13 November 2009

Pigs when it comes to pork?

I'm thinking pork chops glazed with quince jelly sounds pretty good. And maybe with quince slices sautéed in butter or pork fat would go well with it. Hmmm. Food wheels are turning.

By the way, I did some research and found that France is in the top, say, 15 countries worldwide in terms of per capita annual pork consumption. The U.S. and the U.K. are farther down the list.

One problem with the charts and tables that I found is that they don't always list all the same countries. I guess statistics are available for some and not for others, or some editor decides which ones are interesting or significant, omitting the others.

The U.S. and the U.K., along with Canada, are down the list from France for pork consumption, but not by an awful lot. We're talking 75 lbs. per person per year in France, and about 65 lbs. per person per year in Canada and the U.S. I think Americans and maybe Canadians eat a lot more beef than French people do. Can you spell H-A-M-B-U-R-G-E-R?

A gratuitous puppy picture: the other day I made a loaf of
banana-sesame seed bread. Guess who was interested?


You'd think that French figures would be higher (and rounder?), considering all the pâtés, sausages, rillettes, and lardons consumed in the Hexagon. What countries consume more pork than France? Germany: 120 lbs. — that's not a surprise, and must have to do with sausages.

Taiwan too — 85 lbs., more than France. Higher on the list than Germany, even, you have Spain and the Czech Republic, both close to 125 lbs. And Denmark, of all places, takes the prize at 140 lbs. per person annually. Danish hams, I guess. People in Hong Kong, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, and the Netherlands all out-consume the French when it comes to pork.

Anyway, there you have it. Yesterday we didn't do our share. For lunch we had a curried soup with butternut squash, onions, and chicken in it. As a light dinner, we had some pasta with olive oil and grated parmesan cheese.

You have to take a break now and then, right? Today for lunch it'll be bœuf bourguignon, containing both beef and pork, along with carrots and mushrooms. I'm hungry already.

4 comments:

  1. That bread looks good. How do you eat it - toasted with jam or cheese perhaps ?

    Reading your blog always makes me feel hungry and want to go and cook something.

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  2. Banana bread with sesame seeds!! That sounds wonderful. You just sort of slipped that in amongst the pork stats. Could you please post the recipe?

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  3. I made banana bread this week also- mine had pineapple in it. We are going to visit friends for Thanksgiving and I'll take some bread to them.

    Your recipe sounds interesting. I wouldn't be able to make it for my friend Bill that we are visiting because he has an allergy to sesame seeds, oil, etc.

    Thanks for the interesting stats on pork.

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  4. My pork consumption is higher than my beef consumption, but neither would qualify for the 65-pounds-per-year category.
    Did Callie get her bread?

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