Welcome to our series sharing Food Holidays: December 17th, 2021. I would like to ask you to take a look at the Holidays being celebrated today and let me know which Holiday you most want to celebrate and why. For me it’s National “I Love Honey Day”.
While Charlie says he will pass on celebrating either Holiday. David says National “I Love Honey Day” is nice, but he prefers celebrating National Roast Suckling Pig Day* which Charlie and I will pass on. How about you? Would you like Roasted Pig?
National “I Love Honey” Day #HoneyDay
Greeks and Roman referred to Honey as a food fit for the Gods.
A Honey Wine was developed, and largely consumed by many. The Honey Wines given name was Mead.
Honey was so in demand in the Eleventh Century that it was a stipulation for German Peasants to offer their feudal Lord’s payment in Honey and Beeswax.
Do you have Allergies? Take a teaspoon a day of a Honey made from the region where you reside, and the Honey will aid in developing resistance to Pollen thereby reducing your Allergies.
If you have chapped lips, then you should apply Honey!
National Roast Suckling Pig Day*
Thanks to National Roast Suckling Pig Day, which falls on December 18th, you don’t have to wait until Christmas to pig out feast of Roasted Pig. Did you know Suckling Pigs are considered a delicacy? Their meat is more tender, juicier, and gelatinous due to the higher levels of Collagen than adult pigs. The reason for this is they’re between the ages of two and six weeks and have not yet been weaned off their mother’s Milk, hence the name “suckling”. If you can open your heart to put a whole baby Pig, from nose to tail, in your oven or on your grill, this animal makes for a sumptuous meal that can feed 20 adults. Gather your family and get to roasting the Pig for preferably 5 hours before you plan to serve the Roasted Pig.
HISTORY OF NATIONAL ROAST SUCKLING PIG DAY
No one is sure why or when National Roast Suckling Pig Day came about. But it’s no surprise that there’s a Holiday dedicated to this delicacy. We’ve all probably seen similar pictures in children’s storybooks and cartoons of a Pig on a dish with an Apple in its mouth in the center of a table surrounded by Medieval festivities. Pigs and people have come a long way together in history. Pigs are one of the very first animals to have been domesticated by humans.
Suckling Pigs are known to have been the centerpiece of Feasts and Banquets in various Cuisines and are a traditional dish in several Countries, such as China, Spain, the U.S., and the Philippines. Some of the earliest references to the Suckling Pig appear in ancient texts dating back to the Sixth Century, such as the Salian Law: “If someone has stolen a Suckling Pig and this is proven against him, the guilty party will be sentenced to 120 Denarii which adds up to three Solidi which is Latin coins.” Clearly, people had already valued their piggy property in those days.
However, Spain is generally recognized as the true Country of origin for the tradition of roasting a Suckling Pig, which they call Cochinillo Asado. The most well-known Spanish region for this dish is Castile and, more specifically, the City of Segovia. Suckling Pigs have been said to have been brought to Spain by the Roman invasion of what was then called Hispania in 218 B.C. There was an upsurge in the popularity of the dish in the 1930s, when the owner of a Segovian Tavern began cutting the Roast Suckling Pig with the edge of a plate, to demonstrate the tenderness of the Meat, and add some showmanship to the way the dish was presented to its diners. This sparked a new trend, which continues to be performed in various Spanish restaurants to this day.
The delicacy is such a significant part of Spain that it’s even been alluded to by various literary greats. Miguel de Cervantes, in his novel “Don Quixote”, wrote that Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza come across a wedding in the Castilian Countryside where they’re met with the sight of several Suckling Pigs Roasting over a fire. Ernest Hemingway also famously enjoyed this dish and mentions his favorite Spanish restaurant, renowned for its Roast Suckling Pig, in “The Sun Also Rises”.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
