PORK 



4764 



PORPHYRY 



meat are used in making sausage. A delicacy 

 known as pickled pigs' feet is prepared by boil- 

 ing the feet of the pig and covering them with 

 white-wine vinegar. Young, tender pigs are 

 often roasted whole, their flesh being sweet, 

 juicy and savory. Charles Lamb, in A Disserta- 

 tion Upon Roast Pig, made this favorite dish 

 world fan. 



Pork as Food. Pork contains a larger per- 

 centage of fat than any other meat, and this 

 fat is the most difficult to digest of all the flesh 

 foods. It has, however, superior heat-produc- 

 ing qualities, salt pork possessing a fuel value 



COMPOSITION OF PORK 



of 3,555 calories per pound (see CALORIE) ; it is 

 therefore a splendid diet for cold weather, but 

 should be avoided in summer. Bacon is the 

 most nutritious and most digestible of the pork 

 meats. Pork lends itself to curing much more 

 satisfactorily than either beef or mutton, and 

 its flavor grows richer and more delicate with 

 the passage of time. Cured pork products are 

 therefore among the most useful of meat foods. 

 The dishes prepared from pork are almost be- 

 yond number, for there seems to be no end 

 to the ways in which it can be cooked or com- 

 bined with other foods. The United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture especially recommends 

 as savory and palatable dishes the old-fash- 

 ioned salt-pork milk gravy, and cowpeas baked 

 with salt pork or bacon in the same manner as 

 pork and beans. 



Objections to Pork. Because of the indis- 

 criminate and unlimited appetite of the swine, 

 the eating of pork has, in the past, been subject 

 to severe criticism. It is true that pork, more 

 than any other meat, is responsible for intro- 

 ducing parasites into the human body, but it is 

 equally true that the careless, unsanitary meth- 

 ods of feeding that formerly prevailed are being 

 gradually replaced by wholesome and scientific 

 methods. The best modern breeders are as 

 careful about the hog, with respect to diet, as 



they are with any other stock. The flesh of a 

 hog which has been bred in a cleanly manner 

 is as wholesome as beef or mutton. However, 

 pork should never be eaten without being 

 thoroughly cooked. 



From time immemorial the Jews have had 

 religious scruples about eating pork, for in 

 Bible times the swine was regarded as an un- 

 clean animal, and the eating of its flesh was 

 forbidden by the Mosaic law. This prejudice 

 was not confined to the Jews alone, however, 

 as the Arabians, Egyptians and other Oriental 

 peoples had similar beliefs on the subject. 



As an Industry. The pork-packing industry 

 has grown to huge proportions in the United 

 States, where about 25,000,000 hogs are slaugh- 

 tered annually. Chicago does about thirty-five 

 per cent of the business, with Kansas City rank- 

 ing second. In Canada an average of 3,400,000 

 hogs are slaughtered yearly, in seventy slaugh- 

 tering and meat-packing establishments and on 

 farms. The details of this great enterprise are 

 included with other statistical matter in the ar- 

 ticle MEAT AND MEAT PACKING. B.M.W. 



Related Subjects. In addition to the refer- 

 ences mentioned, the reader is asked to consult 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Calorie Ham 



Food Hog 



POROSITY, poros'iti. If you pour water 

 into a flask until its level is up to a certain 

 mark on the glass and then, very slowly, sift 

 fine salt into the water, you will find that you 

 can add a considerable amount of salt before 

 the water level rises. Also, if alcohol is poured 

 into a flask containing water the final vol- 

 ume of liquid is less than the original volumes. 

 These experiments illustrate a general prop- 

 erty of matter porosity the property of hav- 

 ing pores. All matter, regardless of its struc- 

 ture, has spaces between its molecules. In the 

 first experiment salt particles filled the spaces 

 between the particles of water; and in the sec- 

 ond, some of the water molecules slipped into 

 the spaces between the alcohol molecules. Even 

 the most solid-appearing substances are some- 

 what porous ; by hydrostatic pressure water can 

 be forced into the thick metal of a cannon un- 

 til it runs out in tiny streams. 



PORPHYRY, pawr'firi, a spotted or speckled 

 rock, whose peculiar appearance is due to the 

 scattering of large crystals of one mineral more 

 or less evenly through the mass of the rock, 

 which is formed of some other mineral. In 

 most porphyries feldspar forms the mass. Por- 

 phyries vary in color from nearly white to al- 



