Jennifer Miller

jenmille@dmreg.com

Templeton Rye Pork Project: Fatten Duroc pigs with mash

Restaurant chefs from all over the country are expressing interest.

Real whiskey drinkers would undoubtedly agree that some of their best ideas happen when gathered late-night around a bottle of the amber elixir with friends. (And probably some real clinkers, too.)

But the Templeton Rye Pork Project was one that stuck, says Scott Bush, founder and president of Templeton Rye, the modern (and legal) version of Iowa's own Prohibition-era whiskey. "We just sort of came up with this crazy idea one night. Like a lot of ideas in this company, though, I'm not really sure who actually came up with this one," Bush said wryly. But when the plan was floated in the sober light of day, everyone was on board immediately, including Bush's co-founder and the Templeton Rye recipe holder, Keith Kerkhoff.

Bush and Kerkhoff both have family connections to "The Good Stuff," as they call their whiskey — read: Bush's great-grandpa and Kerkhoff's grandpa were bootleggers — which led to their current partnership in reviving the Templeton Rye tradition. And in growing a Templeton "brand" pig.

"We're uniquely positioned here in Iowa to do this crazy thing. There is so much talent and so many resources in this industry right here," Bush said. "Keith and I have just been stirring the pot from the top, and everything has come together."

25 Durocs recruited

The carcass of the plan was this: Get 25 heritage Duroc pigs, known for their good meat quality and speedy growth; find a happy, open-pen place to raise them; get somebody to create a diet for them that included Templeton Rye's spent mash; find somebody to raise them up right; and find some chefs who were willing to buy them and serve them (preferably with a side of Templeton whiskey).

Check, check, check, check and check. The plan fleshed out nicely. And now there are 25 happy, 3-month-old piglets living the high life in open pens on a farm near Woodward. Their personal chef, Mark Bertram — who holds a doctoral degree in swine nutrition from Iowa State University — built a specially formulated swine diet to include about 20 percent spent mash from the Templeton distilling process. The babies' nanny, Nick Berry, is a Ph.D. animal scientist and an experienced pig farmer (and a childhood friend of Bush).

The 25 oinkers were born in January and Bush said they should be ready for processing June-July-ish. On a recent blustery "spring" day, most of the red-haired piglets were piled in a mound, snoozing in their hay nest. A few of the more peppy rascals patrolled the front of the pen, looking at gawkers and snuffling around for potential edibles. The critters are growing apace and weigh in at about 80 pounds right now — imagine a hefty bulldog — and look plump and amazingly clean (they had just finished a photo shoot). They will eventually weigh in at about 200 pounds apiece.

Though there wasn't even a whiff of manure, there was a tempting odor from the mash itself — slightly boozy (though no alcohol remains in the spent mash), a little nutty and with overtones of molasses. The sort of smell you could imagine pairing nicely with a juicy pork chop and a Sazerac.

Over the course of the pigs' lives, about 2 to 3 tons of the spent mash — enough for 400 to 600 cases of whiskey, which is at least 90 percent rye, from Templeton's distilling partner in Lawrence, Ind., will be mixed into their diet.

Interest among chefs

Restaurant chefs from all over the country are expressing interest. Like Stephanie Izard of Chicago's Girl and the Goat and Stephen Stryjewksi of Cochon in New Orleans. Locally, Orchestrate's George Formaro has joined the queue for buying a head-on, hoof-on pig, which pork lovers will eventually find in some limited form (it's only one pig after all) on the menus of Centro, Django and Malo (opening May 14).

"We're gonna have to do rock, paper, scissors (with the three chefs) because they all have ideas about what they want to do with it. I want to take the head to Malo to make posole. Or some of the belly to make chicharrones. But we'll probably send most of it to our 'meat lab' to cure it," Formaro said. The "meat lab" is Orchestrate's federally certified meat-curing facility. "That way more people will get to taste it. There's nothing worse than an exciting limited edition of something that nobody gets to try. If we make cured meat out of it, it'll go a lot further and that way a lot of people can enjoy it."

Bush seems confident in the end project, but when it comes down to it, he says, it's all a big experiment. There has been some significant upfront investment in the project, but money is not the end game. "It's just an interesting project. We'll start with these 25 and see what happens. I think it will impact the flavor of the meat and we think it will be great paired with our whiskey."

Seems like some of the country's best-known food­istas agree, judging from the onslaught of inquiries about pig purchasing.

"They say nothing good ever happens after midnight," Kerkhoff piped in. "Except at Templeton."

Bootleggers Society party

If you're not a member of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers Society, now would be a good time to join. Scott Bush and company will be throwing a big pig-centric bash to celebrate the society and the Pork Project (and Keith Kerkhoff's 60th birthday) on June 28 at Mullet's. Details will be announced later.

The Bootleggers Society is a group of Templeton Rye enthusiasts. Members receive newsletters and have access to BootleggersSociety.com. They also have access to the Pork Project party. (Hint: You can sign up at the event.) Membership is free. Sign up at www.bootleggerssociety.com.

Templeton Rye

Find Templeton Rye at www.templetonrye.com or on Facebook. More information about the Templeton Rye Pork Project is at www.templetonryeporkproject.com.