Pork

For other uses, see Pork (disambiguation).

Pork tenderloin served French style.

Two halves of pork being delivered

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig (Sus scrofa), often specifically the fresh meat but can be used as an all-inclusive term. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig cultivation dating back to 5000 BC.

Pork is eaten in various forms, including cooked (as roast pork), smoked (ham, including the Italian Prosciutto) or both (gammon, bacon or Pancetta). It is also a common ingredient of sausages. As with beef, pork consumption is taboo in some religions and cultures.

Etymology

The term as it refers to the (fresh) flesh of a pig dates from the Middle English, derived from the French porc and Latin porcus "pig". Also Edy.

History

The pig is one of the oldest forms of livestock, having been domesticated as early as 5000 BC. It is believed to have been domesticated either in the Near East or in China from the wild boar. The adaptable nature and omnivorous diet of this creature allowed early humans to domesticate it much earlier than many other forms of livestock, such as cattle. Pigs were mostly used for food, but people also used their hide for shields and shoes, their bones for tools and weapons, and their bristles for brushes. Pigs have other roles within the human economy: their feeding behaviour in searching for roots churns up the ground and makes it easier to plough; their sensitive noses lead them to truffles, an underground fungus highly valued by humans; and their omnivorous nature enables them to eat human rubbish, keeping settlements cleaner than they would otherwise have been.

Before the mass-production and re-engineering of pork in the 20th Century, pork in Europe and North America was traditionally an autumn dish; pigs and other livestock coming to the slaughter in the autumn after growing in the spring and fattening during the summer. Due to the seasonal nature of the meat in Western culinary history, apples (harvested in late summer and autumn) have been a staple pairing to fresh pork. The year-round availability of meat and fruits has not diminished the popularity of this combination on Western plates.

Breeds for eating

One of the breeds of swine is that of Berkshire branded sheep, Berkshire (also known as the latter) hogs are highly recognized and known for their supreme quality gourmet meat. A number of registry associations are set to guard the purity of the Berkshire breed. Characteristics of the breed include slow growth patterns, higher consumption of feed, and black coloring of the skin. With its high intramuscular marbling, kurobuta pork meat is much more flavorful than traditional pork. This is why many refer to Kurobuta as the "Kobe" of pork

Consumption patterns

A traditional Austrian pork dish, served with potato croquettes, vegetables, mushrooms and gravy.

Pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world, providing about 38 percent of daily meat protein intake worldwide, although consumption varies widely from place to place. This is despite religious restrictions on the consumption of pork and the prominence of beef production in the West. Pork consumption has been rising for thirty years, both in actual terms and in terms of meat-market share.

According to the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, nearly 100 million metric tons of pork were consumed worldwide in 2006 (preliminary data). Increasing urbanization and disposable income has led to a rapid rise in pork consumption in China, where 2006 consumption is 20% higher than in 2002, and a further 5% increase projected in 2007.

2006 worldwide pork consumption

	Region	Metric tons (millions)	Per capita (kg)
1	People's Republic of China	52.5	40.0
2	EU25	20.1	43.9
3	United States	8.7	29.0
4	Russian Federation	2.6	18.1
5	Japan	2.5	19.8
	Others	12.2	n/a
	Total	98.9	n/a
Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, preliminary data for 2006.

Pork products

Pork may be cooked from fresh meat or cured over time. Cured meat products include ham and bacon. The carcass may be utilized in many different ways for fresh meat cuts, with the popularity of certain cuts and certain carcass proportions varying worldwide.

Fresh meat

Most of the carcass can be used to produce fresh meat and in the case of a suckling pig the whole body of a young pig ranging in age from two to six weeks is roasted.

Processed pork

Pork is particularly common as an ingredient of sausages. Many traditional European sausages are made with pork, including chorizo, fuet, and salami. Most brands of American hot dogs and breakfast sausage are made from pork.

Ham and bacon are made from fresh pork by curing with salt (pickling) and/or smoking. Shoulders and legs are most commonly cured in this manner for ham whereas streaky and round bacon usually comes from the loin, although it may also come from the side and belly.

Roasted pork knuckle

Ham and bacon are popular foods in the west, and their consumption has increased with industrialisation. Non-western cuisines also use preserved meat products. For example, salted preserved pork or red roasted pork is used in Chinese and Asian cuisine.

Bacon is defined as any of certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, belly or back that may be cured and/or smoked. In continental Europe, it is used primarily in cubes (lardons) as a cooking ingredient valued both as a source of fat and for its flavour. In Italy, besides being used in cooking, bacon (pancetta) is also served uncooked and thinly sliced as part of an antipasto. Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game birds. Many people prefer to have their bacon smoked by using various types of woods. This process can take up to ten hours depending on the intensity of the flavour desired. Bacon may be eaten fried, baked, or grilled.

A side of unsliced bacon is a flitch or slab bacon, while an individual slice of bacon is a rasher (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) or simply a slice or strip (North America). Slices of bacon are also known as collops. Traditionally, the skin is left on the cut and is known as bacon rind. Rindless bacon, however, is quite common. In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, bacon comes in a wide variety of cuts and flavours whereas bacon in the United States and is predominantly what is known as "streaky bacon", or "streaky rashers". Bacon made from the meat on the back of the pig is referred to as back bacon and is part of traditional British and Irish breakfasts. In the United States, back bacon may also be referred to as Canadian-style Bacon or Canadian Bacon.

The USDA defines bacon as "the cured belly of a swine carcass," while other cuts and characteristics must be separately qualified (e.g. "smoked pork loin bacon"). "USDA Certified" bacon means that it has been treated for trichinella.

The canned meat Spam is made of chopped pork shoulder meat and ham.

Cuts

There are different systems of naming for cuts in America, Britain and France.

British cuts of pork.

American cuts of pork.

• Head - This can be used to make brawn, stocks and soups. After boiling the ears can be fried or baked and eaten separately.
• Spare Rib Roast/Spare Rib Joint/Blade Shoulder/Shoulder Butt - This is the shoulder and contains the shoulder blade. It can be boned out and rolled up as a roasting joint, or cured as "collar bacon". Not to be confused with the rack of spare ribs from the front belly. Pork butt, despite its name, is from the upper part of the shoulder. Boston Butt, or Boston-Style Shoulder, cut comes from this area, and may contain the shoulder blade.
• Hand/Arm Shoulder/Arm Picnic - This can be cured on the bone to make a ham, or used in sausages.

Vacuum packed pork loin fillets

• Loin - This can be cured to give back bacon or Canadian-style bacon. The loin and belly can be cured together to give a side of bacon. The loin can also be divided up into roasts (blade loin roasts, center loin roasts, and sirloin roasts come from the front, center, or rear of the loin), back ribs (also called baby back ribs, or riblets), pork cutlets, and pork chops. A pork loin crown roast is arranged into a circle, either boneless or with rib bones protruding upward as points in a crown. Pork tenderloin, removed from the loin, should be practically free of fat.
• Belly/Side/Side Pork - The belly, although a fattier meat, can be used for steaks or diced stir-fry meat. Belly pork may be rolled for roasting or cut for streaky bacon.
• Legs/Hams - Although any cut of pork can be cured, technically speaking only the back leg is entitled to be called a ham. Legs and shoulders, when used fresh, are usually cut bone-in for roasting, or leg steaks can be cut from the bone. Three common cuts of the leg include the rump (upper portion), center, and shank (lower portion).
• Trotters - Both the front and hind trotters can be cooked and eaten, as can the tail.
• Spare ribs, or spareribs, are taken from the pig's ribs and the meat surrounding the bones. St. Louis-style spareribs have the sternum, cartilage, and skirt meat removed.

Use of the whole carcass

In order to utilise the whole carcass ("everything but the squeal"), parts of the pig such as knuckle, pig's feet ("trotters"), chitterlings (pork intestines), and hog jowls may be eaten. In earlier centuries in the United States some of these products figured prominently in the traditional diets of poor Southerners (see soul food). Scrapple and McRib are other examples of aggregate pork products.

Feijoada, the national dish of Brazil, is prepared with pork trimmings: ears, tail and feet.

Nutrition

File:No-carb pork.jpg

A pack of Tesco diced pork with the reminder that pork contains 'no carbs'.

In gastronomy, pork is traditionally considered a white meat, but in nutritional studies, it is usually grouped with beef as "red meat", and public perceptions have been changing. Its myoglobin content is lower than beef, but much higher than chicken white meat. The USDA treats pork as a red meat. Pork is very high in thiamin.

In 1987 the U.S. National Pork Board, began an advertising campaign to position pork as "the other white meat" due to a public perception of chicken and turkey (white meat) as more healthy than red meat. The campaign was highly successful and resulted in 87% of consumers identifying pork with the slogan. As of 2005, the slogan is still used in marketing pork, with some variations.

The consumption of raw or undercooked pork may lead to trichinosis, though this is rare in the developed world.

Religious bans of pork consumption

Main article: Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork

Throughout the Islamic world, as well as in Israel many countries severely restrict the importation or consumption of pork products. Examples are Iran, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Pork is one of the best-known of a category of foods that are forbidden under traditional Jewish dietary law. The biblical basis for the Jewish prohibition of pork is in Leviticus 11:7.

Seventh-day Adventists likewise eat no pork.

Audio

• One hour radio broadcast on pork production that explores hog factories, antibiotics, manure and sustainable farms. Courtesy of the Deconstructing Dinner radio program - Kootenay Co-op Radio.

External links

• The Other White Meat Pork Main Website
• National Pork Board Pork Producer's Main Website
• The Pork of Bayeux
• About Kurobuta Pork Meat
• National Pork Producers' Council
• Pork Magazine
• Nutrition facts