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Asucking-pig (BrE)[1] orsuckling pig (AmE)[2] is apiglet fed on itsmother's milk (i.e., a piglet which is still being "suckled"). In culinary contexts, a sucking-pig isslaughtered before the end of its second month. Celebrated sinceGreek andRoman times, it is traditionally cooked whole, usually roasted, in various cuisines, and is often prepared for special occasions and gatherings.
A variation is popular in Spain and Portugal and their former empires under the namelechón (Spanish) orleitão (Portuguese), but the dish is common to many countries in Europe, the Americas and east Asia. Its popularity in Britain and the US has declined since the 19th century.
According toLarousse Gastronomique, a piglet – in French aporcelet – is defined as a sucking-pig if it is below the age of two months.[3]The Oxford Dictionary of Food and Nutrition defines the age as four to five weeks.[4] It may weigh as little as three or four kilos (6.6 – 8.8 lbs).[5]Mrs Beeton recommended putting the slaughtered piglet into cold water briefly and then immersing it in boiling water, before pulling off the hair and removing the entrails.[6] In his 1907Guide to Modern Cookery,Auguste Escoffier wrote, "Stuffed or not stuffed, sucking pigs are always roasted whole, and the essential point of the procedure is that they should be just done when their skin is crisp and golden".[7]
Many recipes for sucking-pig survive from ancient times.Andrew Dalby in hisSiren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (1996) draws attention to the precise and differentiated Greek vocabulary for categorising pigs of varying ages and sizes, and observes that "sucking-pigs,galathenoi, were a particular delicacy".[8] AncientChinese andRoman cuisine valued the dish:Alan Davidson comments, "the Romans certainly liked sucking pig".[9] In her 1985Food and Cooking in Roman Britain,Jane Renfrew writes, "Sucking pig was roasted in the oven and then served with a thickened sauce flavoured with pepper,lovage,caraway,celery seed,asafoetida root,rue,liquamen, winemust and olive oil".[10]Apicius's fifth-century cookery bookDe re coquinaria (About Cooking) contains several recipes for sucking-pig, includingporcellum assum tractomelinum (stuffed with pastry and honey) andporcellum farsilem duobus generis (stuffed in two ways – one stuffing being a mixture of pepper, lovage, oregano, celery seed,cumin,fennel seed androsemary, and the other containinglaser root, cooked brains, raw eggs and boiledspelt).[11] The sucking-pig appears in early texts such as the sixth-centurySalic law.[n 1]
The first recorded use of the term in English dates from 1553: "Yonge suckynge pygges,porci delicicode: lat promoted to code: la".[13]The Oxford Companion to Food (OCF) comments, "Sucking pigs are sometimes referred to as suckling pigs; this is incorrect, since it is the mothers who suckle and the young who suck".[13][n 2] In the sixteenth century a common alternative term was "roasting pigs".[1] Sucking-pigs were widely used in medieval cookery, and when it became more usual for pigs to be farmed than hunted in forests a larger proportion would be killed and sold as sucking-pigs.[13] In the 18th centuryHannah Glasse and in the 19th century Mrs Beeton published recipes for them, "always the most favoured way of cooking them";[13] Mrs Beeton stipulates, "A sucking-pig, to be eaten in perfection, should not be more than three weeks old, and should be dressed the same day that it is killed".[6] The OCF adds, "in recent times sucking-pig has become less and less usual in England and the USA".[13]
There are many variations in Western and Asian cuisines:
In his366 Menus and 1200 Recipes in French and English (1884) the French gourmetBaron Brisse includes "cochon de lait rôti – roast sucking-pig".[15] He suggests stuffing the piglet with fresh butter seasoned with chopped herbs, salt and pepper or with chopped liver, bacon, mushrooms, capers, mixed herbs, salt and pepper.[15]Cochon de lait Saint-Fortunat is stuffed with a mixture of cooked barley, the piglet's liver, herbs,chipolata sausages and braised chestnuts and roasted.[16] Other French versions of sucking-pig are:
French cuisine also includes a recipe for sucking-pig'strotters (pieds de cochon de lait à la tchèque – Czech style) in which the trotters are cooked in beer withcaraway seeds.[19]Elizabeth David records as "one of the best dishes of its type I have yet tasted" agalantine fromLorraine, consisting of a whole sucking-pig chopped up with white wine, vegetables, spices and herbs.[20] She mentions also "the famousporcelet en gelée, an elegantbrawn of sucking pig which makes a fine hors d'œuvre ... in which pieces of pork lie embedded in a crystal clear jelly".[21]
In Italy there are several terms for a sucking-pig:maialino, porcetto, porcellino di latte, orlattonzolo.[5]Porchetta is a sucking-pig stuffed, flavoured with garlic and rosemary, spit-roasted whole and served in slices. TheSardinianporceddu is flavoured withmyrtle and spit-roasted whole.[22]Mantecato al maialino is a creamyCarnarolirisotto withsucking-pig andParmesan.[23]
Roast sucking-pig is known in German, Austrian and German-Swiss cuisines asgebratenes Spanferkel.[24] It is often served at festive occasions such as theOktoberfest.[25]Rheinisches Spanferkel (Rhine sucking-pig) is roast, basted with beer, and served with a stuffing of butter, veal, bacon, liver, bread, onions, eggs, and herbs, flavoured with nutmeg andMadeira.[26]
Hungarian cuisine includes not only roast sucking-pig (malac sülve) but sucking-pig soup (malacaprólék-leves) and sucking-pig jelly (malackocsonya).[27] Until the mid-20th centuryprosię adziewane (roast stuffed sucking-pig) was a traditional Polish Easter dish, which might be stuffed with liver (farsz podróbkowy),buckwheat (farsz z kaszy gryczanej) or raisin and almond (farsz z rodzynków i migdalów).[28] Roast sucking-pig is known as Пeчeно прасe(pecheno prase) in Bulgaria, andpurcel mic la gratăr in Romania.[29] The Greek version is γουρουνόπουλο γάλακτος(ghurounopulou ghalaktos).[30]
In Sweden sucking-pig is calledspädgris; it is usually cooked in the oven, or sometimes roasted directly over a fire. It is often stuffed with various fruits such as apples and plums, together with butter and breadcrumbs.[31] Russian recipes for sucking-pig include braising Estonian-style in a mixture ofsherry and broth, roasting Russian-style, stuffed withgiblets and buckwheat, and stuffed with apple and served with a buckwheat andhorseradish sauce.[32]
Lechón (Spanish,Spanish pronunciation:[leˈtʃon]; fromleche "milk" + -ón),cochinillo asado (Spanish, literally "sucking pig"),[n 3] orleitão (Portuguese; fromleite "milk" + -ão) is a pork dish in several regions of the world, most specifically inSpain (in particularSegovia), Portugal (in particularBairrada) and regions worldwide previously colonized by thePortuguese Empire orSpanish Empire.Lechón/Leitão is a word referring to a roasted baby pig (piglet) which was still fed bysucking its mother's milk. Lechón/Leitão is a popular item in the cuisine inLos Angeles (in the United States), Spain, Cuba,Puerto Rico, Honduras, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, thePhilippines and other formerSpanish colonies, as well as in Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and other formerPortuguese colonies.[34] The dish features a whole roasted suckling pig cooked over charcoal. It has been described as a national dish of Cuba, the Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and Spain.[35]
In most of these regions, lechón/leitão is prepared throughout the year for special occasions, during festivals. It is also the centerpiece of the traditionalChristmas Evedinner (Noche Buena) in Cuba,[36] and the Philippines.[37]
Lechona, also known aslechón asado, is a popular Colombian dish.[38] It is similar in style to many preparations made in other South American countries, consisting of a roasted pig stuffed withyellow peas,green onion, and spices, cooked in an outdoor brick oven for several hours. Yellow rice is sometimes added, especially in Bogotá. It is mostly traditional to theTolima Department in central Colombia and is usually accompanied byarepas, a corn-based dough.
The pig-roasting traditions of the Philippines (similar to otherAustronesian regions) have native pre-colonial origins and is cooked with native methods and ingredients. Native ingredients unique to the Filipino lechón includestuffing likelemongrass,batuan fruits, andcitrus ortamarind leaves. The meaning of"lechón" in Filipino has diverged from the original Spanish to become a umbrella term for "roasted pig" and spit-roasted dishes in general (otherwise known asinihaw orinasal). It is used more commonly forweaned or adult roasted pigs rather than to suckling pigs,[39][40][41] withCebu being asserted by American chefAnthony Bourdain as having the best pigs.[42] When suckling pigs are used in Filipino cuisine, it is known by the redundant namelechón de leche and roasted in native style. The Spanish-introducedlechón is differentiated under the namecochinillo (spelledkotsinilyo inFilipino) orlechóng-biík (literally "piglet lechón").[43][44]
The dish has been described as a national dish of Puerto Rico. The name of the dish in Puerto Rico islechón asado.[45][46][n 4]
Suckling pig dishes in parts of Southeast Asia, like Singapore and Vietnam, are influenced by ethnic Chinese cuisine. Roast suckling pig is eaten in Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants for important parties.[49] It is also a popular dish at wedding dinners or a party for a baby's completion of its first month of life.[50][51]
The suckling pig is used inCajun cuisine in the southern US, where theCochon de Lait Festival[52] is held annually in the small town ofMansura, Louisiana. During this festival suckling pigs are served.
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When it comes to "authentic" dishes like lechón asado (which Spain, Puerto Rico, The Philippines and Cuba all claim as their "national dish"), ingredients, recipes and methodology differ contentiously enough to start a war.
Anthony Bourdain — whose love of all things porcine is famous — visited the Philippine island of Cebu with his show No Reservations and declared that he had found the best pig ever
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