Greek Pig Slaughtering, Shoes, and Chicharrón
I really don’t have pig slaughtering on the brain, though it seems to keep coming up on this blog. Here’s an interesting description of pig slaughtering on one of the Greek Islands by the inimitable Aglaia Kremezi.
For me it’s the most interesting piece in the much-touted new Atlantic page on food. It’s full of well known names but for me lacks a bit of edge. You know before you start the line each piece will take. It will be interesting to see how it develops.
Watching the pig slaughtering slides, though, had a bonus. One slide shows the skin being cut into strips with Aglai’s voiceover explaining that in the past this was set aside to make shoes.
Now perhaps that’s part of the answer to why Mexicans eat so much pork skin. They can and they could.
Once the Spanish imported pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle to Mexico they multiplied well, shall we say, like rabbits. And there was a mass of skin for every conceivable purpose, hence the long standing leather industry in the central Mexican town, León, that I wrote about recently.
That would not have been true in Europe. Skin had to be carefully saved for shoes and saddles and so on.
Lots of interesting comments that I can’t wait to follow up on. Quotes on pigs and the inquisition, flour chicharron in eighteenth century Mexico, ditto ravioli and tallarines, and more. Life’s too short.
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And today’s blog is Huevos a la Mexicana. I like with its tart comments on expatriate life. The specific link is to a piece on the Mexican juice drink Boing and the troubled labor relations its been through. Whatever your political position, if you’re interested in the history of food and corporations, this is worth looking at.
Rachel,
In the old days pig skins were used as containers for things like aguamiel for making pulque and for draining water from the mines. Right there in Guanajuato the workers would climb out of the mines on rickety ladders with drainage water carried in pigskins on their backs. They would break the bones of the pig with wooden clubs and then take the meat and bones out through the pig’s mouth to make a suitable pigskin container. On the other hand pigskin is not very good for making shoes. You can buy chaep pigskin work boots in León but mostly they are made for companies who are obliged to provide footwear to their workers several times a year. The boots don’t cost much but they don’t last long either before they deteriorate. Definitely not as durable as cow leather.