pig-milk-msg - 10/17/14

Use of pig milk. Difficulties in milking pigs.

NOTE: See also the files: milk-msg, raw-milk-msg, almond-milk-msg, alnd-mlk-chs-msg, Almond-Milk-art, Dairy-Prodcts-art, butter-msg, bag-cheeses-art.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:05:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] pig cheese

My own curiosity having been piqued, I did a search. It turns out  others 
have considered the question, mainly in the negative:

"Anyone who farms pigs would say that pigs' milk would make an incredible cheese, he says.  The problem is that it's nearly impossible to milk 
pigs. When sows are lactating, they get very aggressive."

 (http://boingboing.net/2012/07/25/pigs-milk-and-other-difficu.html) 

Then there's this:

"Milking a pig is extraordinarily difficult, to say the least. For one 
thing, they have fourteen teats as opposed to a cow's four, and when stimulated to produce oxytocin, they eject the milk for only fifteen seconds at a time (the ejection time of a cow, by contrast, is well over ten minutes). Hence it requires enormous dexterity, skill and speed."

Only... the second quote is from an article on a cheese. An actual cheese, 
made from pig's milk:
"certainly  Italy's most closely-guarded culinary secret, a rare cheese 
made from pig?s milk  called Porcorino"
 (http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/raresttuscancheese.asp) 

And apparently it's not bad:
"It has a consistency both firm and runny, somewhere between brie and 
peccorino. The flavor clobbers the hard palate with a sensation nearly 
indescribable in its complexity and overwhelming richness: a product of the swine to make one swoon.  Imagine a milky tiramisu that melts and vibrates before exploding with overtones of porcini mushroom and a back taste hint of 
chestnuts (perhaps a product of the pig's diet). Imagine damp woods, crisp autumn leaves crunching under foot, a dog barking in the distance. Imagine wild strawberries and rotting logs."

Only... there's those fourteen teats. Etc. Which explains why it never 
caught on. Still - am I the only one who's intrigued?

Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com


Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:38:00 -0400
From: Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pig cheese: the final oink

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 2:06 AM,  <JIMCHEVAL at aol.com> wrote:
<<< "The one thing we can be fairly sure of is that no one in our period was
milking a pig, much less making cheese with the result. Though, a little
earlier, I wouldn't discount some decadent Roman who could have cared less  how many times his slaves got kicked or bitten by an irate sow." >>>

PROBABLY they weren't milking pigs, or we'd have heard of it, but I
think it is necessary to point out that milk cows don't automatically
give up milk, they're trained to do so, and similarly a milk pig would
have to be trained as well.

I'm not pointing this out just to be annoying, but rather because I
feel it's important that city people not make assumptions based on
ignorance, as non-cooks have done with situations such as over-spicing
meats to disguise rottenness.
-- 
Saint Phlip


Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:15:54 -0400
From: aruvqan <aruvqan at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pig cheese: the final oink

On 3/22/2013 4:38 PM, Saint Phlip wrote:
<<< PROBABLY they weren't milking pigs, or we'd have heard of it, but I
think it is necessary to point out that milk cows don't automatically
give up milk, they're trained to do so, and similarly a milk pig would
have to be trained as well. >>>

Hm, last pot bellied pig I met loved tummy rubs, so I would imagine that 
if you started with the piglet training them to roll over and get a 
tummy rub and a couple other tricks to get them accustomed to being 
handled by people, you could train them to be milked.


Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:16:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pig cheese: the final oink

Indeed. But I believe the people most interested in all this have  
experience of both cows and pigs and so they may be making some assumptions, but certainly not because they are ignorant city-folk. Also, I know lots of 
stories of pigs eating babies; somewhat less of cows doing so. This does indeed inflect my own idea of their relative orneriness.

Otherwise, those who simply cannot get their snouts out of this particular  
trough might like to know some of the other factoids I've been finding as I 
browse about on the general subject of pig's milk:

- The Egyptians thought it caused leprosy
- A 14th century doctor included it in a cure for dropsy
- A man who traveled in Afghanistan claimed the locals gave him a cheese  
which turned out to be pig cheese; and, once he got over a certain 
repugnance,  he found it pretty good.
- The Jewish philosopher claimed that, being closest to human milk (and  
apparently he wasn't far off), it was the best (presumably he ascertained this without actually tasting it).
- Dolly Parton claims she once drank some directly from a pig's teat...

Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

<the end>
Edited by Mark S, Harris	pig-milk-msg	3 of 3