Okay, stand by for a full on Kermodian-style rant…
It’s Christmas, I understand that. A time to enjoy all the things you’ve not had the money, or the time, or whatever, thought the past year. Let’s face it it’s a time of self indulgence, and on that level I’m all for it.
But where during the past year would anyone sit down and think, you know what, I’d love to eat a baby?
So why over Christmas would anyone want to eat a suckling pig?
I’ve been asked a dozen times in the past week to supply suckling pigs, two from really, really well known top London restaurants.
Do these people know what a suckling pig is? It’s a piglet under eight weeks old who’s still feeding from its mother. I would literally have to pull it off the breast, take it to the abattoir screaming, and have it killed – even the slaughter men hate doing it, and these are not squeamish boys.
God that’s barbaric.
And when that’s done, it would go off and be cooked. Okay this next bit is a guess because I’ve never eaten suckling pig on principle, but it’s an educated guess. It would be flavourless. The meat would have had no time to mature, intensify and develop any depth of flavour.
It might be tender, but any good cook can make pork tender, especially the pork I produce.
I rear my pigs to between eight months and a year old. They have a good, free range, happy life, without stress or fear, and plenty of time to develop a real distinctive porky flavour. To me, as a producer, that’s important.
However, the quality of the pork is incidental in this rant.
Come on, if you’ve a choice on the menu this Christmas, please pick something other than suckling pig.
It’s Christmas, I understand that. A time to enjoy all the things you’ve not had the money, or the time, or whatever, thought the past year. Let’s face it it’s a time of self indulgence, and on that level I’m all for it.
But where during the past year would anyone sit down and think, you know what, I’d love to eat a baby?
So why over Christmas would anyone want to eat a suckling pig?
I’ve been asked a dozen times in the past week to supply suckling pigs, two from really, really well known top London restaurants.
Do these people know what a suckling pig is? It’s a piglet under eight weeks old who’s still feeding from its mother. I would literally have to pull it off the breast, take it to the abattoir screaming, and have it killed – even the slaughter men hate doing it, and these are not squeamish boys.
God that’s barbaric.
And when that’s done, it would go off and be cooked. Okay this next bit is a guess because I’ve never eaten suckling pig on principle, but it’s an educated guess. It would be flavourless. The meat would have had no time to mature, intensify and develop any depth of flavour.
It might be tender, but any good cook can make pork tender, especially the pork I produce.
I rear my pigs to between eight months and a year old. They have a good, free range, happy life, without stress or fear, and plenty of time to develop a real distinctive porky flavour. To me, as a producer, that’s important.
However, the quality of the pork is incidental in this rant.
Come on, if you’ve a choice on the menu this Christmas, please pick something other than suckling pig.
Hypocritical wimp! You raise pigs for slaughter! Get with it.
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