Cseri Miklós - Sári Zsolt (szerk.): Szerencsemalac, A mangalica. Skanzen füzetek 2. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2009)

How to buy meat When we buy pork, we have to watch our first of all whether the meat is fresh. The colour of young animals is light pink or greyish-pink, with finely stringy muscles, soft and juicy. Meat of older animals is dark red with tougher stringy muscles and it contains more connective tissues. The meat of fattened animals contains more fat and therefore it is tender but does not digest easily. Fat in the meat is not only visible on the surface; it penetrates most bundles of muscles giving the meat a marble pattern. Superfluous fat in the ham and shoulder is rendered by heat while the meat remains juicy and soft. We should choose the appropriate meat for the dish we want to cook. Chop and tenderloin are suitable for frying; shoulder and leg for steaming; spareribs, ham or chop are for roasting. Buy only ripe meat! Unripe meat is hard and tough without previous treatment. Meat of a just slaughtered animal should be kept in the fridge for some days or soaked in vinegar water because vinegar makes stringy muscles softer KB