Pork

Generalities and classification

Pork is one of the "white meats", as, after slaughter, it takes on a much lighter color than that of "red meats":

beef, horse, sheep etc. and "black meat" or game: fallow deer, wild boar, deer, hare, pheasant, etc .; together with pork, they fall into the same category: chicken, turkey, rabbit, veal, lamb, young kid etc. Some authors, however, make pork fall into the group of red meats, especially as regards the meat cuts of adult specimens and those preserved.
Pork NEEDS complete cooking, that is, it reaches the heart of the food; this precaution is necessary for two reasons:

• Pork, like other white meats, reaches its maximum organoleptic and gustatory properties with cooking; to cook the pork a little would mean penalizing its flavor.
• Pork is subject to parasites (which affect the live animal) and bacterial contamination (during slaughter); only complete cooking eliminates its harmfulness.

Pork can be classified according to 4 methods:

1. Age of the slaughtered animal: pork takes on different characteristics depending on the diet of the animal and the development of muscle mass. It follows that the meat of a suckling pig (porchetta up to 3 months, 25kg weight), compared to that of an adult pig (110-180kg), is noticeably different both in consistency (more tender) and in taste ( less intense).
2. Breeding method: pigs can be reared at home or industrial level; with regard to this last type, the following are further differentiated: the intensive, the extensive and the organic. The home breeding produces a better quality pork, while the intensive industrial one tends to offer a less appreciable product (in addition to require greater use of drugs). On the other hand, extensive industrial farming represents a good compromise between profitability and production costs, while pork obtained from organic farms (although of very good quality) stands out for its decidedly higher and not always sustainable costs. of the 4 types of pork it mainly concerns the taste and the quantity of muscle water (higher in intensively reared animals).
3. Normal feeding or overeating: pig rearing can be aimed at the slaughter of a heavy or light animal; while the heavy pig is older and heavily overfed (it can reach almost 180-200 kg in weight), the light one rarely exceeds 100-110 kg. Heavy pork is therefore much fatter and is intended for the production of preserved meat (sausages and salted meats), on the contrary, the light one represents the primary source of fresh and ready-to-eat meat.
4. Sizes of the pig: as for all other animals, also in the pig a distinction of the various sizes is used. After the slaughter, the animal is then divided into several parts; below we will list them all, but without going into too much detail:
1. Head: divided into lean, bone and fat; the pig's head is used both for food production and for the production of protein flours for zootechnical use
2. Throat and pillow: they consist of the fat of the stretch between the head and the shoulder; these parts are essential in the packaging of raw and cooked sausages but can also be used for the production of a very fine salami.
3. Shoulder: from this portion of the pig a meat is obtained which is suitable for the production of a cooked salami called "cotta shoulder" (very similar to cooked ham); you can also get the rump (for the salami) and the muscle (for the cotechino, the pot salami, the frankfurters, etc.).
4. Bacon: it is the anterior part of the side; it can be distinguished in a lean part and in a fat part. The fat one is ideal for the production of rolled bacon, tight pancetta etc., while the "lean" pancetta represents a classic cut of fresh fatty pork.
5. Thigh: it is the cut of the most prized pork. It is used for the production of raw ham, cooked ham or even for salami, but it looks good if broken down into the various muscles and used as fresh lean pork.
6. Coppa or capocollo: properly cleaned, it is one of the ingredients of salami and cooked ham; they too constitute a fatty size of fresh pork.
7. Loin or loin: it is divided into three parts: loin, loin and capocollo (the latter already described). The loin is generally dedicated to the production of chops, while the loin is intended for the production of boneless steaks; they are both to be classified among the fresh and lean pork meats.
8. Legs: they are emptied and used as a container for the zampone.
9. fat: divided into lard, lard, perirenal fat (or lard), hard back, throat fat. They are all used for the preparation of raw and cooked sausages except the lard which, after processing, is destined to become lard.
10. Rind: it is the previously cleaned and scraped skin of the pig.If minced, it becomes part of the cotechino and the zampone, while the excess becomes animal jelly. The rind is a fatty cut since it includes the subcutaneous fat; eliminating the latter, the rind would not be excessively caloric.
11. Offal: they constitute (together with the rind, bones, blood, bristles, nails and visceral fat) the fifth quarter of the pig and have totally different applications; offal must be evaluated one by one as they have completely heterogeneous nutritional characteristics. On average, offal makes up a cholesterol-rich but not necessarily high-calorie pork. What is left over after slaughtering and the production of cured meats is used for the production of animal meal.

Hygienic aspects

As mentioned above, fresh pork is a white meat that requires thorough cooking; RAW cured meats and sausages, on the other hand, are produced with processes that prevent bacterial proliferation during the entire storage period, although this does not exclude that the meat may be infested from the very beginning or infected during slaughter (reason for which raw cured meats and sausages are totally contraindicated in the diet of pregnant women).
From a microbiological point of view, pork tends to be prone to bacterial contamination of: Salmonella And Yersinia enterocolica; moreover, considering the propensity to parasites of the animal in question, it cannot be excluded that its meat may contain: Trichinella spiralis And Toxoplasma gondii.
Let us remember once again that the only method to guarantee the healthiness of pork is total cooking, ie that it reaches the heart of the food and exceeds a temperature of 70 ° C.

Nutritional characteristics

FRESH pork is a product of animal origin that contains an excellent quantity of proteins with a high biological value and provides a variable lipid ration especially based on the type of pig (light or heavy) and the designated size; fatty cuts of heavy pork can reach and exceed 300kcal (e.g. fresh bacon), while lean cuts of light pork do not much exceed 100-140kcal (e.g. leg or loin).
Being a product of animal origin, pork contains mainly saturated cholesterol and fatty acids (which make up triglycerides). NB. Both saturated fatty acids and cholesterol represent an unfavorable element for the metabolism of cholesterol, since they tend to increase the bad cholesterol circulating in the blood (LDL cholesterol); this means that, in case of hypercholesterolemia, pork (but not only that) is a food to be consumed with moderation.
Pork provides good quantities of water-soluble vitamins such as: thiamine, riboflavin and niacin, and there is no shortage of mineral salts which are very useful to the body such as: iron, potassium and phosphorus.

Recipes

Pork chops stuffed with mushrooms and cheese on a bed of apples

Alice, our PersonalCooker, is on air on MypersonaltrainerTv to explain step by step how to transform "simple" pork chops into an irresistible dish even for the most reluctant to embrace new culinary trends.



Stuffed pork chop on a bed of apples

Problems with playing the video? Reload the video from youtube.

• Go to the Video Page
• Go to the Video Recipes Section
• Watch the video on youtube

Other Foods - Amatriciana Meat Lamb - Lamb Meat Duck - Duck Meat Pork Chop Florentine Steak Boiled Broth Raw Meat Red Meat White Meat Beef Horse Meat Rabbit Meat Pork Meat Vegetable Meat Lean Meat Sheep and Goat Meat Carpaccio Ribs Cotechino Cutlet Snails or land snails Pheasant and Pheasant meat Guinea fowl - Guinea fowl meat Pork fillet Chicken Hamburger Hot Dog Kebab Patè Chicken breast Turkey breast Chicken - Chicken meat Meatballs Porchetta Quail - Quail meat Ragù Sausage Game Zampone OTHER ARTICLES MEAT Categories Food Alcoholic Meat Cereals and derivatives Sweeteners Sweets Offal Fruit Dried fruit Milk and derivatives Legumes Oils and fats Fish and fishery products Salami Spices Vegetables Health recipes Appetizers Bread, Pizza and Brioche First courses Second courses Vegetables and Salads Sweets and Desserts Ice creams and sorbets Syrups, liqueurs and grappas Preparations of Basic ---- In the Kitchen with Leftovers Carnival Recipes Christmas Recipes Diet Recipes Light Recipes Women's Day, Mom, Dad Functional Recipes International Recipes Easter Recipes Recipes for Celiacs Recipes for Diabetics Recipes for Holidays Recipes for Valentine's Day Recipes for Vegetarians Recipes Protein Regional Recipes Vegan Recipes