The Spanish Pig

Authors of many nationalities and persuasions have been writing about Spanish food for centuries.

And one animal figures large in such writings. The humble pig.

A pig is more treasured in Spain than in any other European country. It has ever been thus.

Back in the mid 19th century the traveller and writer Richard Ford was writing about the importance of the pig.

He said: "In Spain pigs are more numerous even than asses, since they pervade the provinces. And those of Extremedura, the Hampshire of the Peninsula, are the most esteemed, they alone will be noticed."

Some things never change. Today Extremedura remians the home province of the pig and that's not all that remains constant since Richard Ford penned his tribute to this unique part of Spain.

Ford said: "That province, although so little visited by Spaniards or strangers is full of interest to the antiquarian and naturalist. Vast districts of this unreclaimed province are covered with woods of oak, beech and chestnut; but these park like scenes have no charms for native eyes. Blind to the picturesque, they only are thinking of the number of pigs which can be fattened on the mast and acorns, which are sweeter and larger than those of our oaks."

For my part, when coming across pigs in Spain, I have been amazed at how big they are. Enormous, fat creatures. Many a pig farmer in Spain has tried to describe to me how this comes about. But, in literature at least, nobody has put it into words better than Englishman Richard Ford.

He wrote: "The pigs during the greater part of the year are left to support nature as they can... When the acorns are ripe and fall from the trees, the greedy animals are turned out in legions from the villages which, more correctly, may be termed coalitions of pigsties.
"They return from the woods at night, of their own accord, and without a swine's general. These pigs are the pets of the peasants; they are brought up with their children, and partake, as in Ireland, in the domestic discomfort of their cabins; they are universally respected.

"It is astonishing how rapidly they thrive on their sweet food; indeed it is the whole duty of a good pig to get as fat as soon as he can, and then die for the good of his country. The death of a fat pig is as great an event in Spanish families, who generally fatten up one, as the birth of a baby."

What was true in 1846 when Richard Ford's 'Gatherings from Spain' was first published, remains true today. As the Cornwall based chef Rick Stein discovered when he went on a gastronomic tour of Spain last year.
Stein said: “I never expected to be slicing through a pigs muzzle. I ate the ribs, shoulder and chorizos. As they say there, everything but the squeal.”

There is a regular walk I go in in Andalucia. I walk as far as "the big pig." I go to see it and then I know I am at the halfway point of my walk. I always feel a touch sad when it is no longer at home in its vast sty. That can only mean one thing.

Richard Ford himself reflects on how those before him have paid tribute to the Spanish pig. He says: "Of all the things in Spain, no one feel ashamed to plead guilty to a predeliction and preference to the pig."

That is as true in the 21st century as it was when Ford ambled his way through Spain tasting the food of the country at its most basic. He writes about so many of the ingredients, and of the final meals, that are as prevalent today as they were in his heyday.