Five pieces of deep, ruby red meat sizzle on the steaming griddle. The cobbles are very marbled, surrounded by an immaculate fat, extremely thick, which marbles the flesh. You would swear beef. And yet, behind his metal tongs, Yves Cardeilhac, who prepares dinner for his guest room, in Escoubès-Pouts (Hautes-Pyrénées), at the gates of Lourdes, is formal: “That’s good pork!” »
Yes, but not just any pig, black pig from Bigorre, the Rolls of the species, one of the last rustic and local breeds in France (with in particular the Basque kintoa, the black cul from Limousin and the Corsican nustrale ), benefiting from a protected designation of origin (PDO) since 2017. The cook places a more than generous piece of loin on the plate (there must be 500 grams!). “I cook it dewy to my heart, specifies the Gascon giant in a stentorian voice. Bloody can be scary. Overcooked, it loses its fondant and taste. For me, it’s a waste. »
The knife sinks into the flesh with disconcerting ease. The meat is exceptionally tender, juicy, and gently crumbles between the tongue and the palate. The aromas are subtle, with fragile notes of hazelnut, and we understand why no jar of mustard or other condiment is placed on the table. Bigorre pork is a unique experience. And meat lovers were nearly deprived of it.
The turbulent history of the species, Alexandre Fonseca knows it inside out. This twirling fellow is director of the Consortium du noir de Bigorre, an association that brings together professionals in the sector (sixty breeders, two butchers, two salt meat makers) at the foot of the Pyrenees. “Before, in the region, each small farm had a few pigs, he says. People lived in autarky, and the fat of the animal made it possible to preserve the meat for a long time in stoneware jars. After the Second World War, with urbanization and the consumer race, the white pig ended up gaining ground. » And for good reason, the “Danubian”, this cousin with the pink rind which reigns today in Brittany, enjoys a much faster breeding: seven months maximum against eighteen for the black pig.
In 1981, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) was alarmed by the disappearance of animal breeds. A census is carried out: there are only thirty-four females and only two males of the species left! A handful of irreducible people then try to save the animal, then to make its breeding economically viable. The project is crazy and totally anachronistic. While the diets of the time were based on removing fat, Bigorre pork was covered in it; and, in the heyday of intensive farming, he must regularly stretch his fine legs in the open air.
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