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Definitions of Pig and Pork Products
By Pig on a Spit - Apr 26, 2008 |
 
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Definitions of Pig and Pork Products
 Definitions of some of the terms you may come across on this website.
Pig - Pigs, also called hogs or swine have been domesticated as sources of food, leather, and other products since ancient times. Pigs are believed to have been domesticated from wild boar as early as 7000 BC in the Near East and, separately, in China. Native to Eurasia, they are collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae family and are known for their exceptional intelligence. Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals. Pigs can harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans. These include trichinosis, Tenia solium, cysticercosis, and brucellosis. Pigs are also known to host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract.
Bacon - Certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, belly or back of a pig that may be cured and/or smoked. Pork, upon being cured by smoking, is regarded as bacon. It is sometimes used for larding purposes, it contains more lean than salt pork, has a very pleasing flavor, and is the most easily digested fat known.
Boar - This is the name for a male pig. An intact male is a boar, a castrated male is called a barrow. Male pigs become sexually active at about 8 to 10 months of age.
Bratwurst - A sausage composed of pork, beef, and/or veal. The name is German, derived from Old High German brätwurst, from brät which is fine chopped meat and wurst, sausage.
Canadian Bacon - Back bacon in the US is called Canadian style bacon or simply Canadian bacon.
Chorizo - A term encompassing several types of pork sausage. It can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked, but in Europe it is more frequently a fermented cured smoked sausage, in which case it is usually sliced and eaten without cooking. - Spanish chorizo - Made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and usually seasoned with chili, paprika and garlic.
Country Ham - Uncooked, cured, dried, smoked-or-unsmoked, made from a single piece of meat from the hind leg of a hog or from a single piece of meat from a pork shoulder.
Cracklings - American name for pork rind produced by frying or roasting.
Cured - Under the heading of cured pork may be included many of the cuts of pork, for a large part of a pork carcass can be preserved by curing. However, this term is usually restricted to include salt pork, bacon, and ham. Ham can either be dry cured or wet cured. A dry cured ham has been rubbed in a mixture containing salt and a variety of other ingredients followed by a period of drying and ageing. Wet cured ham has been cured with a brine, either by immersion or injection. The division between wet and dry cure is not always hard-and-fast as some ham curing methods begin wet but are followed by dry aging.
Farrowing - The name given to a pig giving birth.
Fresh ham - An uncured hind leg of pork.
Head cheese - or brawn is meat from the head of a calf or pig and sometimes a sheep or cow. It may also include meat from the feet and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat. It is sometimes also known as souse meat, particularly if pickled with vinegar.
Ham - The thigh and rump of any animal that is slaughtered for meat, but the term is usually restricted to a cut of pork, the haunch of a pig or boar. Although it can be cooked and served fresh, most ham is cured in some fashion.
Hangi - An ancient New Zealand Maori method of cooking food, especially whole pigs, using super heated rocks buried in the ground in a pit oven. Modernised hangi methods are still used today and are often saved for special occasions due to the large amount of time and preparatory work involved.
Herd - A group of pigs is called a herd, and a smaller group foraging in the woods is called a sounder.
Hocks - Hocks are the lower part of the leg, between the shank end of a ham or picnic ham, and the pigs feet, the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the foot or ankle. The hocks contain considerable gelatine, so they are used for dishes that solidify, or become firm, after they are made.
Kalua - A traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes an imu, or underground oven. The word kalua literally means "to cook in an underground oven" and also describes the flavor of food cooked in this manner - e.g. the kalua pig which is commonly served at luau feasts.
Larding - The insertion of strips of fat pork into lean meat. The fat is inserted before cooking.
Lardon - A piece of salt pork or bacon used in larding.
Piglets - A litter of piglets usually consists of between 6 and 12 piglets.
Pig on a Spit - A large rotisserie is used for spit roasting a whole pig. The pig is skewered on a spit and the carcass suspended over hot coals. The horizontal spit revolves slowly to allow the meat to cook evenly. In the past rotisseries were turned by hand or by clockwork devices. Today, they are usually rotated by electric motors.
Pigs knuckles - A lean boneless cut from the tip portion which is the front part of the leg above the kneecap also known as the forecushion of the hog.
Pork - The domestic pig is farmed for its meat called pork. Products made of pork include sausage, bacon and ham.
Pork chop - A cut of meat cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra and served as an individual portion. Rib chops come from the rib portion of the loin, and are similar to rib eye steaks. Blade or shoulder chops are cut from the shoulder end of the loin.
Pork Crackling - British name for the salted crunchy pork rind produced when roasting a joint of pork. The heat of the oven causes the fatty pork skin to dry, bubble up and become crunchy.
Pork Rind - The skin of a pig.
Pork Sausage - The trimmings and some of the internal organs of pork are generally utilized to make sausage by chopping them very fine and then highly seasoning the chopped meat.
Pork Scratchings - British name for deep fried salted crunchy pork rind with fat produced separately from the meat. This is then eaten cold.
Salt pork - Made from pork bellies, cured with salt as a preservative and flavoring. Salt pork is similar to bacon but not smoked like bacon. It is a lot fattier and than bacon.pigle
Scrunchions - Newfoundland term for small pieces of pork rind or pork fat-back fried until rendered and crispy.
Smithfield ham - A specific form of the country ham, a product which originated in the Town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.
Smoked ham - Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving ham by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood.
Sow - A young female pig who has borne fewer than two litters is known as a gilt. A female who has borne more than two litters is called a sow. A female pig can become pregnant at 8 to 18 months of age. She will then go into estrus every 21 days if not bred.
Sty - As in pig sty. A building in which a pig is kept.
Suckling pig - A young pig that has only fed on its mother's milk. The piglet is killed between the ages of two to six weeks and traditionally roasted. It is usually reserved for special occasions.
Trotters - The feet of a pig.
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