Field to fork - Potty about porkers

In PubChef's series on how pubs are using locally-sourced food, Alice Whitehead discovers Peter McLaren's recipe for rearing happy pigs.

At Peter and Elma McLaren's rare pedigree pig farm, love is in the air. "I can't help falling in love with each pig,"​ says Peter. "In all the years I've been farming pigs, I've never actually seen one of them killed. It's my choice, I couldn't bear to see them hurt."​ For the past 15 years, the McLarens have been rearing rare pigs at their eightacre farm next door to Ballencrieff Castle in Longniddry, East Lothian, and it's clear they're potty about them. In fact it's been a life-long passion for Peter.

It was back in 1860 that his great-grandfather bought the current plot, originally the castle's walled fruit garden, and replaced the trees with pigs. Today, the patch is roamed by Peter's dozen or so rare breeds, including Gloucester Old Spots, Saddlebacks and Berkshires. "I saw a picture of a Berkshire in a book once and just loved it,"​ he says. "There are only 200 in the UK and they taste so different. In fact the last emperor of Japan would eat nothing else and kept several Berkshires at his palace."​

But before their inevitable fate befalls them, the pigs are treated to the benefits of the McLarens' "health farm". Ethical treatment is high on Peter's list of priorities. "I believe the explosion in on-farm diseases is due to the methods used by modern farmers, where every animal is pushed to the limit to produce cheap food. At Ballencrieff we are proud to offer an alternative."​ The pigs are allowed to roam in a natural environment, spending their days snuffling the earth in large, outdoor pens. In fact, the pigs are allowed to range so freely that they often break out. "They can be mischievous things,"​ says Peter. "As soon as you put a fence up they have found a way to get through it, and we've often had to chase after wandering pigs."​ Peter is also keen to keep the pigs entertained, so he provides plenty of straw for them to chew on. "I gave them footballs once," he says. "But they were soon deflated!"​

Every day, the pigs are given regular helpings of home-made food mix and sometimes, if they've been especially good, biscuit mix. Furthermore, Peter feels it's important that the pigs should be reared at a natural pace, so none of them are injected with growth promoters. "You can tell our pigs are happy and healthy because the quality of the meat is so good,"​ he says. Nevertheless, once their time is up the pigs are taken to a butcher to be boned. What's left is then brought back to the farm, where it is made into various products. And it's true when they say "every part of the pig is used except the oink".

At Ballencrieff they make plain and herby sausages (including a special Auld Reekie variety with smoked pork and Claret), chops, roasting joints, mince and cutlets, as well as smoked and unsmoked bacon. Through trial and error, Peter has taught himself to cure all the ham and bacon on site. "To begin with it was quite a rare thing to cure, so no one could tell us how to do it,"​ he says. "We found a recipe in an old book, but the first batch was grey and salty, the next was green and the third, where we used molasses, turned black. It was all edible meat; it just didn't look very good."​

But he eventually mastered the technique and the cured ham and bacon, which contains no additives, preservatives or flavourings, are now among the best sellers. The bacon, which is proudly labelled "100% meat", also boasts of containing no water or phosphates. "The meat you buy in supermarkets tends to have up to 10% water content to plump it up,"​ says Peter. "So when you pay for your meat you are actually paying for 10% water - it's the most expensive water in Britain! Our motto here is simply 'good taste with peace of mind' and as far as I'm concerned, our bacon is the best you can buy."​

And the locals seem to agree. From their regular stall at farmers' markets in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Haddington, the McLarens sell up to 100 kilos of meat. Moreover, a parcel of their sausages and bacon is regularly delivered to two of the finest hotels in Scotland, the golfing hotel Greywalls, in Muirfield, and the Open Arms in Dirleton, where guests breakfast on the McLarens' produce. "It's great when you hear people say, 'that bacon was bloody good',"​ says Peter. "It may not pay much, but it makes it worth the effort. I don't do this job for the money, I do it for love alone."​

Contacts​

Ballencrieff Rare Pedigree Pigs Farm shop Tel: 01875 870551​ (open Tuesdays to Sundays 1pm to 4pm)

Open Arms Hotel Tel: 01620 850241​

Greywalls Tel: 01620 842144​