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The Language of Pork: Part 2

When your mom calls your messy room a “pig sty,” tell her she has it all wrong because real pigs like to keep their pens clean. They divide their living space into separate areas for sleeping, feeding, dunging and playing.

When is a hog not just a pig??

• A hog is also a machine used in the lumber industry to grind slabs of wood into small pieces for firewood.
• A hog is also a printer (a person who prints flyers, advertisements and signage).
• It’s a curling rock that doesn’t make it over the hog line.

And when is a pig not a pig?
When it’s Pig Iron! Molten iron from a blast furnace is run into molds dug into the sand; these molds are a series of parallel trenches connected by a channel which runs at right angles to them — and the whole looks something like a sow with a litter of suckling pigs.

Barbecue? Bar-B-Q? BBQ? What does it all mean?
The word barbecue is derived from French-speaking pirates, who called a Caribbean pork feast “de barbe ii queue”, which translates “from beard to tail”. In other words, the pig roast reflected the fact that the hog was an eminently versatile animal that could be consumed from head to toe.

Did you know:

• that the ancient Chinese were so loath to be separated from fresh pork that the departed were sometimes accompanied to the grave with their herd of hogs.
• that the longest sausage on record is over a mile long? A single sausage measuring 5,917 feet in length was cooked in Barcelona, Spain on September 22, 1986.
• that when the first hot dogs were sold in 1904, street vendors called them “red hots” and they didn’t come on a bun, but instead a pair of white cotton gloves was given to keep fingers cool while eating.

Don’t forget! Porkapalooza 2015 is coming up fast on June 19-21st at Borden Park in Edmonton. Tickets are now available for Friday Night Ribfest, the the limited seating Father’s Day Brunch. Visit www.porkapalooza.ca now for more information!