The domesticated pig, one of the primary sources of protein in nearly every corner of the globe, was actually domesticated independently from continent to continent. The different progressions of domestication varied widely in places like Europe and China, both of which began as early as 3000 B.C. Today, like any domesticated species or cultivated plant – those ecological distinctions have amalgamized by cross-breeding and the roar of modernization. The importance – however, of maintaining the various regional evolutionary traits of domesticated pigs is not lost on countries like Italy, Spain and Germany – which rely on distinct ancestral pigs to create their various delicacies – proscuitto serrano, westphalian.
Pro-pig environmental groups have been forming around the globe for the last twenty years in various attempts to maintain the traits of these ancestral subspecies.
The Polish eat pork liberally. One of the most enjoyable foods I found in Pomerania was a home-made smoked pork sausage.
But nothing represents to me the southern Baltic states more than the wild boar. I grew up on the French cartoon, 'Asterix', about low-country Gauls lusty for the meat of the pig's wild ancestor. In Northern Asia, the boar is a symbol of the violent side of nature. Celts, French and British all considered the boar supernatural. Even the bestselling movie in Japan, Princess Mononoke stars a race of giant supernatural boars, which symbolize the country before modernism. The Celts wore a symbol of the boar on their helmets, and the British featured them on their coins.
But I had never had boar until now.
The taste, like the mushroom, is distinctly wild, like the smell of a Baltic forest. It’s no wonder then, that the fact they are commonly broiled with mushrooms is no coincidence. For much of the year, like a pre-civilized Pomeranian, the wild boar subsists on the chanterelle.
