A Brandon area Hutterite Colony has claimed top honours at the 2009 Manitoba Hog says Hog Carcass Competition.
Manitoba Hog Days 2009 concluded yesterday with the annual Hog Carcass Competition.
Carcasses were assessed according to index and yield, visual appraisal, specific quality measures, belly assessment and loin eye size.
McKay-Genstat consulting president and one of the show judges Dr. Bob McKay says color, texture and marbling are key.
For color and texture it’s an intermediate optimum.
You don’t want it too light, you don’t want it too pale, you want it in the just right category and color is important.
When it’s in the display case the consuming public usually uses that as one of their first cues as to whether they want to buy it or not.
If you put really pale pork into a display case as opposed to dark pork they’ll erroneously take the light pork because they feel it’s from a younger animal but all the hogs are slaughtered at the same age where as the darker pork is actually better and more juicy.
Texture wise, if it’s very soft and watery, when you take the pork chops out of the package there’s always a soaker pad underneath and if it’s loaded with water I get a little miffed with that myself because I don’t want to be paying for moisture.
I want that in the muscle.
So texture is important in the sense that it can be water leaking out and it’s also how you handle the product.
If it’s really sloppy and you don’t really like the feel of it you aren’t going to buy it again.
Marbling is pretty obvious.
Most consumers avoid it because they think it’s bad for you but once they taste marbled pork they find out how good it is and it’s juicy, and it just tastes really great, has a nice flavor and it reminds them of a by-gone era so those are the big three, color, texture and marbling.
Spring Valley Colony of Brandon entered this year’s grand champion carcass.
Aspenheim Colony Farms of Bagot had the second and third place carcasses.
Wellwood Colony Farms of Ninette took fourth place and Hidden Valley Colony of Austin rounded out the top five.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
