Whatever may be true of the extent to which pork and pork products are
wholesome for particular individuals, there can be no doubt that its
delicious flavour will insure its being eaten by a large number of
people who either do not know or do not care whether it agrees with them
or not. Experiments undertaken under the management of the Department of
Agriculture[1] have resulted in the conclusion that pork is as
thoroughly and easily digested, under normal conditions of health, as
any meat, although personal experience would indicate that pork does not
agree with some people as well as other kinds of meat. It is specially
important, however, that pork be very well cooked or well cured, in
order to insure against the danger from trichinosis. We are told by B.
H. Ransom[2] that it is only by eating raw or insufficiently cooked or
cured pork that there is thought to be any danger of this disease.
Curing is the process of smoking, salting, or combined salting and
smoking of meat, which acts as a preservative for it. We thus see that,
not only because it is a white meat, as mentioned in the chapter on
veal, pork and pork products should be cooked until very well done.
[1] Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 193, 1907.
[2] U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Circular
108, 1907.
As pork is the fattest of all meats, it is suitable for a cold-weather
diet and will probably be found to agree better at that season. For
whatever reason it may be, fresh pork seems to be less wholesome than
when cured, bacon having the reputation of being one of the most easily
digested of all fats.
Young pigs (four weeks old) are frequently dressed and roasted whole.
[Illustration: Figure No. 10.