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The Food Programme: Suckling Pigs

Suckling Pigs

26/07/2009

BBC Radio 4 - The Food Programme, Suckling Pigs

Suckling pigs fell out favour in Britain centuries ago, but are they ready for a comeback?

Suckling pigs are a celebrated part of Chinese, Spanish and Italian cuisine; they fell from favour in Britain many centuries ago, but are they ready for a comeback?

Suckling pigs - whole month old milk fed piglets - are a celebrated and celebratory part of Chinese, Spanish and Italian cuisine, but fell from favour at the British table many centuries ago as we became more urbanised - and squeamish. But with renewed interest in where our food comes from and how it is reared, suckling pigs are becoming a more common feature in our restaurants. So might they be ready for a comeback?   

Sheila Dillon meets the farmers who turned around their own failing pig rearing business 34 years ago by carving out a new market for themselves, supplying suckling pigs to Chinese restaurants.  Reporter Ray Kershaw visits Barry, Gillian and Richard Pugh of Pughs Piglets to find out about their business, where now 40 per cent of their activities are directed at the mainstream restaurant market.

She traces our own British suckling pig heritage with food historian Ivan Day; historically it was suckling pig we ate, not full grown ones, and we also had a taste for many other juvenile birds and animals.  

Sheila also visits China Tang at the Dorchester Hotel, where whole suckling pigs are a regular feature of the dining room, and a traditional part of Chinese wedding feasts. She speaks to Fuchsia Dunlop, a BBC journalist and award-winning author of several books on Chinese food, and Steve Downey, founder of Chef Direct, who supplies suckling pigs to English restaurants, about their potential for the future.

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