# Pork

Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (Sus domesticus). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC.

## Quotes

* And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
** Leviticus 11:7 (KJV)
* They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
** Isaiah 66:17 (KJV)
* He hath forbidden you only carrion, and blood, and swineflesh, and that which hath been immolated to (the name of) any other than Allah. But he who is driven by necessity, neither craving nor transgressing, it is no sin for him. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
** Quran 2:173 (Pickthall)
* PIG, n. An animal (Porcus omnivorus) closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.
** Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
* TRICHNOSIS, n. The pig's reply to proponents of porcophagy.Moses Mendlessohn having fallen ill sent for a Christian physician, who at once diagnosed the philosopher's disorder as trichinosis, but tactfully gave it another name. "You need an immediate change of diet," he said; "you must eat six ounces of pork every other day.""Pork?" shrieked the patient—"pork? Nothing shall induce me to touch it!""Do you mean that?" the doctor gravely asked."I swear it!""Good!—then I will undertake to cure you."
** Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
* Ham is generally not half-soaked; as salt as brine, and hard as flint; and it would puzzle the stomach of an ostrich to digest it.
** William Kitchiner, The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual (New York: J. J. Harper, 1830), p. 118
* He was a shrewd and sound Divine, Of loud Dissent the mortal terror; And when, by dint of page and line, He ’stablish’d Truth, or startled Error, The Baptist found him far too deep; The Deist sigh’d with saving sorrow; And the lean Levite went to sleep, And dream’d of tasting pork to-morrow.
** Winthrop Mackworth Praed, "Everyday Characters. I. The Vicar", in Frederick Cooper, ed., Poems (1886), p. 199
* ‘Now with the sucking pig we’ll have —’‘Sucking pig?’ said Croxley. ‘We’ve got a firm of frozen-food specialists downstairs and if you think they can rustle up a deepfreeze sucking pig at the drop of a hat...’‘Listen Croxley, if I say I want sucking pig I mean I want sucking pig. And anyway they don’t rustle the sucking things. At least to the best of my knowledge they don’t. They snatch the little buggers from their mother’s teats and —’‘Yes, sir,’ said Croxley hurriedly, cutting short the terrible explanation he could see coming. ‘Sucking pigs it is.’‘No it isn’t. It’s one, one with an apple between its gums.’
** Tom Sharpe, Ancestral Vices (1980), Ch. 3
* ‘And you need not turn up your nose at the provender, Master Gimli,’ said Merry. ‘This is not orc-stuff, but man-food, as Treebeard calls it. Will you have wine or beer? There’s a barrel inside there – very passable. And this is first-rate salted pork. Or I can cut you some rashers of bacon and broil them, if you like. I am sorry there is no green stuff: the deliveries have been rather interrupted in the last few days! I cannot offer you anything to follow but butter and honey for your bread. Are you content?’‘Indeed yes,’ said Gimli. ‘The score is much reduced.’
** J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers (1954), Flotsam and Jetsam
* Pippin: The salted pork is particularly good. Gimli [longingly]: Salted pork?
** The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

### Metaphorical

* LITIGATION, n. A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.
** Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
* His Waistcoat and Trowsers were made of Pork Chops;—
** Edward Lear, "The New Vestments", in Laughable Lyrics (1877)
* Like enough, you won’t be glad, When they come to hang you, lad: But bacon’s not the only thing That’s cured by hanging from a string.
** Hugh Kingsmill Lunn, Two Poems, after A. E. Housman (1933)

## See also

* Bacon