The Naxian Pig

This usually unique domestic animal was raised on pigswill, and kitchen detritus, tomatoes, squashy figs and apples, in a small enclosure of piled-up stones close to the habitation, and was ceremoniously killed in late autumn at the age of one year by its owner, who was to be seen studiously passing a smooth stick through yards of gut and washing the entrails on the beach.

Everything that was not immediately roasted on the fire (principally the pig’s innards and its ribs), or made into sausages, or boiled (the head) or bartered (a shoulder or a leg) was immediately preserved by cutting into small pieces of modest size, and rubbing them copiously with sea salt collected from the rocks. They were then stored in layers of dry sea salt, strewn with mountain thyme, winter savory, and bayleaves, in earthenware crocks. (These pigs, by the way, were astonishingly small.)