"Beef and Pork in the Middle Ages" Topic

"The books – Beef: A Global History, by Lorna Piatti-Farnell, and Pork: A Global History, by Katharine Rogers – examine how these two meats became popular foods and how they are served throughout the world. Both authors even note how they were thought of during the Middle Ages. Here are some medieval morsels of information you can learn about beef and pork from these two books:

The Romans rarely ate beef, but it was reserved for special occasions such as religious ceremonies, with cows being used for ritual sacrifices to the gods. Moreover, Romans would have found it logistically difficult to make use of cows for their meat, since these animals require a lot of pasture to feed off of, and when killed, the beef needs to be preserved in cold conditions.

Ancient Romans and Greeks found pork to be among their most favourite foods. The Greek physician Galen claimed it was "the most nutritious of all foods", while Pliny the Elder praised pork, writing that offered "almost fifty flavours, whereas all other meats have one each."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I thought it was well known that the ancient Greeks liked their pork pulled….

Pass the apple sauce , I guess not much Pork was consumed in the middle east .

Pork was a common meat source in the middle east until about 1000 BCE, then it nose dived. Why it tapered off after 4000 years of domestication isn't really clear. Richard W. Redding, from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan has theorized that water use may be a factor that pushed people to chickens, which have much lower water requirements. In the arid and semi-arid regions, this would make a tremendous difference. Likewise, sheep and goats would tolerate more arid conditions, so all of these would be more efficient sources of protein.

There is also a fairly widespread theory that pathogens may have been interpreted as divine displeasure, marking pigs as forbidden, but that seems to ignore the fact that pigs do not have a notably higher rate of pathogens compared to cows, sheep, etc.

Additionally, religious prohibitions may have been as much about preserving cultural autonomy as anything.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

I thought the pork prohibition was more an offshoot of the nomadic herdsman vs static farmers' cultures reinforced by religion. Again access to water and grazing lands.