Sunday, November 27, 2011

We like white meat, because we are prejudiced or something........

Via Conservative Heritage Times
When dawn broke and we arrived in Watts, they guided me to a place called Ray's Redwood City, an all-night, almost all-black joint where the ladies of Saturday night dined with the ministers of Sunday morning (not at the same tables), and my fellow travelers ordered me a dish called "high on the hog," a mountain of scrambled eggs topped by a fried pork chop.

It was then I learned the etymology of the phrase in America. It hails from the plantation days, when the white slave owners dined on choice pork chops cut from "high on the hog" while the slaves made do with the lower parts of the pig—the ham hocks, the pigs feet, the pork bellies, and the innards. White meat was high on the hog, but not higher on flavor than other (often darker) cuts. Indeed the "other white meat" now available most frequently in lean and tasteless pork chops and cutlets has little more taste than white meat turkey.

Despite its superior taste, dark meat has dark undertones for some. Dark meat evokes the color of earth, soil. Dark meat seems to summon up ancient fears of contamination and miscegenation as opposed to the supposed superior purity of white meat. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that white meat remains the choice of a holiday that celebrates Puritans.

4 comments:

  1. I really do prefer the white pieces of chicken and we roast a large hen each Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of the traditional turkey.

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  2. This guy is going way out on a limb about stuff that doesn't compute. A typical white liberal interpretation and I'm black! I agree about the high on the hog origin. I always enjoy learning the etymology of words or familiar phrases. But to extrapolate that people eat white meat because it is superior is hogwash. People eat food light or dark meat depending on their personal preferences!!!!!! As a period and a contemporary cook I stand by my own observations!

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  3. I agree about the high on the hog origin. I always enjoy learning the etymology of words or familiar phrases. But to extrapolate that people eat white meat because it is superior is hogwash. People eat food light or dark meat depending on their personal preferences!

    Agreed. Anything new with you? Been to Welbourne recently?:)

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