09. Pork

Although the demand for lean meat has changed how all livestock is raised and fattened, the raising of pork has changed the most dramatically. Thirty years ago a full-grown pig typically weighed more than 300 pounds. Now the top weight is closer to 240, which yields a carcass of about 180 pounds and a little more than 100 pounds of edible meat. Today’s pig has less fat (about an inch along the back, compared to several inches in the old days) and larger, leaner muscles.

All of these changes have made lean cuts of pork very similar to chicken in overall fat content, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. But this leanness has made cooking pork much more difficult. As we discussed earlier (see pages 46–47), pork is very low in moisture. What made it juicy in the past were abundant deposits of fat dispersed within its lean parts. Now that these are gone, modern pork dries out, with inedible results, if cooked at too high heat or for too long.