Pork

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For other uses, see Pork (disambiguation).
Image:Filet de Porc à la Bordelaise.JPG
Pork tenderloin served French style.
Image:Pork dsc06559.jpg
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,[1] with evidence of pig cultivation dating back to 5000 BC.

Pork is eaten in various forms, including cooked (as roast pork), cured or smoked (ham, including the Italian Prosciutto) or a combination of these methods (gammon, bacon or Pancetta). It is also a common ingredient of sausages. As with beef in Hinduism, pork consumption is taboo in Islam, Judaism and Adventism.

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[edit] 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".[2] It was one of almost 500 French words pertaining to cooking, food or eating that had entered English usage after the Norman Conquest.[3]

[edit] History

The pig is one of the oldest forms of livestock, having been domesticated as early as 5000 BC.[4] 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.

[edit] Consumption patterns

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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.[5] 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.[citation needed]

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.[6]

[edit] 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.[6]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

Image:Schweizerhaus roast knuckle dsc02946.jpg
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 have been 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, using various types of wood. 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 Full breakfast commonly eaten in Britain and Ireland. In the United States, back bacon may also be referred to as Canadian-style Bacon or Canadian Bacon.[7]

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").[8] "USDA Certified" bacon means that it has been treated for trichinella.

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

[edit] Cuts

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

Image:British Pork Cuts.svg
British cuts of pork.
Image:American Pork Cuts.svg
American cuts of pork.
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