Pork is not as delicious as before. Is it me or the pig that has changed?

Audit expert: Zeng Shenming

Professor, Department of Animal Reproduction and Developmental Sciences, China Agricultural University

Whether it is festivals or daily meals, pork is always on our table. Various pork delicacies, such as braised pork, sweet and sour spare ribs, and pork elbows in sauce, always make people salivate. However, as we get older, the taste of pork seems to gradually become bland.

Some friends may comfort themselves by saying that they put on the filter of childhood and beautified the taste of pork which they seldom ate at that time. Now they are using the "original camera" and everything is different when they look back.

Source | pixabay

Is this really the case? A conclusion that may make people sad is that it is not that people have lost their childhood filter, but that pork is really not as delicious as before.

The type of pork we eat has changed

Due to the growth of the national economy and the increase in population, the demand for meat among Chinese residents has begun to increase sharply, among which pork is the most urgently needed.

Pork has always been the main meat on the Chinese table. According to the 2020 National Statistical Yearbook, the average pork consumption of Chinese people reached 18.2 kg, far exceeding other meats such as beef, mutton, chicken and duck. Faced with the sharp increase in demand for pork, speeding up the time to market and increasing the number of marketed pork have become the primary goals of major farms.

Traditional pigs usually have a long growth cycle (about one year to be slaughtered) and a higher feed-to-meat ratio (in simple terms, they eat more but grow less), which makes it difficult for them to meet the huge demand for pork. At the same time, with the development of society, people are no longer fond of fat meat, but are beginning to favor lean meat.

Origin of Xiangxi Black Pig | Kuaibaike.com

Therefore, the plan to introduce foreign pigs had already begun as early as the last century.

In order to solve the problem of eating meat, China began to introduce foreign pig breeds on a large scale in the 1950s. Now the pork from these foreign breeds has occupied 90% of the pork market in China, mainly including the American Duroc pig, the British Large White pig and the Danish Landrace pig.

Duroc pig origin | Wikipedia

Local pork VS foreign pork

In the childhood memories of many people who have entered middle age, especially those who have lived in rural areas, the pork that is rarely seen on the table is always extremely fragrant. On a piece of properly cooked braised pork, one can always see clear and beautiful texture composed of tender meat and snow-white fat layers. There is no need to add oil, the meat is covered with bright oil and exudes a fragrant aroma, which makes people drool at the sight, and melts in the mouth when you take a bite, leaving a lingering fragrance on your lips and teeth.

The reason why they can present such attractive quality is that most traditional native pig breeds have a long growth cycle, eat a lot and grow slowly, which allows them to have a large body, store a lot of fat, and have finer muscle fibers, so the taste is naturally more tender.

Source | pixabay

The foreign pork that occupies our dining table now is no longer as tender and fragrant as it used to be. It has a slightly bland taste and a slightly woody texture. In addition, without the blessing of superb cooking skills, it is difficult for people to describe the dishes made from it as delicious.

Foreign pigs grow fast and have a short market cycle. When they are slaughtered, they have low fat content and high lean meat ratio. However, their muscle fibers are coarser and their taste is rougher. This is why, although they appear on the tables of countless families, they are still not well received.

Source | pixabay

The taste of pork depends on fat

The huge difference in taste between ordinary pork and native pork mainly depends on their intramuscular fat content . Intramuscular fat is the fat hidden inside the meat muscle, and the content directly determines the taste. Native pork contains more intramuscular fat than foreign pork. After cooking, it is tender and juicy. The fat also evaporates at high temperature to produce an attractive aroma that makes people salivate, which elevates the taste of the originally ordinary pork by several levels.

According to incomplete statistics, the average intramuscular fat content of China's 12 traditional native pig breeds can reach 5.8%, while the average intramuscular fat content of mainstream foreign pigs on the market is around 2.3%. The difference in intramuscular fat content and the difference in muscle fiber thickness have created a huge gap in taste between the two.

Source | pixabay

Why does the difference in fat content cause such a difference? It turns out that it is the sense of smell that plays a role. I wonder if you have ever noticed such details when eating. For example, both Coke and Sprite are soda and sweet, but the taste is very different when you drink them. Why is this? Smart people must have immediately thought of the difference between the two, that is, the smell . As an important part of the human sense of taste, the sense of smell plays a decisive role in allowing people to feel the taste level of food. It can be said that without the sense of smell, many things will taste like chewing wax. The richer fat content of native pork makes it evaporate more aroma when cooking, greatly enriching people's taste experience.

For a long time in the future, pork will still be the main meat on our table. People may feel sorry that its taste is gradually becoming bland, but more people will be grateful for it, because they give up the selling point of taste in exchange for a more affordable price and a reliable source of protein. This is good news for the middle and low-income groups who still make up the majority of our country.

Foreign pig breeds have taken over the market in large numbers, turning pork, which was once a delicious dish that could only be enjoyed during festivals, into an everyday item on the tables of countless people today... If you consider that you can eat pork casually today, the pork in the bowl doesn't seem to have become any less delicious.