SC - Thoughts on Food

[LrdRas@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/13/98 10:51:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
margali at 99main.com writes:

<< ....<snip>....Keeping in mind that a free range pig would tend to be leaner
than
 ours today, >>

Your first premise is inaccurate as I pointed out several months ago. If by
'Free range' you mean boars then I could consider your hypothesis. 

It was not until this century, fifity to 60 years ago that domestic pigs were
bred and selected for leanness. This is why the price of lard is now so
outrageously high. Up until then, lard was THE fat of choice for cooking.
Margaringe, shortenings and your various vegetable oil blends that we now use
did not exist. 

The average weight of a pig going to market now is around 250 lbs. compared
to the average of 400 to 600 lbs. that was common before modern breeding
programs thinned them down. We always allowed our pigs to 'freely' run and did
not succumb to raising the  new fangled thin breeds. Our pigs always weighed
out to well over 350  lbs.
Those that roamed the streets of European cities were well fed with slop (sour
milk and grain) and debris thrown into the streets. Only by a large stretch of
the imagination can they be viewed as free range. Those raised on farms were
herded like cattle and did not run helter skelter all over the neighborhood.

Anyway, the point is that Medieval domestic pigs were raised for lard first
and meat second.

<the meaning of bacon may have originally included other cuts than the belly>>

Possibly but it is far more likely that the term 'bacon' included whale
blubber also which would then be OK  to use as 'larding in a salmon. You must
also take into account the size of modern farm raised salmon, as well as,
fished salmon, is much smaller than it was even 30 years ago. We're talking
35 plus pounds for a single fish. 

<<it may turn out like salmon based 'chicken' cordon bleu. food for thought?>>

I'm thinking that catfish fillets and salmon patties fried in bacon grease are
about two of the most scrumptious foods there are. :-) Fish eaten on meat days
during the MA were not subject to the rules of fish eaten during Lent. Given
that whales and pigs are somewhat closely related in the animal kingdom ,
using whale bacon is not something that should be discounted lightly.

 <<ducking and running
 margali >>

Striding forward boldly,

Ras
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