Trotter Christopher - The Whole Hog : recipes and lore for everything but the oink

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Roast pork

Roast rolled leg of pork with sesame potatoes and wild garlic apple sauce

Honey roast pork with roast potatoes and apples

Slow-roast shoulder of pork

German roast pork

P ERFECT CRACKLING

Pork and leek pie

Loin of pork with mustard and vermouth

Burmese golden pork

Hot and sour soup

Sweet and sour pork

Medallions of pork with orange

Pork fillet with caraway and tomatoes

Braised pork belly with fennel

Boiled pork belly with lentils

Cinghiale in dolce-forte

Hungarian goulash

Ragout of pork with prunes and leeks

Pork chops with chicory and lemon

Casserole of pork with fresh herbs and ale

Pork with plums

Pork with creamed leeks

Loin of pork with lemon and mushroom sauce

Baked chops in foil with apple and honey

Escalopes of pork with avocado and sage

Spare ribs

Sauces: red pepper, sweet and sour, American

Steamed pork, bacon and leek pudding

Asturian bean stew

Spaghetti carbonara

Ragged Jack Kale with smoked bacon and Anster cheese

Leek and smoked bacon risotto

Salads

Frise and bacon

Salad of bitter greens with poached eggs and prosciutto

Salad with potato and mustard dressing

Salsa verde

Prosciutto with fruits

Dean & Deluca croque signor

BLT

To cook a ham in comfort

Leek and ham with cheese sauce

Ham and haddie

Ham, chicken and mushroom pie

Feijoada

Tomato, ham and herb tarts

Ham with asparagus and Hollandaise

Pease pudding

Pea and ham soup

T HE HAM SANDWICH

Making sausages

Homemade sausages

Homemade mash

Other sausage mixes: Wiltshire, spicy sage, Italian

S AUSAGE SANDWICH

Sausage in brioche

Scotch eggs

Sausage rolls

Spanish stew with tripe and chickpeas

Tortilla con chorizo

Olla podrida

Meatballs in tomato sauce

Pounti

Choucroute

Homemade choucroute

Choucroute garni

Petit sal

Galician soup

Bigos

Fricadeller

Pts and terrines

Country pt

Pork and pistachio terrine

Pig(eon) terrine

Rillettes Meat loaf

Bath chaps

Kidneys with mustard and mushrooms

Brawn

Faggots

T HE BIG BREAKFAST

Pigs liver with lemon and honey

Cassoulet

Cheats cassoulet

Traditional cassoulet

Castilian pigs trotters

Pied de cochon Ste Menhould

Pork pie

Pork scratchings

Stock

Tomato sauce

Madeira sauce

Sauce gribiche

Pastry

Skirlie

Lardy cake

White bread

The pig, a most fascinating and iconic creature, has been both reviled and revered at various times throughout history. Often misrepresented as greedy, lazy and dirty, the pig has gradually achieved a more prominent and pleasing role in popular culture.

Round, jolly pigs are portrayed as loveable characters in nursery rhymes and childrens literature, such as the tale of The Three Little Pigs, Beatrix Potters Little Pig Robinson and Pigling Bland, and Alison Uttleys Sam Pig. Pigs appear in art and advertising and as ornaments and piggy banks. Despite their pleasingly round and piglike shape, it is widely believed that piggy banks were not named after the animal. In the Middle Ages, jars and containers were made of a clay called pygg. People stored salt and saved coins in the jars, which themselves became known as pyggs. By the eighteenth century, this clay was no longer used and the containers were made of ceramic, but retained the name pygg. Nineteenth-century English potters produced the containers in the shape of a pig, which looked appealing, particularly to children. In the Netherlands and German-speaking countries, where the pig is a symbol of luck and good fortune, it is traditional to give piggy banks as gifts. In Germany, pigs made of marzipan are given as gifts at Christmas and New Year for good luck.

In Celtic culture, pigs were associated with the Otherworld (the Lord of the Otherworld was usually depicted with a pig over his shoulder) and the feasts of the dead, and symbolised abundance. Swineherds were believed to be magicians and in Irish folklore swineherds could cross from the Otherworld to this world and back again.

Pigs even have their own patron saint St Anthony the Great (also referred to as The Abbot), an Egyptian Christian in the second century AD, who lived in the desert as an anchorite (recluse) for parts of his life. St Antony is also the patron saint of swineherds and pig keepers, and in art is normally portrayed with a pig nearby. His link with pigs is somewhat complicated. Skin diseases of the time were sometimes treated with applications of pork fat mixed with herbs (which reduced inflammation and itching) and Antony is credited with healing such conditions, so he was portrayed in art accompanied by a pig. People who saw the paintings took them at face value and thought there was a direct connection between Antony and pigs; thereafter, people who worked with swine took him as their patron.

The origin of the word pig is unclear: the Oxford English Dictionary suggests it is Middle English (the period between the Norman invasion and about 1470). The word pork refers to the edible flesh of a pig and is derived from the French porc and Latin porcus words for pig. Hog is an older English word, possibly of Celtic origin, for a domesticated pig.

The pig is surely the most useful animal in the world. It was domesticated from wild boar around 9000 years ago in the Near East. Written records show that pigs were being reared in China around 5,000BC.

The ancient Egyptians farmed and ate pigs and regarded them as sacred to the god Seth. The ancient Greeks also kept pigs and served pork at feasts, but it was the ancient Romans who perfected the art of pig breeding, rearing, cooking and curing the meat. Pork was so much in demand in Rome that it had to be supplemented with imported supplies from Gaul, where an abundance of wild pigs thrived in the forests.

Recent research by Durham University, England, has revealed that domesticated pigs in Europe were introduced by Stone Age farmers from the Middle East, while research from the Universities of Oxford and Durham has shown that the first European domestic pigs appeared in Central Europe and the areas we know as Italy and Germany around 1,500 BC ; by 800 BC they had reached Britain.