Shang Dynasty bronze pig zun
Recently, an interesting news occurred in Jiangsu: a gentleman driving a car was hit by a wild boar on the highway, the vehicle was damaged, the wild boar was killed, and the driver got the accident certificate and "strongly demanded that the wild boar carcass be taken away", which was rejected by the police.
Whether or not a national grade II protected animal can be eaten is not a question discussed in this article. The author noticed that in the comment area of this news, some netizens are advocating that "wild boars are many times better than domestic pig meat", "any wild meat is better than domestic meat" and so on. If this is the case, Chinese spent almost 10,000 years domesticated and bred domestic pigs, isn't it all doing useless work?
In fact, these statements are the same as the usual logic of advocating "wild game is delicious", ignoring the role of evolution in the selection of livestock, and are somewhat anti-intellectual.
As early as 10,000 years ago, the ancient Chinese began to domesticate domestic pigs. 10,000 years ago, evidence of wild boar breeding was found at the Guilin Jiaopiyan site in Guangxi, but it had not yet evolved into domestic pigs.
Pig-patterned pottery bowl of hemudu culture
Eight thousand years ago, in the Cishan culture of Hebei Province, the earliest domestic pigs appeared, which is also the earliest domestic pig found in the world. These early domestic pigs, in terms of physical characteristics, have been significantly differentiated from wild boars, and the selection direction of feeding such as larger buttocks has emerged.
Seven thousand years ago, in the Hemudu culture of Zhejiang, domestic pig breeding was more common, and many pottery with domestic pigs were unearthed, proving that domestic pigs have risen to an important part of ancient Chinese culture.
Big gram
By four or five thousand years ago, almost all the ancient cultures of The Land of China were raising domestic pigs, whether it was the northeast, north China, northwest China, or south China, east China and southwest China, and even the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they were raising and breeding more and more delicious domestic pig breeds.
In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, cooking and eating pork even became an important part of the national sacrifice ceremony, and even made bronze Dading as a special vessel for cooking, and became a heavy instrument of the state. Sacrificing cattle, pigs and sheep is called "Tai Prison", and only sacrificing pigs and sheep is called "Shao Prison", and the pork of the whole pig is indispensable.
Wei and Jin murals
In Confucius's time, it was even an honor for ordinary officials to be able to eat cold pork sacrificed to sacrifices. "Han Feizi" also uses the story of "once participated in the slaughter of pigs" to tell the importance of integrity. These pigs are of course domestic pigs, not wild boars.
Moreover, there are countless descriptions of the delicious taste of domestic pork in China for thousands of years, such as the description of the scene of eating pork in the Book of Poetry, the celebration of victory in the "Mulan Poem", and the introduction of pork stewing in Su Dongpo's "Ode to Pork". There are some ancient Chinese records of hunting wild boars, but when it comes to how wild boar meat is eaten and what it tastes like gold.
Our ancestors bred domestic pigs, of course, to make the taste more than wild boars, not the other way around, the most critical of which is the fat content. The most popular point of pork is that it is high in fat, and even pure lean pork has more fat than chicken and beef. Even in modern times, the taste and taste of pork is judged according to the proportion and distribution of fat.
In contemporary times, the "native pork" that some people advocate is actually a more primitive fatty pig. The so-called "soil pork is more fragrant" is also because the proportion of fat meat is higher, and the taste of cooking is obviously different from that of lean pigs.
From this, we can see the self-contradiction of the so-called "wild boar meat is more fragrant". The biggest feature of wild boar is that the muscle ratio is very high and the fat content is small, which is caused by the long-term exercise of wild boar in the wild, and it is also the wild boar that is not limited by congenital factors of artificial selection.
For thousands of years, in order to pursue taste, the key factor in the selection and breeding of domestic pigs is fat, which is not only the fat of fat, but also the taste brought by the oil contained in lean meat. Wild boars are covered with lean meat, and there is a lack of grease between the lean meats, which is traditionally said to be "chai", and the taste is impossible to match that of domestic pigs.
Speaking of this, we can find two contradictions: First, if wild boar meat is really better, then "clenbuterol" pork can not follow the same principle? Second, the "earth pork" that is respected by the Chinese people is completely the opposite of fat and thin two extreme typicals of wild boar meat, and it is absolutely impossible to boast at the same time that "soil pigs and wild boars are better than ordinary domestic pigs."
There is also a more critical problem, that is, it is not so easy for humans to make pork taste better. In addition to the selection and breeding of domestic pig breeds, it is also necessary to castrate pigs before adulthood, adult meat pigs will never use sows, bloodletting when killing pigs, and not eating feed indiscriminately. These breeding and slaughtering techniques are a summary of thousands of years of human experience and lessons, and one less link will cause the taste of pork to be seriously damaged, either fishy, or smelly, or the taste becomes worse.
Therefore, some people see this wild boar that was killed on the road, indiscriminately boast that "any piece of wild boar meat is more fragrant than domesticated", and do not look at this pig is not castrated at all, not bloodletting, and may be a sow, eating must be messy, this wild boar meat taste is 99% must be fishy.
Most of the wild boar meat eaten by contemporary people is actually handled according to the method of raising and slaughtering domestic pigs, otherwise it will not even pass the passing line in taste.
The same can be applied to other fallacies that advocate "wild animals are delicious". At least for the same animal, the wild cannot be more delicious than the domestic chicken, the pheasant cannot be more delicious than the domestic chicken, the geese cannot be more delicious than the domestic goose, and the wild sheep cannot be more delicious than the domestic sheep, otherwise our ancestors were in vain? This is truly a disparagement of thousands of years of human labor and wisdom. (Author: Tao Mujian)