Vogue : Choice Cuts

Like heirloom tomatoes, heritage meats appeal to discerning palates. With the ultimate holiday meal in mind Jeffrey Steingarten hunts down the most irresistible and rarefied breeds.

The time had come for pork-chop testing. If I were successful, I might spring for a crown roast of completely humane pork. I strolled to the greenmarket, found Mike Yezzi at the Flying Pigs stand as he is every Friday and Saturday, and interfered with his paying customers by asking lots of questions about his farm, which I’ve never seen with my own two eyes but is, by all accounts, a model of humane treatment.

Mike posts a sign from Humane Farm Animal Care (Certified Humane): “Michael’s pigs are pastured” – allowed to run wild, within limits, and their diet is a combination of the nuts, roods, and berries for which they forage…