(These are some day-old piglets) As promised to you pork-lovers, here's some interesting info:
Asians are more sensitive to 'boar taint' i.e. porky smell and all pork that gets flown from here to Singapore comes either from females or castrated males. A sow weighs 260kg or more and can easily snap your knees if they push against you. Castration is easily done on piglets by squeezing the testicles out of tiny incisions made on the scrotal sac (followed by unceremoniously flinging them on the ground). These grow to be the size of small rock melons in a mature boar. Castration is less exciting than previously-believed. Chinese are second to Europeans in the see-how-much-pork-we-can-eat competition. It takes about another 23 weeks before these piglets end up on your platter. Pigs are excellent in converting feed into meat, neck-to-neck with chickens. Singaporeans like pork that is not too pale and not too red; refrigeration strategies affect colour of pork! Most sows produce about 10 live piglets in intensive farming systems. In the presence of a good boar, a sow in heat will stand perfectly still (and not even budge) if you sit on its back. When artificial insemination is then done (using a tube connected to a packet of boar semen), rubbing the back of the sow results in the semen being sucked up! I mean, you've got to see it to believe it!
Asians are more sensitive to 'boar taint' i.e. porky smell and all pork that gets flown from here to Singapore comes either from females or castrated males. A sow weighs 260kg or more and can easily snap your knees if they push against you. Castration is easily done on piglets by squeezing the testicles out of tiny incisions made on the scrotal sac (followed by unceremoniously flinging them on the ground). These grow to be the size of small rock melons in a mature boar. Castration is less exciting than previously-believed. Chinese are second to Europeans in the see-how-much-pork-we-can-eat competition. It takes about another 23 weeks before these piglets end up on your platter. Pigs are excellent in converting feed into meat, neck-to-neck with chickens. Singaporeans like pork that is not too pale and not too red; refrigeration strategies affect colour of pork! Most sows produce about 10 live piglets in intensive farming systems. In the presence of a good boar, a sow in heat will stand perfectly still (and not even budge) if you sit on its back. When artificial insemination is then done (using a tube connected to a packet of boar semen), rubbing the back of the sow results in the semen being sucked up! I mean, you've got to see it to believe it!
