Larder, or what pork looked like a century ago

Pork is my favorite meat. Give me a properly cooked pork chop over a New York strip steak any day of the week. Pork is more complex than other meats out there and I think the pig gives you so many choices when it comes to cuts. You can have the leaner chops and hap, or the crowd pleaser — bacon. And let’s not forget about sausage. Glorious, delicious, salty unhealthy sausage. Don’t forget, you can’t get biscuits and gravy without sausage (and sorry my vegetarian and vegan friends and readers, but nothing is an equal substitute for country sausage in that dish).

Combine my love of pork with love of finding old books about things I’m obsessed with and you get me buying this book this week.

I’m just into the book and find it fascinating. It’s talking about pork production in the year 1908. At that time nearly 50 percent of all the world’s pork was produced in the United States. Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Missouri were the top 5 pork producing states. It’s not that those states love pork more than the other 43 (this was before Hawaii and Alaska were stars on our flag). It’s just that those states grew lots of cheap, good corn.

It’s also interesting to read about the shift from longer growing periods and larger pigs to quicker turn arounds and smaller pigs as a result. I’ll give a full report once I’m through. Until then, here are some pictures from the 614 tome.