich in oleic acid (a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid), which penetrates the muscle fibers of the ham as it sweats during the curing process.

Such a diet contrasts with that used in the massive commercial pig farms concentrated in the Midwest, which typically feed their animals a combination of corn and soybean meal under totally confined conditions.

Don Rodrigo brand of products

Since 2019, Duarte has been selling 24-month cured whole legs made from the offspring of that initial herd under his Don Rodrigo brand. The sole ingredients: pork and salt. The label reads “100% Iberian Pure Breed Certified”

Meat Curing
As the meat cures, “the natural bacteria and enzymes develop unique flavors.” The natural sugars produced during curing also add a special flavor and preservative properties.

The meat also naturally develops a white mold on the outside, which is rubbed off with olive oil before sale.

At a curing facility in Somerset, Portuguese sea salt is applied to the hand-cut, hand-tied hams, and then they are left covered in salt for one day per pound of meat. Afterward, they’re rinsed and hung in refrigeration. Weighing about 25 pounds at the start of the process, the legs lose 35% of their weight during curing.