Pork Today

[Foam Pants]

Pork is incredibly lean these days due to breeding. What do you think of today's hog verses that of 75 years ago? What characteristics do you look at when choosing hogs for your business? Do you take issue with pork injected with a saline solution like much of the supermarket pork is today?

[Evan Lobel]

Pork is incredibly lean these days due to breeding. What do you think of

today's hog verses that of 75 years ago? What characteristics do you

look at when choosing hogs for your business? Do you take issue with

pork injected with a saline solution like much of the supermarket pork

is today?

You are right about the pork today being very lean. And over the years

that is precisely what commercial breeders have been aiming for: lowest

production cost, getting the pigs to market as soon as possible and

controlled, low fat content. The most common complaints I hear are that

pork today is dry and lacking in flavor.

Years ago, you'd find farmers raising different breeds and crossbreeds

of pigs ... what are now referred to as heritage breeds. The meat from

heritage pigs and pure-bred pigs differs substantially in appearance,

taste, texture and size from the highly standardized commodity pork that

is most common today.

Lobel's kurobuta pork, for example, comes from 100% pure-bred Berkshire

pigs. The meat is darker in color, more intensely flavored and juicy

because it is abundantly marbled ... quite a distinctive trait from

commodity pork.

EL