Description
The Porc de Franche-Comté PGI is fresh meat from pigs, both females and neutered males, meeting precise genetic features and butchered at a minimum age of 182 days.
Production Area
The production area of Porc de Franche-Comté PGI covers all the departments of the Franche-Comté region.
Production Method
The animals' diet consists of 15-35% milk whey, which can be natural or concentrated or dried. Cereals and their by-products can be used for food integration. After slaughtering, the carcasses have a weight of at least 75 kg. The meat obtained is selected at every level of the production process, from the carcass to the single cut, in order to remove the meats which do not meet the quality criteria required.
Appearance and Flavour
Porc de Franche-Comté PGI is meat free from defects, uniform rose in colour, neither too dark nor too pale, with firm and white fat parts.
History
Since the 19th century, the pig breeding of Franche-Comté region has started to grow stronger at the same time with the development of the area dairies. In fact, a close economic link still exists between these two sectors, where one depends on the other, and both are based on the pig fattening method with milk whey. Indeed, in the 1980s many investments were made in farms of the area and that favoured the establishment of the present pig fatting rooms in Franche Comté but, above all, two third of them use the milk whey method.
Gastronomy
Porc de Franche-Comté PGI has to be stored in refrigerator for a few days. It is eaten after cooking or as an ingredient of many meat-based products such as sausages. It is very good if prepared with local recipes such as côtes de porc à la Franc-comtoise or porc fume franche compté, which is smoked pork. This meat can be combined with cheese and mustard and sprayed with pepper, but it is perfect also with sauerkrauts.
Marketing
The product is sold as Porc de Franche-Comté PGI. It is sold whole, in primary cuts and in secondary cuts.
Distinctive Features
Porc de Franche-Comté PGI owes its quality to the breeding method of the production area and, above all, to fresh milk whey-based feeding.
