Pork

Pork is the meat of the pig. It is one of the most common meats among the Chinese and Europeans, while being considered inedible in Islamic and Orthodox Jewish law.

Table of contents

1 Varieties of pork 1.1 Other varieties 2 The pork taboo

Varieties of pork

Pork from the haunch of the pig is called ham. Other parts include pork shoulder, pork chops and pigs' feet. Sausage is often made from miscellaneous meats, and scrapple is another aggregate meat-food derived from pigs. Pork intestines are called chitterlings or chitlings. Some pork products figured prominently in the traditional diets of southern African-Americans, such as pigs' feet, hog jowls, and other parts not wanted by whites, because they were a) available to them and b) affordable for the very poor. (See soul food).

Pork products are often cured by salt (pickling) and smoking. The portion most often given this treatment is the ham, or [rear] haunch of the pig; pork shoulder, or front haunch, is also sometimes cured in this manner.

Other varieties

Bacon, chorizo, fuet, salami

The pork taboo

Muslim dietary laws and Orthodox Judaism forbide pork. There are several explanations for this.

Maimonides was the first to point that these dietary restrictions may have been created to prevent trichinosis, which can be caught from undercooked pork.

Others point to pigs being unclean, but pigs like to bathe frequently to keep cool. It's when they don't find water that they have to use mud or their own feces. Other meat beasts are as dirty as pigs.

For others, the restriction is arbitrary, a way to test the faith.

The cultural materialistic anthropologist Marvin Harris thinks that the main reason was ecological-economical. Pigs require water and shade woods with seeds, but those conditions are scarce in Israel and Arabia. They cannot forage grass like ruminants. They compete then with humans for expensive grain. Hence a Middle Eastern society keeping large stocks of pigs would destroy their ecosystem. Harris points how while the sedentary Hebrews are also forbidden to eat camels, Arab nomads couldn't afford to starve in the desert while having camels around.

He also points to Albania where a cycle is established: Christians keep pigs and live in the oak woods. Muslims keep goats and live in nude places. The goat maintains this status by eating would-be trees.