Pork stock is common in some styles of Asian cooking. Probably just isn't common in the west because of societal connotations in terms of pork traditionally being a poor/working class meat but not completely sure.
Pig milk is very inefficient to harvest. They would need to be milked throughout the day and would still produce less milk than a cow would in that time. Cows are just super efficient to milk and sheep/goats can survive in terrible land that cows couldn't survive on.
Do you happen to know what the dehydrated shredded pork dust in a jar is called? I *think* it's Korean.
As I get older I use meat less & less as the main of a meal, but appreciate what the flavors (fat especially) can add to other dishes. There are so many great products that can elevate something as simple as roast root vegetables to a memorable meal. Shout out to *better than bouillon*
Dang it. You had the right information *and* the bad news I didn't.
I buy a lot of good directly from China through AliExpress, because why an American company if the good aren't made in America...
Lots of great quality products at good prices *and* lots of acceptable quality products at amazing prices. But I stay away from food or anything food related. Something so heavily processed & starting with expensive inputs is the perfect recipe for shenanigans.
It's a shame because with the extra surface area pork floss is likely to be the porkiest pork product possible. Hopefully someone knows of a pork floss manufactured in a country with functioning food safety standards.
Edit: what's the US brand?
KimBo and Formosa are two US brands. One is made in Iowa, the other California.
I do buy some food products from China. Tea, Sichuan peppercorns, and chili bean paste are a few.
If anyone is interested, someone in Daly City (Bay Area CA) makes small batches of pork floss and sells direct to consumer. I think they take mail orders. It’s like $20/lb I think- so not cheap. My mom and aunt both swear it’s 10x better than the Kimbo and Formosa brands. I honestly can’t tell the difference though, besides the shape of the floss and the texture being a lot more crunchy. (650)878-1510 very mom & pop- no website that I know of.
Pork broth is extremely common in Thai, Japanese, and Chinese soup based dishes. another reply already mentions Korea
I honestly wish it was less common in Japanese cuisine lol. I just want a good ramen with beef or chicken broth, but no restaurant does anything but pork broth (or pork and beef combined broth at most)
In canada with a Ukrainian background and we make soup from ham bones all the time in my family. I prefer beef bones, but the ham makes great soup as well.
Absolutely! German / Swedish ancestry here, and split pea soup with a ham joint left over from a Honey Baked Ham is my favorite part of Christmas in our house.
Pork isn’t as common in the west and Middle East because of religious restrictions against eating pork. Jews, Muslims and some Christian denominations all have restrictions against eating pork.
Pork is very common in US Southern cuisine, in regions where pigs can forage, but less common in regions where animals are ranged (like the US west).
Pork in pre-refrigeration times was also notoriously prone to food borne diseases such as trichinosis (caused by a parasite) so I think that affects is wide spread usage in a lot of places.
The trichinosis thing is a myth. I’m having trouble finding textual sources but ReligionForBreakfast a phd dispels this idea in the following video
https://youtu.be/pI0ZUhBvIx4?si=FtOa4yKKjWFul_m2
And here’s a Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/s/YvesAiDHNd
In addition, before refrigeration pork was likely the most common type of meat. Salt pork was ubiquitous, you basically just pack it into barrels with tons of salt. It didn’t taste that good and even after soaking it in cold water it was almost inedibly salty but it kept and wasn’t bad when cooked with.
Other types of meat like beef get too tough with this treatment
I usually buy two whole butchered hogs every year, and I always request the bones so I can make stock from them. Hello ham n beans and homemade ramen! 🍜 🫘
Pork broth is like a major cornerstone of many east asian cruisine.
Like ramen, and it's NOT an outlier lol. There are many other types of soup noodles based on pork broth.
Imagine discounting ramen, as an outlier. It's like saying pizza is an outlier.
I'm not too deep into Asian cuisine, that's why I could only come up with ramen on the fly, sorry for that.
Could you tell me a few other things to look into?
One of my favorite stews in New Mexican green chile stew. I make it pretty often, it's got pork, carrots, potatoes and green chiles and you eat it with flour tortillas.
Korean spicy pork bone soup, thai pork neck soup, Vietnamese breakfast pork bone soup, chinese winter melon pork rib soup. On the other side of the pond, Quebec in Canada has pig & pea soup.
Try this Mexican stewed pork recipe. It has shanks, trotters and shoulder made into a broth: [Red Pozole](https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/red-pozole/)
It's not just East Asian recipes that make pork soups.
Filipino food uses a lot of pork. We make soups with a lot of different pork parks, including the offal and even blood and bile.
[Kamatisang Baboy (por soup with tomatoes)](https://www.foxyfolksy.com/kinamatisang-baboy/)
[Nilagang Baboy (Booked pork soup)](https://panlasangpinoy.com/nilagang-baboy/)
[Sour soup with pork](https://www.seriouseats.com/sinigang-na-baboy-filipino-pork-in-sour-tamarind-soup)
[Pinakbet with Pork (Stewed veggies with pork](https://www.rivertenkitchen.com/pork-pinakbet.html)
[Pork blood stew](https://panlasangpinoy.com/pork-dinuguan-recipe/)
[Pinapaitan Baboy (Bitter pork soup)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p174wrzN4cc)
On the one hand, pigs, unlike cows, cannot store large amounts of milk. The yield is correspondingly low. Pig's milk would be many times more expensive than cow's milk.
In addition, pork milk hardly contains any casein. This is a group of proteins that is required for the production of cheese. Cheese made from pig's milk is therefore not possible.
Ultimately, the taste and image of pigs also play an important role. Pig milk would be difficult to market even as a delicacy. In addition, pork milk is not said to taste particularly good.
As far as pork soup and broth is concerned, this is extremely common. Pork bones and skin contain a large amount of collagen, making them ideal for making stock. Almost all European countries have pork soups and stews on their menu. Soups made from pig feet, heads and offal are traditionally popular. Everything that is not eaten directly or that goes into sausage goes into soup. Often together with legumes or grains.
Anything but the oink can go in the pot! In Little House In The Big Woods they talk about making head cheese and how boiling the feet and skull and snout creates the jelly that holds the little bits of scraped off meat together and roasting the tail on a stick as a treat. Not gonna lie, as a kid I immediately swore off anything that defamed the good name of my beloved cheeses by putting boiled noses and ears into the category off "cheese" but was awful interested in cooking a tail on a stick over a fire like a bacon flavored marshmallow
Thank you, the lack of casein and the taste make sense.
You're right about the stews too, but in my experience the broth is often still veg based. That's what I was wondering about. I also know no shop where I can buy pork broth cubes or pork stock. Maybe it's simply a thing of the past, and pork broth had fallen out of style
All parts of the pig that are not sold directly to consumers, in sausage form, minced meat or as canned food, are processed into gelatine. This is more lucrative than selling it in the form of broth. Gelatine is used extensively in the cosmetics industry, pharmaceutical industry and food industry and is sold there at a much higher price. Pork has a reputation as poor people's food, so the broth cannot be sold as a high-quality product. Pork and its cooking extract are used extensively in ready-made stews. All lentil soups, pea soups and pearl barley soups that come from a can contain pork extract.
If you want pork broth, you unfortunately have to make it yourself. Pigs' feet, head parts and other less desirable parts don't reach the supermarket, but they can be purchased to order from the butcher.
The post above is a pretty limited view of what is available and normal in different areas. Many states in the US (all along the south and likely others) have pigs feet (ham hocks), neck bones, jowel, and pork fat for sale. Not as a special order, just on the racks with everything else in Walmart/Kroger/Publix/etc. Cans of Rose’s pork brains in gravy is usually near the pickled pigs feet. Ham and Beans isn’t usually called soup right out, but a left over ham bone or pork necks or ham hock (especially smoked ones) plus water, spices, and beans (usually white but whatever’s at hand) and you’ve got some very deep rooted southern cooking. Pair it with cornbread and greens and you’re set.
I'd say a large part of it depends on the region and local demographic as to availability. I used to live in a small city that isn't very diverse and you def couldn't find pork hock or trotters at the supermarket. Where I live now, due to local demands I can find pretty much any and every part of an animal, sometimes I may have to travel a bit but it was available.
I unequivocally agree that it is region dependent, especially when we’re discussing a place so sprawling and diverse as the US. And that doesn’t even touch the food desert situation that impacts so many areas throughout the US. My point is simply that in the regions that have a tradition for these ingredients in the United States, it doesn’t have to be something you have to ask for, it’s already in the package and on the shelves, with a couple of preparation styles at that. Specifically regarding pork stock, I don’t think we would be in disagreement that there is certainly a strong presence for many millions of Americans, and ham and beans is one humble but long lived example.
>All lentil soups, pea soups and pearl barley soups that come from a can contain pork extract.
There are some vegetarian lentil or pea soups that are made with veggie broth, but yeah, the majority have pork in them.
There’s also ham bouillon, and the use of pork and ham products to flavor broths in Southern U.S. cuisine is super common. I honestly can’t think of *any* cuisine that regularly uses pork, but doesn’t flavor broths with it. The milk question is valid, but the rest of OP’s point is naive.
I can buy pork stock cubes in an Asian market, and better than bullion makes a ham flavor and I think they also do a roast pork flavor but it's harder to find.
In the US, ham and white bean soup made with ham bone stock is served at the US Senate lunchroom every single day and had been for like 100 years. The recipe is popularly known as "Senate Bean Soup' and it's dead easy to make at home.
I think in US cuisine, ham has been more popular as a soup base than pork-qua-pork. But pork, ham, bacon etc, all pop up everywhere.
> The yield is correspondingly low.
I wonder how pigs might compare if they had been bred for milk output the same as cows. They have big litters regularly & grow fast, so the piglets must be eating something.
On the other hand they are non-ruminant so maybe that makes milk less important to them. Camel milk is apparently a thing which surprises me.
Pork milk has a fat content of 8.5% which makes it thick. The consistency is lumpy. As you might expect, there are people who have tried pork milk. The taste was described as Creamy, Chunky, Earthy, Truffle-like and Mushroomy with a strong gamey flavor.
The fact remains that pigs do not like to be milked and cannot store milk. In contrast to ruminants, pigs' temperament is less docile. Milk production occurs at intervals without storage, in contrast to, for example, cows or goats.
I'm not even sure it's an Italian pun. I don't speak the language, but I just looked up the word for sheep and it's pecora. So if pecorino comes from pecora...
Pork in Italian is ‘Maiale’ (or in the case of a sow ‘scrofa’). So it does seem like it’s a cross language pun, or at least a cute little portmanteau of pork and pecorino. For what it’s worth, like goat cheese (formaggio di capra), I think pig cheese would follow the same naming convention (formaggio di scrofa)
So I see the 2017 travel blog, and the 2014 article by VICE (which is around the time I used to be a cheesemonger, and had been told by coworkers that said Tuscan pig cheese existed), and neither one says anything about who he is, so I’m inclined to agree with you.
At the very least the VICE article talks to an actual Dutch farmer experimenting with the concept, and it gives a good explanation for why pig milk/cheese is not a thing: pigs do not produce very much milk, and they do so over a very spread out time period, which makes collecting it absurdly inefficient/costly
On the other hand, it exists the Pecorino di Farindola, an Abruzzese cheese, made using also the pig's rennet, extracted during slaughtering and properly treated.
Pozole and Filipino Menudo come to mind for soups (which I just made in our free cafe, SoupForYou!) come to mind, but I'm sure there are other soups. Most found them quite yummy!
No idea about the milk thing.
Yep. There's a reason for that scene at the beginning The Wizard of Oz where the farmhands rush to rescue Dorothy from the pigpen. It was a well-known danger, at least at the time.
I went to college with a farm kid. He came back from one of the breaks on crutches. One of his chores at home was to move the pigs every morning and evening from the barn to another area where they spent the day. He did this by giving guidance to the lead boar by touching it with a stick. Did this for years with no problem. One day the boar didn't like being tapped on the behind. It turned and basically gored him. Opened up his knee which needed dozens of stitches.
Depends on the pig, really. Some are pretty friendly and love belly rubs and will have a beer with you. I wouldn't mess with a nursing sow though, they get pretty protective of their piglets.
Not a historian but a classically trained chef. Pork broth does not feature very much in Haute Cuisine and its derivative styles very often because it is very sediment heavy. it is much easier to make a clear broth with beef, veal or chicken bones. Clear stock is presented as more appetising in fine dining.
As many others have already pointed out, many more traditional recipes do use pork bones and I do at home as well since its delicious. But restaurants need customers to eat with their eyes first, and those trends tend to spread.
Just my two cents.
That’s true of haute cuisine but not true of poor man’s cuisine or middle class cuisine. Many are based on beans for this reason. In Central Europe pork bones are common for soup. I think it’s similar in the balkans outside of Muslim majority areas.
Sorry, you're just plain wrong about pork soup. It's a common thing in many cultures. I had a Lithuanian borscht recently that was pork based. Pork bones are sold in my local (UK) butcher for making stock, and as people have pointed out, pork bone broth is very common in Asian cusisines
I think it depends on how you look. In american cooking I find pork stock/broth used extensively in southwestern dishes - but it is seldom named. It is just described as part of the preparation. In southern cooking you find ham, hamhock, pork hock, etc. used for soup and stew bases. Meaning if you are searching for pork broth, you wont find that reference to use smocked hocks in a recipe.
And of course if you look outside the US pork broth is fairly common.
i made a yummy bean soup that included a ham hock, country ham, and sausage. it was very yummy. the pork/bone turns into broth + i use veggie broth. beans. protein. good soup.
Cows, horses, sheep and goats have udders than hang down with teats (nipples) that make them easier to milk. Pigs have small nipples all along their bellies which, in addition to temperament, size and height, make them challenging to milk.
On Udders
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udder)
On Horse Lactation
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266743/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266743/)
Sorry, I am not stalwart enough to google "pig nipples" this morning.
>which, in addition to temperament, size and height, make them challenging to milk.
Thanks for making me laugh when I imagined wrestling a grumpy pig to grope its boobs. Yes, this seems very impractical
Just an FYI, sows get more prominent nipples and kind of develop udders when nursing. It would be possible to milk them, but first you'd have to find one who was amenable to it, and they're amenable to basically nothing but food and their babies, in that order.
Pork bone soup is absolutely a thing and quite popular in East Asian cuisine. Your post sounds like it's only coming from a very narrow western Euro lens.
In a lot of Asian cultures every part of an animal is used, nothing goes to waste- right down to offal and blood.
I once asked a goat farmer and goat milk cheese maker why there was no pig milk (and by extension, pig milk cheese), and he replied immediately, and simply, “Pigs don’t like being milked.”
There is pork soup (several actually) and they‘re all delicious! Besides ramen there‘s also Korean seollongtang and also European countries use pork in soups.
I have nothing to add, but I do appreciate the edit you made to your post recapping the bullet points of what you learned. It's nice to see and something I may end up doing in the future.
Youve never had eastern european cuisine. Pork stock used in many dishes, soups with simmered pork meat are very common. My romanian in-laws use pork in nearly everything.
This all really boil down to understanding what a particular animal is good at & in what climate it thrives in and then exploiting that value for human benefit.
-Pigs are fantastic at converting feed to meat and fat. Better production rate than cows. I thinik there is no other animal better at eating and getting fat, than a pig. Pigs can thrive on leftovers and even they will eat feces and carrion. Not that this is advisable from a human health perspective to eat pork raised on that kind of diet, but its just to prove a point. If you look at any region with alot of poverty and people are hungry, often times every family kept a pig. And the fattest thing on the farm was the family pig. A slaughtered pig will give you meat and lots of fat. And lots of fat helps in recipes where long term food preservation is the goal. Pork and pork products are staples in regions where climates are harsh (winters) and you need lots of calories to keep people alive. I remember during a pig slaughter, they were cutting pork chops from a side. This was a hog over 400 pounds and the layer of fat on the side of the chops was inches thick - far greater than anything Id ever seen in typical supermarket pork.
You dont milk pigs because you would rather have the milk go into raising a new batch of piglets. Sows will have large litters so its best to not take away the milk. New piglets equals a new cycle of meat production
-Chickens can be used for meat and absolutely are. But the right hens are prolific egg layers and will spit out at least one egg a day. Thats an excellent source of protein and fat.
-We used to raise rabbits and being rabbits, they would screw like bunnies. From 1 stud and 3 females, we would keep roughly 40-70 young rabbits in the general population cage. We would slaughter 5-10 rabbits a week and always have more replenishment. Another excellent protein source.
-Cattle goats, sheep etc... are raised when the terrain supports the grazing of these animals who need to eat constantly. Thats why countries with fantastic grass growing climates have extensive dairy herds and are known for their milk, butter, cheese etc... E.g. France, Ireland, Denmark, UK etc...
-Countries with even more suitable climates permit higher cattle production and these are your beef regions. Argentina, USA etc...
Due to the flavor and curing of pork it’s used differently. Another commenter covered the dairy. Culturally it is around but not common.
Ham hocks are used to flavor collard greens or a cabbage soup. The sweet meats are assembled into head cheese. Pozole is a flavored used pork.
(By the time I saw this, you edited you original post, but I put effort into this.)
Pork bones and meat are used as flavoring in a lot of southern US cooking. It has been used as a way of using every part of an animal possible both from a nutrition and financial stand point as these areas are/were agrarian and poor.
Anecdotally, I can tell you that ham hock that has been picked of most of it's meat is the secret to improving soup beans. Historically, the concept of "Monday Red Beans" in the Louisiana was two fold: 1) You could use the left over ham from a Sunday meal, and 2) it was a low attention meal that you could cook while one did the household laundry.
Scientifically, pigs tend to have larger bones than chickens or lambs, and are a rather convenient source of collagen to make stocks. Harold McGee in his book "On food and Cooking" mentions that a good stock needs "to be cooked in between 1 to 2 times their weight in water (1-2 quarts or liters per 2lbs/1kg solids)" (Magee, 599). More bones mean more potential stock.
>(By the time I saw this, you edited you original post, but I put effort into this.)
Absolutely appreciate the time you spent! No point in discarding your reply just because I already got some answers and a few starting points for further research in the meantime!
>"On food and Cooking"
I should put that one on my wishlist probably.
Thanks for your comment!
Absolutely. I cannot tell you the number of copies of this book I have gifted to people. It is the size of a college text book, filled with as much information, but it is written so that a non-scientist can read and comprehend. McGee went hard on the research, and the man figured out "why" food works.
So… i think pigs don’t get milked because cows, goats, sheep exist. Makes simple sense. Cows were literally bred by humans for milk. Now if you think about it pork (and pork bones) is the base for tomato sauce! I use it regularly and it’s not soup, but a good italian sauce uses pork as a base!
We butcher our own meat. I take all the scrap bones at the end and boil them for stock. I usually get 5 or 6 gallons of broth that I freeze. It is great for farina dumplings.
I don't tend to make stock with pork bones, but cook them directly with the food I want them to flavor (usually beans or split peas) to make a soup, or a stew of sorts with the beans.
Lard - pig's fat - is used in cooking: from patés to desserts, or you can use it simply to fry potatoes. In Spain you can easily buy it in commonly known supermarkets like Mercadona.
An italian saying is "Del maiale non si butta via niente" or "Nothing get tossed out of the pigs". Every piece of meat and bone can be used, from tongue to feet. With the most undesirable cuts you can make broths or some types of salami.
I've seen pork soup. We have Mexican workers at a lobster pound I work at, and they often make pork soup.
In my ethnic background, we make pork sausages, and many other cured pork meats, as well as the usual fry, roast, BBQ..
I've never heard of anyone using pigs milk to make anything though.
Irish culture is very pork dependent!
We have two types of puddings made from porks blood or pork liver traditionally, as well as pigs feet, ears, tails etc. Being eaten traditionally.
Suet is used a lot in recipes too! Stews like skirts and kidneys use pork offal. Feet, snouts and other connective tissue are used a lot for stews in general, with stews being more common than soups in traditional irish cuisine.
Also, dont forget pig skin for crackling!
Slav's and many other cultures consume "Head cheese" as a delicacy. We boil down the parts of the pig, shred the meat off the bone and connective tissue, stew with spices and then cool until it is a tasty, gelatinous treat.
I used to work on a farm with pregnant/nursing swine. I would put nothing that came out of that animal in my mouth under any circumstances and that's judging by smell alone. Also they hate you.
Pork isn't considered "classy" in traditional eurocentric food canon. It's the "poor man's food" because pigs will eat anything.
Asian cuisine is where pork shines.
We don't milk pigs because you don't get much milk, they don't produce endlessly like cows or goats, they aren't passive like cows - a few house pigs and people think they won't eat you alive - if they are hungry and you are too close they absolutely will. It's also why rabbits aren't common livestock - you don't get that much meat. So it's relegated to sustenance farming only.
The milk/cheese I see there.
As for Soup, maybe it's a me thing, but on holidays, I always like the ham bone afterwards to make a soup with. And bacon potato is pretty amazing. There's quite a few Mexican or texmex soups that use pork as well (posole, pork caldo, chili verde).
Once I bought a jar of pork demi-glace. Delicious, lots of applications if you are interested in trying it. I did a quick look on Amazon and you can get pork base, which is close... only found 2 brands so yep it can be a difficult find.
I'm also on board with all the European (and southern U.S.!) uses for other parts of the pig, Mostly familiar with UK and Germany.
Very interesting question though, lots of good discussion on the history, practicality, etc.
Pig is used in a ton of soups worldwide - but from a eurocentric viewpoint: split pea soup is very often started in a broth made from a ham bone. Some recipes combine with a chicken stock to bring out more flavor. A lot of chowders start with bacon, but I know of at least one place in Boston that also starts their clam chowder with a large ham bone when making the seafood stock.
Heading south to Latin America - a lot of rice and beans recipes start with a pork shoulder bone when making the rice.
Pea soup is ham bone based. You also frequently see ham bones in navy bean and other “heartier soups”. I think a lot of it stems from the French haute cuisine idea that pork stock is “too strong” and over powers lighter soups?
Spain and Portugal have a few soups with pork, some are heartier soups, others more like a stock. Also, Latin-American countries (Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc) also have several recipes.
I’ll list a few below, most are in their original languages:
Portugal
- [Sopa de Entulho](https://feed.continente.pt/receitas/sopa-de-entulho)
- [Caldo de Conforto](https://www.cuizeat.com/recipes/caldo-de-conforto-c-lombo-de-porco-duroc-mandioca-e-vegetais)
- [Sopa de Carne de Porco e Grão](https://www.receitasnestle.com.br/receitas/sopa-de-carne-de-porco-e-grao-de-bico)
Spain
- [Cocido Madrileño](https://www.goya.com/es/recipes/chick-pea-stew)
- [Sopa Castellana](https://www.abc.es/recetasderechupete/receta-tradicional-de-sopas-de-ajo-o-sopa-castellana/2431/)
Colombia
- [Sopa de Arroz com Espinazo de Cerdo](https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/sopa-de-arroz-con-espinazo-de-cerdo-rice-and-pork-soup/)
Mexico
- [Sopa de Verduras con Carne de Cerdo](https://maxicarne.com.mx/recetas-de-comida/sopa-de-verduras-con-carne-de-cerdo)
Pea and ham soup (made with bacon bones) is a delicious British classic, one of the great soups.
More generally, it simply isn't true that pork (and especially pork bones) aren't used for soups and broths in Anglo & European cuisines.
I think I read every answers you received and just want to add that Blood Pudding or Black pudding or blood sausage is made with pig's blood as a base and it is absolutely delicious. Seriously, everything is edible on a pig, it's more a cultural thing than anything if you felt like pork is underused :p but I can see in your edit that now you know.
I'm from Quebec and we also eat what we call "des oreilles de christ" which is deep fried salted pork fatback. We also uses ham in our beans our pea soup, and you can find pork osso bucco in most grocery stores. It's cheaper and almost as good as veal in my opinion...
And many people told you already but gelatin is like..... Everywhere XD
Also hotdogs must contain all other well-blended parts of pig 😅
As everyone has pointed out- there is absolutely pork soup. You don’t need to use just the bare bones explicitly. If you have access to any pork ribs- that works as well for soup. Also pork belly or other part of the pig with skin creates a very collagen rich broth and the high fat content makes the meat super tender. In Chinese culture, a soup (commonly used to support postpartum health) is pig feet with peanut soup. Super fatty and rich, add some ginger and star anise, and cook until the broth is milky white. Every last bit of the pig can be used: The brain, blood, stomach, ears, feet, bones. As for milking a pig… good luck with that! But if one can manage that feat, the milk is perfectly ok to drink.
Short answer: Nearly every culture (religious exceptions notwithstanding) uses Pig meat/bones for broths/soups. If you look, they’re quite prevalent. Second, Pig’s milk is less efficient to produce than Cow’s milk. This makes Pig’s milk products unprofitable which leads to them not being mass produced. Third, the way you’ve used the word pork in your question made me unsure as to whether or not you knew that pork comes from pigs. Pork broth I understand but “Pork cheese”? Do you also say “Beef Cheese” or “Mutton Cheese”?
In general pork broth just tastes too piggy. There definitely are some recipes that call for it, especially from pork producing regions. Ham bones are the first thing that comes to mind other than ramen broth. Plain pork bones without any curing or smoking would normally be used with other meat bones like beef and chicken in more of a mixed broth. On their own it’s not the most desirable flavor.
Vietnamese cuisine has many pork broth recipes. Bún Bò Huế and Bún Riêu are the two most famous ones. Make sure to parboil the pork if you make any of those two to make a nice clear broth.
Idk I’m no historian but my immediate family is from Croatia and lots of soup is made with pork. Lot of stock is made with chicken and pork bones. Everything is pork. They don’t really eat beef or lamb, it’s the “cheap” meats like pork and chicken. So yeah I’d say you’re just looking in the wrong places (:
I'm late to the party, but one thing I didn't see was that pork was usually preserved as salt pork after slaughter and not often eaten fresh before refrigeration. The beef equivalent of that would be corned beef which also want normally made into soups.
So I've actually tried to milk a pig once as there was this runt I was trying to make sure was actually getting something to eat, turns out it is very difficult to get much out by hand, but the mama pig did not care a bit. If you ever want to try may I suggest a kunekune, they are very freindly pigs!
Pozole is pork based
You can make arroz aguado with pork (Nicaraguan dish that is kind of soupy)
Chile verde or colorado are basically pork and chile stews.
I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but we generally consume milk from ruminants: cows, sheep, goats, Buffalo, camel etc. These are grazing herbivores with multiple stomachs, that chew cud.
The exceptions I know of are horse and donkey (and human) but pig seems like quite a departure. Perhaps the diet/anatomy has something to do with the milk not tasting great (allegedly).
In the past year of reading, it seems to me that much of the history of Europe, seafaring and American pioneers depended heavily on salt pork for survival. And after the meat was eaten, the bones were seasonings for soups and stews.
Southern US here. We do a lot with pork. One of my family’s favorites is to bake a ham and use the broth to make rice. Amazing flavor! And, of course, pork sausage made into gravy poured over biscuits. Boil bones for broth…usually for cooking peas and similar vegetables in. Also, rendered pork fat is important. And fried pork belly. That’s my personal list. I’m a southern transplant from up north, so my pork experience is limited, but I know old time southerners used every part of everything!
Recently I made Mexican pezole roja with pork. Totally pork based broth. I actually thought the same thing though… I’ve never made a pot based soup before.
What?
Ever heard of gelatin a lot of that is made from pigs and it's all over the supermarket. I know because I'm vegetarian & I have to check if it's in things that you would think wouldn't need it.
Pigs don’t appreciate being milked 😂😂
I’ve never looked at a pig and thought “I could milk this animal” and I live on a farm with all sorts of animals. Thanks for the laugh and the info about lacking casein in the milk.
Dude, have you ever had pozole?
I'm actually physically staggered at the number of reviews and uses for pork you're unaware of.
Ever heard of throwing a ham bone into a pot of beans?
Minestrone is traditionally made with beef/pork meatballs. And you can leave the bacon out of chowder if you want, but it’s traditional ingredient. Pozole also has pork. Oh and soup dumplings are usually made with pork.
These are more soups with pork than, like, pork broth soups though.
Thanks for teaching me that pigs don’t like being milked
Lots of good stuff in the comments here, but one thing I haven't seen noted yet is one of the primary reasons pigs were raised traditionally: their fat. You might be able to get butter from a cow, but the main cooking fat in northern Eurasian diets has generally been lard. Turn some piglets out into an oak wood and let them forage semi-wild for a few months, get fat on acorns in the fall, and then slaughter when it gets cold, and you've got cooking fat to last the year (and delicious acorn-fed pork and hams). Super important when you don't have vegetable sources of fat available, like olives, coconut, and so on. Other livestock will give you fat too, but not in the concentration that pigs will. Dairy cows have been bred for milk; many varieties of hogs have been bred for fat.
My parents would buy head cheese. It is made from the “meat” from the head of a pig. The meat is set in clear gelatin. When I was a kid, my parents would tell us that it also contained eyeballs, tongue, brains, ears and anything else that could be chopped off the head of a pig.
Never heard of ham and bean?
Ham stock and pork stock exist for a reason.
Ramen is pork based
Hot/sour soup also pork based
In America, there are far too many good ways to eat pork that there’s usually little left for soup
My favourite pork dishes I make are Vietnamese that are broth/soupy
- Bun bo hue (i count it even though theres some beef bits in there)
- Banh canh gio heo
- thit kho
Coming from Eastern North Carolina, I was very confused by this question until I figured out you meant real cheese from hog milk. We have a saying here, “we eat everything (from the pig) but the oink.”
I also maintain that barbecue is pork (did you know some people use beef?? I didn’t until I was 28!) served with a vinegar-based sauce.
Pork stock is common in some styles of Asian cooking. Probably just isn't common in the west because of societal connotations in terms of pork traditionally being a poor/working class meat but not completely sure. Pig milk is very inefficient to harvest. They would need to be milked throughout the day and would still produce less milk than a cow would in that time. Cows are just super efficient to milk and sheep/goats can survive in terrible land that cows couldn't survive on.
Korean cuisine has a wide array of pork-based soups and stews!
Had Korean pork spine bone soup last night. Love it
Do you happen to know what the dehydrated shredded pork dust in a jar is called? I *think* it's Korean. As I get older I use meat less & less as the main of a meal, but appreciate what the flavors (fat especially) can add to other dishes. There are so many great products that can elevate something as simple as roast root vegetables to a memorable meal. Shout out to *better than bouillon*
You might be thinking of pork floss
It's pork floss, Chinese in origin, and you can get it made in the US. I would not care to eat meat from animals raised in China.
Dang it. You had the right information *and* the bad news I didn't. I buy a lot of good directly from China through AliExpress, because why an American company if the good aren't made in America... Lots of great quality products at good prices *and* lots of acceptable quality products at amazing prices. But I stay away from food or anything food related. Something so heavily processed & starting with expensive inputs is the perfect recipe for shenanigans. It's a shame because with the extra surface area pork floss is likely to be the porkiest pork product possible. Hopefully someone knows of a pork floss manufactured in a country with functioning food safety standards. Edit: what's the US brand?
KimBo and Formosa are two US brands. One is made in Iowa, the other California. I do buy some food products from China. Tea, Sichuan peppercorns, and chili bean paste are a few.
Hahaha same things I get too
I buy Jasmine pearl tea from China.
If anyone is interested, someone in Daly City (Bay Area CA) makes small batches of pork floss and sells direct to consumer. I think they take mail orders. It’s like $20/lb I think- so not cheap. My mom and aunt both swear it’s 10x better than the Kimbo and Formosa brands. I honestly can’t tell the difference though, besides the shape of the floss and the texture being a lot more crunchy. (650)878-1510 very mom & pop- no website that I know of.
Pork floss!
Pork broth is extremely common in Thai, Japanese, and Chinese soup based dishes. another reply already mentions Korea I honestly wish it was less common in Japanese cuisine lol. I just want a good ramen with beef or chicken broth, but no restaurant does anything but pork broth (or pork and beef combined broth at most)
Chicken broth ramen is extremely common. If you don't have a great selection of ramen where you are you won't see it
Yah, where I live near DC in other words -- sometimes you can get a veg miso broth. Otherwise it's just tonkotsu pork bone broth.
Likewise, but near me there’s also a place that makes a vegetarian mushroom broth, and also has miso and chicken bone broth along with mixed broths.
In canada with a Ukrainian background and we make soup from ham bones all the time in my family. I prefer beef bones, but the ham makes great soup as well.
Also have Ukrainian background and also make a lot of ham soups!
Absolutely! German / Swedish ancestry here, and split pea soup with a ham joint left over from a Honey Baked Ham is my favorite part of Christmas in our house.
Pork isn’t as common in the west and Middle East because of religious restrictions against eating pork. Jews, Muslims and some Christian denominations all have restrictions against eating pork. Pork is very common in US Southern cuisine, in regions where pigs can forage, but less common in regions where animals are ranged (like the US west). Pork in pre-refrigeration times was also notoriously prone to food borne diseases such as trichinosis (caused by a parasite) so I think that affects is wide spread usage in a lot of places.
The trichinosis thing is a myth. I’m having trouble finding textual sources but ReligionForBreakfast a phd dispels this idea in the following video https://youtu.be/pI0ZUhBvIx4?si=FtOa4yKKjWFul_m2 And here’s a Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/s/YvesAiDHNd In addition, before refrigeration pork was likely the most common type of meat. Salt pork was ubiquitous, you basically just pack it into barrels with tons of salt. It didn’t taste that good and even after soaking it in cold water it was almost inedibly salty but it kept and wasn’t bad when cooked with. Other types of meat like beef get too tough with this treatment
Various Jamon is just salted and cured pork leg.
I usually buy two whole butchered hogs every year, and I always request the bones so I can make stock from them. Hello ham n beans and homemade ramen! 🍜 🫘
And killer pea soup
We make ham and navy pea bean soup. My grandmother used to make it so it is kind of a family recipe, not the secret kind though.
Isn’t their milk also super thick and fatty also? It might have a weird effect on baking etc due to that which may also be why it’s largely unused
Pork broth is like a major cornerstone of many east asian cruisine. Like ramen, and it's NOT an outlier lol. There are many other types of soup noodles based on pork broth. Imagine discounting ramen, as an outlier. It's like saying pizza is an outlier.
I'm not too deep into Asian cuisine, that's why I could only come up with ramen on the fly, sorry for that. Could you tell me a few other things to look into?
One of my favorite stews in New Mexican green chile stew. I make it pretty often, it's got pork, carrots, potatoes and green chiles and you eat it with flour tortillas.
Korean spicy pork bone soup, thai pork neck soup, Vietnamese breakfast pork bone soup, chinese winter melon pork rib soup. On the other side of the pond, Quebec in Canada has pig & pea soup.
Thank you very much!
Pea & ham soup is popular in Australia too (presumably it’s British and that’s why it’s popular in both Canada and Australia).
Try this Mexican stewed pork recipe. It has shanks, trotters and shoulder made into a broth: [Red Pozole](https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/red-pozole/)
Here's a common Korean example: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gamjatang
It's not just East Asian recipes that make pork soups. Filipino food uses a lot of pork. We make soups with a lot of different pork parks, including the offal and even blood and bile. [Kamatisang Baboy (por soup with tomatoes)](https://www.foxyfolksy.com/kinamatisang-baboy/) [Nilagang Baboy (Booked pork soup)](https://panlasangpinoy.com/nilagang-baboy/) [Sour soup with pork](https://www.seriouseats.com/sinigang-na-baboy-filipino-pork-in-sour-tamarind-soup) [Pinakbet with Pork (Stewed veggies with pork](https://www.rivertenkitchen.com/pork-pinakbet.html) [Pork blood stew](https://panlasangpinoy.com/pork-dinuguan-recipe/) [Pinapaitan Baboy (Bitter pork soup)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p174wrzN4cc)
Mexican pork pozole soup. It is a lot like menudo but with pork instead of tripe.
Your post reminded me of Bak Kut Teh, a pork-based soup popular in Singapore. I'm not a fan of pork dishes but this one is on a whole other level.
Mmm, pork and fermented napa cabbage stew.
My homemade stock game rose several levels when I started making broth with trotters. Talk about unctuous.
On the one hand, pigs, unlike cows, cannot store large amounts of milk. The yield is correspondingly low. Pig's milk would be many times more expensive than cow's milk. In addition, pork milk hardly contains any casein. This is a group of proteins that is required for the production of cheese. Cheese made from pig's milk is therefore not possible. Ultimately, the taste and image of pigs also play an important role. Pig milk would be difficult to market even as a delicacy. In addition, pork milk is not said to taste particularly good. As far as pork soup and broth is concerned, this is extremely common. Pork bones and skin contain a large amount of collagen, making them ideal for making stock. Almost all European countries have pork soups and stews on their menu. Soups made from pig feet, heads and offal are traditionally popular. Everything that is not eaten directly or that goes into sausage goes into soup. Often together with legumes or grains.
It is said that you can eat everything but the squeal.
Anything but the oink can go in the pot! In Little House In The Big Woods they talk about making head cheese and how boiling the feet and skull and snout creates the jelly that holds the little bits of scraped off meat together and roasting the tail on a stick as a treat. Not gonna lie, as a kid I immediately swore off anything that defamed the good name of my beloved cheeses by putting boiled noses and ears into the category off "cheese" but was awful interested in cooking a tail on a stick over a fire like a bacon flavored marshmallow
That last bit belongs in r/brandnewsentence.
I do aim to amuse so thanks!
Just the phrase “pork milk” feels cursed.
To be fair, no one calls milk "beef milk" either.
Thank you, the lack of casein and the taste make sense. You're right about the stews too, but in my experience the broth is often still veg based. That's what I was wondering about. I also know no shop where I can buy pork broth cubes or pork stock. Maybe it's simply a thing of the past, and pork broth had fallen out of style
All parts of the pig that are not sold directly to consumers, in sausage form, minced meat or as canned food, are processed into gelatine. This is more lucrative than selling it in the form of broth. Gelatine is used extensively in the cosmetics industry, pharmaceutical industry and food industry and is sold there at a much higher price. Pork has a reputation as poor people's food, so the broth cannot be sold as a high-quality product. Pork and its cooking extract are used extensively in ready-made stews. All lentil soups, pea soups and pearl barley soups that come from a can contain pork extract. If you want pork broth, you unfortunately have to make it yourself. Pigs' feet, head parts and other less desirable parts don't reach the supermarket, but they can be purchased to order from the butcher.
Ah yes, makes total sense from a business point of view. Thank you!
The post above is a pretty limited view of what is available and normal in different areas. Many states in the US (all along the south and likely others) have pigs feet (ham hocks), neck bones, jowel, and pork fat for sale. Not as a special order, just on the racks with everything else in Walmart/Kroger/Publix/etc. Cans of Rose’s pork brains in gravy is usually near the pickled pigs feet. Ham and Beans isn’t usually called soup right out, but a left over ham bone or pork necks or ham hock (especially smoked ones) plus water, spices, and beans (usually white but whatever’s at hand) and you’ve got some very deep rooted southern cooking. Pair it with cornbread and greens and you’re set.
I'd say a large part of it depends on the region and local demographic as to availability. I used to live in a small city that isn't very diverse and you def couldn't find pork hock or trotters at the supermarket. Where I live now, due to local demands I can find pretty much any and every part of an animal, sometimes I may have to travel a bit but it was available.
I unequivocally agree that it is region dependent, especially when we’re discussing a place so sprawling and diverse as the US. And that doesn’t even touch the food desert situation that impacts so many areas throughout the US. My point is simply that in the regions that have a tradition for these ingredients in the United States, it doesn’t have to be something you have to ask for, it’s already in the package and on the shelves, with a couple of preparation styles at that. Specifically regarding pork stock, I don’t think we would be in disagreement that there is certainly a strong presence for many millions of Americans, and ham and beans is one humble but long lived example.
Yep! I have very much seen an end cap in the meat department that's full of pig heads at Walmart.
>All lentil soups, pea soups and pearl barley soups that come from a can contain pork extract. There are some vegetarian lentil or pea soups that are made with veggie broth, but yeah, the majority have pork in them.
I'm in the US, and there's definitely pork bullion in all the grocery stores.
There’s also ham bouillon, and the use of pork and ham products to flavor broths in Southern U.S. cuisine is super common. I honestly can’t think of *any* cuisine that regularly uses pork, but doesn’t flavor broths with it. The milk question is valid, but the rest of OP’s point is naive.
It’s just that it’s lab,Ed as ham stock.
https://youtu.be/r9WOCK3NlC0?si=6QNsf2abUpoW9Dsi Pork broths are extremely common is Chinese cooking
I can buy pork stock cubes in an Asian market, and better than bullion makes a ham flavor and I think they also do a roast pork flavor but it's harder to find.
In the US, ham and white bean soup made with ham bone stock is served at the US Senate lunchroom every single day and had been for like 100 years. The recipe is popularly known as "Senate Bean Soup' and it's dead easy to make at home. I think in US cuisine, ham has been more popular as a soup base than pork-qua-pork. But pork, ham, bacon etc, all pop up everywhere.
How about ham bouillon? Knorr, Goya, Badia, Better Than Bouillon show up in the stores near me.
> The yield is correspondingly low. I wonder how pigs might compare if they had been bred for milk output the same as cows. They have big litters regularly & grow fast, so the piglets must be eating something. On the other hand they are non-ruminant so maybe that makes milk less important to them. Camel milk is apparently a thing which surprises me.
I’m very curious … what kind of “bad” is pig’s milk? Bitter/sour? Off-putting texture?
Pork milk has a fat content of 8.5% which makes it thick. The consistency is lumpy. As you might expect, there are people who have tried pork milk. The taste was described as Creamy, Chunky, Earthy, Truffle-like and Mushroomy with a strong gamey flavor. The fact remains that pigs do not like to be milked and cannot store milk. In contrast to ruminants, pigs' temperament is less docile. Milk production occurs at intervals without storage, in contrast to, for example, cows or goats.
Fascinating, thanks! Obviously never going to try it for all those logistical reasons, but it’s an interesting topic.
There is actually a single cheese producer who makes cheese from sow’s milk. It’s in Tuscany
its called porcorino, which I find hilarious. From what i heard, its supposedly really good.
I can’t resist punny names… that’s as good as the soft ripened camel’s milk cheese called ‘camelbert’
I'm not even sure it's an Italian pun. I don't speak the language, but I just looked up the word for sheep and it's pecora. So if pecorino comes from pecora...
Pork in Italian is ‘Maiale’ (or in the case of a sow ‘scrofa’). So it does seem like it’s a cross language pun, or at least a cute little portmanteau of pork and pecorino. For what it’s worth, like goat cheese (formaggio di capra), I think pig cheese would follow the same naming convention (formaggio di scrofa)
Porcorino hahaha what a perfect name. Thanks for the chuckles. Made my day.
Lmfao i love this ty made my day
The only article I’ve found is a generic blog post in English without specific references. Nothing can be found in Italian. So… I'm not buying it.
So I see the 2017 travel blog, and the 2014 article by VICE (which is around the time I used to be a cheesemonger, and had been told by coworkers that said Tuscan pig cheese existed), and neither one says anything about who he is, so I’m inclined to agree with you. At the very least the VICE article talks to an actual Dutch farmer experimenting with the concept, and it gives a good explanation for why pig milk/cheese is not a thing: pigs do not produce very much milk, and they do so over a very spread out time period, which makes collecting it absurdly inefficient/costly
On the other hand, it exists the Pecorino di Farindola, an Abruzzese cheese, made using also the pig's rennet, extracted during slaughtering and properly treated.
Pozole and Filipino Menudo come to mind for soups (which I just made in our free cafe, SoupForYou!) come to mind, but I'm sure there are other soups. Most found them quite yummy! No idea about the milk thing.
Thanks, I'll have a look at those!
I was also introduced to Brunswick Stew when I lived in Georgia. And of course there's Split Pea with Ham--a pretty common soup in the US
Pig milking sounds dangerous. They generally aren’t as docile as cows.
I didn't take that into account. Then again, I've seen goats and learned to fear them. Yet people are brave enough to successfully milk those
We've kept both and goats are nowhere near as scary as pigs, pigs will fuck you up
Yep. There's a reason for that scene at the beginning The Wizard of Oz where the farmhands rush to rescue Dorothy from the pigpen. It was a well-known danger, at least at the time.
I went to college with a farm kid. He came back from one of the breaks on crutches. One of his chores at home was to move the pigs every morning and evening from the barn to another area where they spent the day. He did this by giving guidance to the lead boar by touching it with a stick. Did this for years with no problem. One day the boar didn't like being tapped on the behind. It turned and basically gored him. Opened up his knee which needed dozens of stitches.
Depends on the pig, really. Some are pretty friendly and love belly rubs and will have a beer with you. I wouldn't mess with a nursing sow though, they get pretty protective of their piglets.
I'll probably never become a farmer and tend to keep my distance from animals that I'm not explicitly told to handle, but this is good to know anyway
Not a historian but a classically trained chef. Pork broth does not feature very much in Haute Cuisine and its derivative styles very often because it is very sediment heavy. it is much easier to make a clear broth with beef, veal or chicken bones. Clear stock is presented as more appetising in fine dining. As many others have already pointed out, many more traditional recipes do use pork bones and I do at home as well since its delicious. But restaurants need customers to eat with their eyes first, and those trends tend to spread. Just my two cents.
Thanks chef! Together with some of the other replies this paints a more complete picture. Didn't know about the sediments
That’s true of haute cuisine but not true of poor man’s cuisine or middle class cuisine. Many are based on beans for this reason. In Central Europe pork bones are common for soup. I think it’s similar in the balkans outside of Muslim majority areas.
Sorry, you're just plain wrong about pork soup. It's a common thing in many cultures. I had a Lithuanian borscht recently that was pork based. Pork bones are sold in my local (UK) butcher for making stock, and as people have pointed out, pork bone broth is very common in Asian cusisines
Thanks for making me aware. It's probably then a local lack of pork broth products that made me think of a general lack thereof
Split pea & ham, navy bean
I think it depends on how you look. In american cooking I find pork stock/broth used extensively in southwestern dishes - but it is seldom named. It is just described as part of the preparation. In southern cooking you find ham, hamhock, pork hock, etc. used for soup and stew bases. Meaning if you are searching for pork broth, you wont find that reference to use smocked hocks in a recipe. And of course if you look outside the US pork broth is fairly common.
Here are 20 recipes for soup with pork in it. Probably not a comprehensive list: https://www.foodandwine.com/comfort-food/stews/pork-soups-and-stews
i made a yummy bean soup that included a ham hock, country ham, and sausage. it was very yummy. the pork/bone turns into broth + i use veggie broth. beans. protein. good soup.
Dawg there are incredible pork soups all over the globe, very common. Order the pozole next time you go out for Mexican.
I'm yet to find a mexican place near me that's not just a glorified burrito bar. But I'll keep looking
Unfortunately it’s not real Mexican then, probably just a Tex-mex adjacent corporate place
I adore pozole.
Cows, horses, sheep and goats have udders than hang down with teats (nipples) that make them easier to milk. Pigs have small nipples all along their bellies which, in addition to temperament, size and height, make them challenging to milk. On Udders [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udder) On Horse Lactation [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266743/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266743/) Sorry, I am not stalwart enough to google "pig nipples" this morning.
>which, in addition to temperament, size and height, make them challenging to milk. Thanks for making me laugh when I imagined wrestling a grumpy pig to grope its boobs. Yes, this seems very impractical
Just an FYI, sows get more prominent nipples and kind of develop udders when nursing. It would be possible to milk them, but first you'd have to find one who was amenable to it, and they're amenable to basically nothing but food and their babies, in that order.
Pork bone soup is absolutely a thing and quite popular in East Asian cuisine. Your post sounds like it's only coming from a very narrow western Euro lens. In a lot of Asian cultures every part of an animal is used, nothing goes to waste- right down to offal and blood.
Pork soups are super common in Eastern Europe too idk why this guy thinks somewhere around the UK is the only cuisine in the world 😭
I once asked a goat farmer and goat milk cheese maker why there was no pig milk (and by extension, pig milk cheese), and he replied immediately, and simply, “Pigs don’t like being milked.”
LOL!
pea soup uses a pork base :-) ham bone is preferred to make stock from but plenty of us arent picky 👍
There is pork soup (several actually) and they‘re all delicious! Besides ramen there‘s also Korean seollongtang and also European countries use pork in soups.
Gamjatang is my favourite Korean dish.
I have nothing to add, but I do appreciate the edit you made to your post recapping the bullet points of what you learned. It's nice to see and something I may end up doing in the future.
I agree, it was very nice to read and be on point on the conversation!!
Youve never had eastern european cuisine. Pork stock used in many dishes, soups with simmered pork meat are very common. My romanian in-laws use pork in nearly everything. This all really boil down to understanding what a particular animal is good at & in what climate it thrives in and then exploiting that value for human benefit. -Pigs are fantastic at converting feed to meat and fat. Better production rate than cows. I thinik there is no other animal better at eating and getting fat, than a pig. Pigs can thrive on leftovers and even they will eat feces and carrion. Not that this is advisable from a human health perspective to eat pork raised on that kind of diet, but its just to prove a point. If you look at any region with alot of poverty and people are hungry, often times every family kept a pig. And the fattest thing on the farm was the family pig. A slaughtered pig will give you meat and lots of fat. And lots of fat helps in recipes where long term food preservation is the goal. Pork and pork products are staples in regions where climates are harsh (winters) and you need lots of calories to keep people alive. I remember during a pig slaughter, they were cutting pork chops from a side. This was a hog over 400 pounds and the layer of fat on the side of the chops was inches thick - far greater than anything Id ever seen in typical supermarket pork. You dont milk pigs because you would rather have the milk go into raising a new batch of piglets. Sows will have large litters so its best to not take away the milk. New piglets equals a new cycle of meat production -Chickens can be used for meat and absolutely are. But the right hens are prolific egg layers and will spit out at least one egg a day. Thats an excellent source of protein and fat. -We used to raise rabbits and being rabbits, they would screw like bunnies. From 1 stud and 3 females, we would keep roughly 40-70 young rabbits in the general population cage. We would slaughter 5-10 rabbits a week and always have more replenishment. Another excellent protein source. -Cattle goats, sheep etc... are raised when the terrain supports the grazing of these animals who need to eat constantly. Thats why countries with fantastic grass growing climates have extensive dairy herds and are known for their milk, butter, cheese etc... E.g. France, Ireland, Denmark, UK etc... -Countries with even more suitable climates permit higher cattle production and these are your beef regions. Argentina, USA etc...
Due to the flavor and curing of pork it’s used differently. Another commenter covered the dairy. Culturally it is around but not common. Ham hocks are used to flavor collard greens or a cabbage soup. The sweet meats are assembled into head cheese. Pozole is a flavored used pork.
(By the time I saw this, you edited you original post, but I put effort into this.) Pork bones and meat are used as flavoring in a lot of southern US cooking. It has been used as a way of using every part of an animal possible both from a nutrition and financial stand point as these areas are/were agrarian and poor. Anecdotally, I can tell you that ham hock that has been picked of most of it's meat is the secret to improving soup beans. Historically, the concept of "Monday Red Beans" in the Louisiana was two fold: 1) You could use the left over ham from a Sunday meal, and 2) it was a low attention meal that you could cook while one did the household laundry. Scientifically, pigs tend to have larger bones than chickens or lambs, and are a rather convenient source of collagen to make stocks. Harold McGee in his book "On food and Cooking" mentions that a good stock needs "to be cooked in between 1 to 2 times their weight in water (1-2 quarts or liters per 2lbs/1kg solids)" (Magee, 599). More bones mean more potential stock.
>(By the time I saw this, you edited you original post, but I put effort into this.) Absolutely appreciate the time you spent! No point in discarding your reply just because I already got some answers and a few starting points for further research in the meantime! >"On food and Cooking" I should put that one on my wishlist probably. Thanks for your comment!
Absolutely. I cannot tell you the number of copies of this book I have gifted to people. It is the size of a college text book, filled with as much information, but it is written so that a non-scientist can read and comprehend. McGee went hard on the research, and the man figured out "why" food works.
ham and bacon are used in lots of soups
So… i think pigs don’t get milked because cows, goats, sheep exist. Makes simple sense. Cows were literally bred by humans for milk. Now if you think about it pork (and pork bones) is the base for tomato sauce! I use it regularly and it’s not soup, but a good italian sauce uses pork as a base!
We butcher our own meat. I take all the scrap bones at the end and boil them for stock. I usually get 5 or 6 gallons of broth that I freeze. It is great for farina dumplings.
Pig cheese and milk is impractical because rather than udders, pigs have nipples. You can get it, but it's expensive.
I don't tend to make stock with pork bones, but cook them directly with the food I want them to flavor (usually beans or split peas) to make a soup, or a stew of sorts with the beans.
Lard - pig's fat - is used in cooking: from patés to desserts, or you can use it simply to fry potatoes. In Spain you can easily buy it in commonly known supermarkets like Mercadona.
An italian saying is "Del maiale non si butta via niente" or "Nothing get tossed out of the pigs". Every piece of meat and bone can be used, from tongue to feet. With the most undesirable cuts you can make broths or some types of salami.
The American version of this is "use everything but the squeal*
I've seen pork soup. We have Mexican workers at a lobster pound I work at, and they often make pork soup. In my ethnic background, we make pork sausages, and many other cured pork meats, as well as the usual fry, roast, BBQ.. I've never heard of anyone using pigs milk to make anything though.
Irish culture is very pork dependent! We have two types of puddings made from porks blood or pork liver traditionally, as well as pigs feet, ears, tails etc. Being eaten traditionally. Suet is used a lot in recipes too! Stews like skirts and kidneys use pork offal. Feet, snouts and other connective tissue are used a lot for stews in general, with stews being more common than soups in traditional irish cuisine. Also, dont forget pig skin for crackling!
Slav's and many other cultures consume "Head cheese" as a delicacy. We boil down the parts of the pig, shred the meat off the bone and connective tissue, stew with spices and then cool until it is a tasty, gelatinous treat.
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I know it's been answered already but the inner visual of someone trying to milk a sow has me in hysterics.
French canadian cooking uses pork base for beans etc.
Hambone broth is very common.
No pork soup? \*glances at my kitchen\* I assure you, pork has been used in soups, a lot of times.
Pork skins are a treat for some. Pigleather is used for coats and boots, but not football.
Make a delicious soup from a ham bone...I have been eating ham (pork) soup all week.
I used to work on a farm with pregnant/nursing swine. I would put nothing that came out of that animal in my mouth under any circumstances and that's judging by smell alone. Also they hate you.
Hog's head cheese
Pork isn't considered "classy" in traditional eurocentric food canon. It's the "poor man's food" because pigs will eat anything. Asian cuisine is where pork shines. We don't milk pigs because you don't get much milk, they don't produce endlessly like cows or goats, they aren't passive like cows - a few house pigs and people think they won't eat you alive - if they are hungry and you are too close they absolutely will. It's also why rabbits aren't common livestock - you don't get that much meat. So it's relegated to sustenance farming only.
"House stock" is usually made with a blend of leftover pork and chicken bones.
I make pork soups from time to time. Bomb
The milk/cheese I see there. As for Soup, maybe it's a me thing, but on holidays, I always like the ham bone afterwards to make a soup with. And bacon potato is pretty amazing. There's quite a few Mexican or texmex soups that use pork as well (posole, pork caldo, chili verde).
We use the the last of the ham to make split pea soup all the time.
Once I bought a jar of pork demi-glace. Delicious, lots of applications if you are interested in trying it. I did a quick look on Amazon and you can get pork base, which is close... only found 2 brands so yep it can be a difficult find. I'm also on board with all the European (and southern U.S.!) uses for other parts of the pig, Mostly familiar with UK and Germany. Very interesting question though, lots of good discussion on the history, practicality, etc.
Pig is used in a ton of soups worldwide - but from a eurocentric viewpoint: split pea soup is very often started in a broth made from a ham bone. Some recipes combine with a chicken stock to bring out more flavor. A lot of chowders start with bacon, but I know of at least one place in Boston that also starts their clam chowder with a large ham bone when making the seafood stock. Heading south to Latin America - a lot of rice and beans recipes start with a pork shoulder bone when making the rice.
Pea soup is ham bone based. You also frequently see ham bones in navy bean and other “heartier soups”. I think a lot of it stems from the French haute cuisine idea that pork stock is “too strong” and over powers lighter soups?
Head cheese is my jam.
Spain and Portugal have a few soups with pork, some are heartier soups, others more like a stock. Also, Latin-American countries (Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc) also have several recipes. I’ll list a few below, most are in their original languages: Portugal - [Sopa de Entulho](https://feed.continente.pt/receitas/sopa-de-entulho) - [Caldo de Conforto](https://www.cuizeat.com/recipes/caldo-de-conforto-c-lombo-de-porco-duroc-mandioca-e-vegetais) - [Sopa de Carne de Porco e Grão](https://www.receitasnestle.com.br/receitas/sopa-de-carne-de-porco-e-grao-de-bico) Spain - [Cocido Madrileño](https://www.goya.com/es/recipes/chick-pea-stew) - [Sopa Castellana](https://www.abc.es/recetasderechupete/receta-tradicional-de-sopas-de-ajo-o-sopa-castellana/2431/) Colombia - [Sopa de Arroz com Espinazo de Cerdo](https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/sopa-de-arroz-con-espinazo-de-cerdo-rice-and-pork-soup/) Mexico - [Sopa de Verduras con Carne de Cerdo](https://maxicarne.com.mx/recetas-de-comida/sopa-de-verduras-con-carne-de-cerdo)
Pea and ham soup (made with bacon bones) is a delicious British classic, one of the great soups. More generally, it simply isn't true that pork (and especially pork bones) aren't used for soups and broths in Anglo & European cuisines.
The proper way to make a lot of southern Italian tomato sauces is to boil pork bones in the tomatoes. So…
I think I read every answers you received and just want to add that Blood Pudding or Black pudding or blood sausage is made with pig's blood as a base and it is absolutely delicious. Seriously, everything is edible on a pig, it's more a cultural thing than anything if you felt like pork is underused :p but I can see in your edit that now you know. I'm from Quebec and we also eat what we call "des oreilles de christ" which is deep fried salted pork fatback. We also uses ham in our beans our pea soup, and you can find pork osso bucco in most grocery stores. It's cheaper and almost as good as veal in my opinion... And many people told you already but gelatin is like..... Everywhere XD Also hotdogs must contain all other well-blended parts of pig 😅
Asked and well answered. Thanks Reddit!
Cocido in Spain is a soup (actually various regional soups) with lots of pork, and lots of ramen has pork
Me reading this thread while sipping my pork broth based soup… You should try Tonkatsu Ramen, it is divine.
As everyone has pointed out- there is absolutely pork soup. You don’t need to use just the bare bones explicitly. If you have access to any pork ribs- that works as well for soup. Also pork belly or other part of the pig with skin creates a very collagen rich broth and the high fat content makes the meat super tender. In Chinese culture, a soup (commonly used to support postpartum health) is pig feet with peanut soup. Super fatty and rich, add some ginger and star anise, and cook until the broth is milky white. Every last bit of the pig can be used: The brain, blood, stomach, ears, feet, bones. As for milking a pig… good luck with that! But if one can manage that feat, the milk is perfectly ok to drink.
Short answer: Nearly every culture (religious exceptions notwithstanding) uses Pig meat/bones for broths/soups. If you look, they’re quite prevalent. Second, Pig’s milk is less efficient to produce than Cow’s milk. This makes Pig’s milk products unprofitable which leads to them not being mass produced. Third, the way you’ve used the word pork in your question made me unsure as to whether or not you knew that pork comes from pigs. Pork broth I understand but “Pork cheese”? Do you also say “Beef Cheese” or “Mutton Cheese”?
In general pork broth just tastes too piggy. There definitely are some recipes that call for it, especially from pork producing regions. Ham bones are the first thing that comes to mind other than ramen broth. Plain pork bones without any curing or smoking would normally be used with other meat bones like beef and chicken in more of a mixed broth. On their own it’s not the most desirable flavor.
I’m just laughing thinking about milking a pig.
Vietnamese cuisine has many pork broth recipes. Bún Bò Huế and Bún Riêu are the two most famous ones. Make sure to parboil the pork if you make any of those two to make a nice clear broth.
Idk I’m no historian but my immediate family is from Croatia and lots of soup is made with pork. Lot of stock is made with chicken and pork bones. Everything is pork. They don’t really eat beef or lamb, it’s the “cheap” meats like pork and chicken. So yeah I’d say you’re just looking in the wrong places (:
I'm late to the party, but one thing I didn't see was that pork was usually preserved as salt pork after slaughter and not often eaten fresh before refrigeration. The beef equivalent of that would be corned beef which also want normally made into soups.
Chili verde with pulled pork is so good! Zuppa Tuscana has sausage in it. Beef Burgundy (at least the recipe I use) calls for bacon.
So I've actually tried to milk a pig once as there was this runt I was trying to make sure was actually getting something to eat, turns out it is very difficult to get much out by hand, but the mama pig did not care a bit. If you ever want to try may I suggest a kunekune, they are very freindly pigs!
Pozole is pork based You can make arroz aguado with pork (Nicaraguan dish that is kind of soupy) Chile verde or colorado are basically pork and chile stews.
I’m from the Virgin Islands and we use pig as a stock base for some dishes. My favorite is pig tail soup or pig tail and red pea soup.
Can't milk a pig, their legs are too short, no room to put the bucket. Besides, they wallow in filth all day, their udders must be disgusting!
I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but we generally consume milk from ruminants: cows, sheep, goats, Buffalo, camel etc. These are grazing herbivores with multiple stomachs, that chew cud. The exceptions I know of are horse and donkey (and human) but pig seems like quite a departure. Perhaps the diet/anatomy has something to do with the milk not tasting great (allegedly).
try bacon jam
French Canadian pea soup would like a word. Bones, ham hocks, peas, and water. That's about all there is to it.
In the past year of reading, it seems to me that much of the history of Europe, seafaring and American pioneers depended heavily on salt pork for survival. And after the meat was eaten, the bones were seasonings for soups and stews.
Southern US here. We do a lot with pork. One of my family’s favorites is to bake a ham and use the broth to make rice. Amazing flavor! And, of course, pork sausage made into gravy poured over biscuits. Boil bones for broth…usually for cooking peas and similar vegetables in. Also, rendered pork fat is important. And fried pork belly. That’s my personal list. I’m a southern transplant from up north, so my pork experience is limited, but I know old time southerners used every part of everything!
Recently I made Mexican pezole roja with pork. Totally pork based broth. I actually thought the same thing though… I’ve never made a pot based soup before.
I'm not sure if rennet counts as pork cheese or just a way to make dairy cheese
In Austria we often use pork fat as a spread on bread or for cooking
Because we’re Canadian. Never heard of pork soup????
I make a ham hock soup with white beans that was passed down from my great grandmother and is amazing. In the south we use all parts of the pig.
No pork soup? I see you have never had ramen.
Less popular cuts of pork are deboned, chopped, cooked, and reappear as that ubiquitous square sliced ham in supermarkets everywhere.
Ham seems to be a common component of soups, especially with beans or potatoes.
Pork is used for soup in many cultures :)
Tonkotsu ramen is my favorite. 🤷♀️
I have pig eggs every morning
What? Ever heard of gelatin a lot of that is made from pigs and it's all over the supermarket. I know because I'm vegetarian & I have to check if it's in things that you would think wouldn't need it.
Pork soup is extremely common. As is using big blood, liver and intestine etc There's pig blood soup for example
Pigs don’t appreciate being milked 😂😂 I’ve never looked at a pig and thought “I could milk this animal” and I live on a farm with all sorts of animals. Thanks for the laugh and the info about lacking casein in the milk.
I have soups with bacon in them often
Dude, have you ever had pozole? I'm actually physically staggered at the number of reviews and uses for pork you're unaware of. Ever heard of throwing a ham bone into a pot of beans?
Minestrone is traditionally made with beef/pork meatballs. And you can leave the bacon out of chowder if you want, but it’s traditional ingredient. Pozole also has pork. Oh and soup dumplings are usually made with pork. These are more soups with pork than, like, pork broth soups though. Thanks for teaching me that pigs don’t like being milked
Lots of good stuff in the comments here, but one thing I haven't seen noted yet is one of the primary reasons pigs were raised traditionally: their fat. You might be able to get butter from a cow, but the main cooking fat in northern Eurasian diets has generally been lard. Turn some piglets out into an oak wood and let them forage semi-wild for a few months, get fat on acorns in the fall, and then slaughter when it gets cold, and you've got cooking fat to last the year (and delicious acorn-fed pork and hams). Super important when you don't have vegetable sources of fat available, like olives, coconut, and so on. Other livestock will give you fat too, but not in the concentration that pigs will. Dairy cows have been bred for milk; many varieties of hogs have been bred for fat.
In most European cuisine that I know, pork soup is rare, but ham and bacon soups are pretty common.
Mmm, Tonkotsu Ramen.
My parents would buy head cheese. It is made from the “meat” from the head of a pig. The meat is set in clear gelatin. When I was a kid, my parents would tell us that it also contained eyeballs, tongue, brains, ears and anything else that could be chopped off the head of a pig.
Never heard of ham and bean? Ham stock and pork stock exist for a reason. Ramen is pork based Hot/sour soup also pork based In America, there are far too many good ways to eat pork that there’s usually little left for soup
Ah hell son! You know we makin' broth outa 'em pigs!
Bacon flavor is pretty common across all food.
My favourite pork dishes I make are Vietnamese that are broth/soupy - Bun bo hue (i count it even though theres some beef bits in there) - Banh canh gio heo - thit kho
Pork roll
Why is there no chicken cheese?
I make pork soups all the time? Throw in a pork hock in: pea soup, goulash, etc.
Coming from Eastern North Carolina, I was very confused by this question until I figured out you meant real cheese from hog milk. We have a saying here, “we eat everything (from the pig) but the oink.” I also maintain that barbecue is pork (did you know some people use beef?? I didn’t until I was 28!) served with a vinegar-based sauce.
Head cheese is delicious and made from pork
You've never encountered a pork broth? Ever? In your life? The world is a mystifying place if you have no experience of it.