Theodore Talk: Wild Boar to Baconfest: Pigs in History and Culture

Pigs were the first food animals to be domesticated, so they have a history with humans that goes back more than 12,000 years. Antiquity is only one of the reasons, however, that pork is the most commonly eaten meat in the world. This odd, contradictory animal offers a great range of advantages when it comes to feeding large populations, especially urban populations, though historically, it has also offered several disadvantages. Pork was virtually the only meat available to most of Europe during the Middle Ages, and if you ask for meat in China, you will get pork. From the invention of blood sausage by the Assyrians to creation of such American icons as barbecue and hot dogs, pig has remained on the menu for all but a few notable people groups. Celebrated at fairs and looked to for medical research, pigs offer culinary delight and potential promise but also create some challenges. So the topic of pigs is as far-ranging as the pigs themselves.

Cynthia Clampitt is a writer, speaker, and food historian. She has been writing and talking about food history for more than twenty-five years, and is the author of Pigs, Pork, and Heartland Hogs: From Wild Boar to Baconfest and Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland.  Her most recent book, Destination Heartland: A Guide to Discovering the Midwest's Remarkable Past, is about places to visit Midwestern history.

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Theodore Talks take place on Zoom the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m. CT.

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