a dissertation on roast pig

Charles Lamb: Essays

By charles lamb, charles lamb: essays summary and analysis of "a dissertation upon roast pig".

The narrator opens the essay by asserting that for a long period of early human history, people did not cook their meat but ate it raw. He claims that this was hinted at in the writings of Confucius, who mentioned an era known as the "cook's holiday," implying that the Chinese did not cook animals prior to his writings. According to the narrator, Confucius' essay goes on to describe how roasting was discovered by Bo-bo , the son of swineherd Ho-ti.

Bo-bo was one day playing with fire, as he was wont to do, and accidentally burned down his family's cottage along with the nine pigs that were trapped in the blaze. While trying to devise an explanation for what happened, Bo-bo was tempted by the smell of the burnt pigs and went to taste them. He found these burnt pigs delicious and could not stop eating them. Ho-ti was not just upset with Bo-bo for burning down the cottage, but for being enough of a fool to eat the pigs. Bo-bo eventually convinced his father to try the pig, and the father loved it too, but they agreed to keep the burnt pigs a secret. Yet, more and more frequently, a cottage fire could be seen at Ho-ti's property, at all hours of the day and night.

When their secret was found out, Ho-ti and Bo-bo were placed on trial in their town. During this trial, the jurors asked to try the burnt pig in question, and finding it delicious, they decided to let the father and son off. The judge was outraged, but a few days later there was one of those mysterious fires at his house too. Soon enough, these fires were occurring all around town, and the burnt pig became a cherished food.

Done with this history, the narrator begins singing the praises of roast pig, speaking of the crackling skin and succulent fat. He draws a humorous link between the swine—so often considered a gluttonous, base animal—and the type of man who enjoys eating that swine.

The narrator admits to enjoying all of the fine meats available, from strange foul to oysters, and sharing them with friends. He then recalls how, as a child, having nothing to offer a beggar on the street, he brought that beggar a plum cake his auntie had baked. He blames the hypocrisy of his giving spirit on the indiscretion. The essay concludes with an anecdote about how ancient people used to sacrifice pigs by whipping them, raising a moral conundrum about enjoying the meat of that animal. But the narrator seems indifferent to the conundrum, and suggests a tasty sauce made of shallots to eat the pig with.

Among the most light-hearted of Lamb's essays is this freewheeling comic dissertation on the pleasure of eating roasted pig. It features a copious use of the literary device of hyperbole, with Lamb going to all sorts of eccentric ends to extol the flavor of roasted pork. The logic of hyperbole is also evident in Lamb's use of a heightened tone to tell the absurd story of how roast pork was discovered after a house fire in China. Once again, Lamb construes literary devices and narrative forms in such a way that he manages to sneak some fiction into his essay work. The fable he constructs speaks to how odd it is that humans eat cooked animals at all.

We can see the tropes of Romanticism on full display in this essay, even though the subject of that Romantic meditation is a curious one. Lamb uses florid language and a subjective voice to give a vivid account of his experience with his subject. But whereas, for instance, fellow Romanticist Henry David Thoreau uses these techniques to describe Walden Pond and meditate on how his experience there reflects on man's participation in society, Lamb makes a culinary delight the subject of his Romantic inquiry, indulging his epicurean side and reflecting on the way good food makes friends out of those who may otherwise be suspicious of one another.

The culinary essay in and of itself is a storied subgenre. The most famous one may be Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," which satirically advocates cooking and eating England's children. A more recent popular example is David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster," which like Lamb's essay explores the delights of eating lobster but, unlike Lamb's, lingers on the inherent cruelty of cooking and eating the animal. In the case of Swift's, Wallace's, and Lamb's essays, there is an essential social component to their discussion of a specific food, and they seek to extract some wisdom about the human condition from practices of cooking and eating.

Charles Lamb: Essays Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Charles Lamb: Essays is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Which quality Charles Lamb a romantic writer?

As a Romantic, Lamb brought a key innovation to the somewhat new form, inserting his own personally to give the essays a conversational tone. His essays showcase his passions and anxieties, imbuing the non-fiction form with a personal and literary...

What is the major theme of "Poor Relation" by Charles Lamb?

The major theme is that of the "poor relation"... their irrelevance and unpleasant place in one's life.

Explain the theme of the essay ''A Dissertation upon Roast Pig''.

The essay describes the discovery of the exquisite flavour of roast pig in China in a time when all food was eaten raw. This is really a light hearted theme speaking to how odd it is that humans eat cooked animals at all.

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Charles Lamb

A dissertation upon roast pig

Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, clawing or biting it from the living animal, just as they do in Abyssinia to this day. This period is not obscurely hinted at by their great Confucius in the second chapter of his Mundane Mutations, where he designates a kind of golden age by the term Cho-fang, literally the Cooks’ holiday. The manuscript goes on to say, that the art of roasting, or rather broiling (which I take to be the elder brother) was accidentally discovered in the manner following. The swine-herd, Ho-ti, having gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the care of his eldest son Bo-bo, a great lubberly boy, who being fond of playing with fire, as younkers of his age commonly are, let some sparks escape into a bundle of straw, which kindling quickly, spread the conflagration over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced to ashes. Together with the cottage (a sorry antediluvian make-shift of a building, you may think it), what was of much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number, perished. China pigs have been esteemed a luxury all over the East from the remotest periods that we read of. Bo-bo was in the utmost consternation, as you may think, not so much for the sake of the tenement, which his father and he could easily build up again with a few dry branches, and the labour of an hour or two, at any time, as for the loss of the pigs. While he was thinking what he should say to his father, and wringing his hands over the smoking remnants of one of those untimely sufferers, an odour assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before experienced. What could it proceed from?—not from the burnt cottage—he had smelt that smell before—indeed this was by no means the first accident of the kind which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young fire-brand. Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think. He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it. He burnt his fingers, and to cool them he applied them in his booby fashion to his mouth. Some of the crums of the scorched skin had come away with his fingers, and for the first time in his life (in the world’s life indeed, for before him no man had known it) he tasted— crackling ! Again he felt and fumbled at the pig. It did not burn him so much now, still he licked his fingers from a sort of habit. The truth at length broke into his slow understanding, that it was the pig that smelt so, and the pig that tasted so delicious; and, surrendering himself up to the newborn pleasure, he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming it down his throat in his beastly fashion, when his sire entered amid the smoking rafters, armed with retributory cudgel, and finding how affairs stood, began to rain blows upon the young rogue’s shoulders, as thick as hail-stones, which Bo-bo heeded not any more than if they had been flies. The tickling pleasure, which he experienced in his lower regions, had rendered him quite callous to any inconveniences he might feel in those remote quarters. His father might lay on, but he could not beat him from his pig, till he had fairly made an end of it, when, becoming a little more sensible of his situation, something like the following dialogue ensued.

“You graceless whelp, what have you got there devouring? Is it not enough that you have burnt me down three houses with your dog’s tricks, and be hanged to you, but you must be eating fire, and I know not what—what have you got there, I say?”

“O father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats.”

The ears of Ho-ti tingled with horror. He cursed his son, and he cursed himself that ever he should beget a son that should eat burnt pig.

Bo-bo, whose scent was wonderfully sharpened since moming, soon raked out another pig, and fairly rending it asunder, thrust the lesser half by main force into the fists of Ho-ti, still shouting out “Eat, eat, eat the burnt pig, father, only taste—O Lord,”—with such like barbarous ejaculations, cramming all the while as if he would choke.

Ho-ti trembled every joint while he grasped the abominable thing, wavering whether he should not put his son to death for an unnatural young monster, when the crackling scorching his fingers, as it had done his son’s, and applying the same remedy to them, he in his turn tasted some of its flavour, which, make what sour mouths he would for a pretence, proved not altogether displeasing to him. In conclusion (for the manuscript here is a little tedious) both father and son fairly sat down to the mess, and never left off till they had despatched all that remained of the litter.

Bo-bo was strictly enjoined not to let the secret escape, for the neighbours would certainly have stoned them for a couple of abominable wretches, who could think of improving upon the good meat which God had sent them. Nevertheless, strange stories got about. It was observed that Ho-ti’s cottage was burnt down now more frequently than ever. Nothing but fires from this time forward. Some would break out in broad day, others in the night-time. As often as the sow farrowed, so sure was the house of Ho-ti to be in a blaze; and Ho-ti himself, which was the more remarkable, instead of chastising his son, seemed to grow more indulgent to him than ever. At length they were watched, the terrible mystery discovered, and father and son summoned to take their trial at Pekin, then an inconsiderable assize town. Evidence was given, the obnoxious food itself produced in court, and verdict about to be pronounced, when the foreman of the jury begged that some of the burnt pig, of which the culprits stood accused, might be handed into the box. He handled it, and they all handled it, and burning their fingers, as Bo-bo and his father had done before them, and nature prompting to each of them the same remedy, against the face of all the facts, and the clearest charge which judge had ever given,—to the surprise of the whole court, townsfolk, strangers, reporters, and all present—without leaving the box, or any manner of consultation whatever, they brought in a simultaneous verdict of Not Guilty.

The judge, who was a shrewd fellow, winked at the manifest iniquity of the decision: and, when the court was dismissed, went privily, and bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or money. In a few days his Lordship’s town house was observed to be on fire. The thing took wing, and now there was nothing to be seen but fires in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. The insurance offices one and all shut up shop. People built slighter and slighter every day, until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. Thus this custom of firing houses continued, till in process of time, says my manuscript, a sage arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery, that the flesh of swine, or indeed of any other animal, might be cooked ( burnt , as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. Roasting by the string, or spit, came in a century or two later, I forget in whose dynasty. By such slow degrees, concludes the manuscript, do the most useful, and seemingly the most obvious arts, make their way among mankind.—

Without placing too implicit faith in the account above given, it must be agreed, that if a worthy pretext for so dangerous an experiment as setting houses on fire (especially in these days) could be assigned in favour of any culinary object, that pretext and excuse might be found in ROAST PIG.

Of all the delicacies in the whole mundus edibilis , I will maintain it to be the most delicate— princeps obsoniorum .

I speak not of your grown porkers—things between pig and pork—those hobbydehoys—but a young and tender suckling—under a moon old—guiltless as yet of the sty—with no original speck of the amor immunditiæ , the hereditary failing of the first parent, yet manifest—his voice as yet not broken, but something between a childish treble, and a grumble—the mild forerunner, or præludium , of a grunt.

He must be roasted. I am not ignorant that our ancestors ate them seethed, or boiled—but what a sacrifice of the exterior tegument!

There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well-watched, not over-roasted, crackling , as it is well called—the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this banquet in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance—with the adhesive oleaginous—O call it not fat—but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it—the tender blossoming of fat—fat cropped in the bud—taken in the shoot—in the first innocence—the cream and quintessence of the child-pig’s yet pure food—the lean, no lean, but a kind of animal manna—or, rather, fat and lean (if it must be so) so blended and running into each other, that both together make but one ambrosian result, or common substance.

Behold him, while he is doing—it seemeth rather a refreshing warmth, than a scorching heat, that he is so passive to. How equably he twirleth round the string!—Now he is just done. To see the extreme sensibility of that tender age, he hath wept out his pretty eyes—radiant jellies—shooting stars—

See him in the dish, his second cradle, how meek he lieth!—wouldst thou have had this innocent grow up to the grossness and indocility which too often accompany maturer swinehood? Ten to one he would have proved a glutton, a sloven, an obstinate, disagreeable animal—wallowing in all manner of filthy conversation—from these sins he is happily snatched away—

Ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade, Death came with timely care—

his memory is odoriferous—no clown curseth, while his stomach half rejecteth, the rank bacon—no coalheaver bolteth him in reeking sausages—he hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the judicious epicure—and for such a tomb might be content to die.

He is the best of Sapors. Pine-apple is great. She is indeed almost too transcendent—a delight, if not sinful, yet so like to sinning, that really a tender-conscienced person would do well to pause—too ravishing for mortal taste, she woundeth and excoriateth the lips that approach her—like lovers’ kisses, she biteth—she is a pleasure bordering on pain from the fierceness and insanity of her relish—but she stoppeth at the palate—she meddleth not with the appetite—and the coarsest hunger might barter her consistently for a mutton chop.

Pig—let me speak his praise—is no less provocative of the appetite, than he is satisfactory to the criticalness of the censorious palate. The strong man may batten on him, and the weakling refuseth not his mild juices.

Unlike to mankind’s mixed characters, a bundle of virtues and vices, inexplicably intertwisted, and not to be unravelled without hazard, he is—good throughout. No part of him is better or worse than another. He helpeth, as far as his little means extend, all around. He is the least envious of banquets. He is all neighbours’ fare.

I am one of those, who freely and ungrudgingly impart a share of the good things of this life which fall to their lot (few as mine are in this kind) to a friend. I protest I take as great an interest in my friend’s pleasures, his relishes, and proper satisfactions, as in mine own. “Presents,” I often say, “endear Absents.” Hares, pheasants, partridges, snipes, barn-door chicken (those “tame villatic fowl”), capons, plovers, brawn, barrels of oysters, I dispense as freely as I receive them. I love to taste them, as it were, upon the tongue of my friend. But a stop must be put somewhere. One would not, like Lear, “give every thing.” I make my stand upon pig. Methinks it is an ingratitude to the Giver of all good flavours, to extra-domiciliate, or send out of the house, slightingly, (under pretext of friendship, or I know not what) a blessing so particularly adapted, predestined, I may say, to my individual palate—It argues an insensibility.

I remember a touch of conscience in this kind at school. My good old aunt, who never parted from me at the end of a holiday without stuffing a sweet-meat, or some nice thing, into my pocket, had dismissed me one evening with a smoking plum-cake, fresh from the oven. In my way to school (it was over London bridge) a grey-headed old beggar saluted me (I have no doubt at this time of day that he was a counterfeit). I had no pence to console him with, and in the vanity of self-denial, and the very coxcombry of charity, school-boy-like, I made him a present of—the whole cake! I walked on a little, buoyed up, as one is on such occasions, with a sweet soothing of self-satisfaction; but before I had got to the end of the bridge, my better feelings returned, and I burst into tears, thinking how ungrateful I had been to my good aunt, to go and give her good gift away to a stranger, that I had never seen before, and who might be a bad man for aught I knew; and then I thought of the pleasure my aunt would be taking in thinking that I—I myself, and not another—would eat her nice cake—and what should I say to her the next time I saw her—how naughty I was to part with her pretty present—and the odour of that spicy cake came back upon my recollection, and the pleasure and the curiosity I had taken in seeing her make it, and her joy when she sent it to the oven, and how disappointed she would feel that I had never had a bit of it in my mouth at last—and I blamed my impertinent spirit of alms-giving, and out-of-place hypocrisy of goodness, and above all I wished never to see the face again of that insidious, good-for-nothing, old grey impostor.

Our ancestors were nice in their method of sacrificing these tender victims. We read of pigs whipt to death with something of a shock, as we hear of any other obsolete custom. The age of discipline is gone by, or it would be curious to inquire (in a philosophical light merely) what effect this process might have towards intenerating and dulcifying a substance, naturally so mild and dulcet as the flesh of young, pigs. It looks like refining a violet. Yet we should be cautious, while we condemn the inhumanity, how we censure the wisdom of the practice. It might impart a gusto—

I remember an hypothesis, argued upon by the young students, when I was at St. Omer’s, and maintained with much learning and pleasantry on both sides, “Whether, supposing that the flavour of a pig who obtained his death by whipping ( per flagellationem extremam ) superadded a pleasure upon the palate of a man more intense than any possible suffering we can conceive in the animal, is man justified in using that method of putting the animal to death?” I forget the decision.

His sauce should be considered. Decidedly, a few bread crums, done up with his liver and brains, and a dash of mild sage. But, banish, dear Mrs. Cook, I beseech you, the whole onion tribe. Barbecue your whole hogs to your palate, steep them in shalots, stuff them out with plantations of the rank and guilty garlic; you cannot poison them, or make them stronger than they are—but consider, he is a weakling—a flower.

MLA Citation

Lamb, Charles. “A dissertation upon roast pig.” 1823. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick Madden. 2 Dec 2007. 06 Apr 2024 <http://essays.quotidiana.org/lamb/dissertation_upon_roast_pig/>.

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Interesting Post! Can you check this link http://www.foodcanon.com/2012/01/sous-vide-roast-pork-belly-perfecting.html in your post as it doesn't seem to work. Thanks!

Tim, thanks for pointing out the broken link.

Hi Padre Last time I seen a whole roasted pig was in 1988, when I was in Penang. It was to celebrate my home coming and my marriage and to give thanks to my ancestors, like the chinese do. I think it cost about $200 and then we chopped up the pig and distributed it to various relatives and friends. It so delicious. Trouble is a small portion of Roast pork cost about £8.00 in London and those from the Chinese supermarket does not taste the same. Generally I try to cook it myself and searching for recipes in youtube and blogs like yours etc. Having lived in London for over 40 years, I cannot wait to retire, 6 months in Penang and 6 months in the UK. Stuff my face silly for 6 months and diet for the remaining period. Keep up the good work as I intend to try the ginger chicken this weekend. My wife being a local, adores Chinese and Malaysian food but her culinary skills leave much to be desired. If it was not for my love of cooking, I would look like a Belsen victim! Take care Padre. Regards Eric Ng PS My nephew is a chef at the Beaufort Sentosa Resort, can learn a thing or two from him when I next see him.

Hi Eric - Thanks for sharing your thoughts and all the best to your ginger chicken this weekend. :)

You can always sous-vide a whole pig using a hot tub like how Heston did in this video! http://eater.com/archives/2011/01/05/can-you-do-hot-tub-sous-vide-yeah-you-can.php

Anything that can be done has been done!

very insightful post on the origin of roasted pig!

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Satiric models for Charles Lamb's "a dissertation upon roast pig"

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Though hitherto overlooked in social histories of cookery, Charles Lamb's essay approaches its subject through the new literary-culinary writing that appeared with European romanticism. Although Lamb's persona, Elia, never hesitates to express everywhere his idiosyncratic likes and dislikes, in "Roast Pig" he passes beyond eccentricity to become a morally transgressive figure. Lamb's implicit swipe at the vegetarians and his borrowings from modern and classical sources, such as Swift's "Modest Proposal" and the recipes or scenes in Apicius and Petronius, suggest that he undoubtedly expected his readers to recognize the false notes of excess, vanity, and even infant cannibalism revealed by Elia's appetite. The Latin satura-ae denotes a mélange, either literally a dish of various ingredients or, etymologically, the Roman invention of the satiric genre itself, that loose mixing of a variety of literary types. Fittingly, the pig-platters of Trimalchio and Elia thus turn back upon both the festival of the Saturnalia and, under the aegis of Saturn's misrule, upon the zeugmatic nature of satire itself. Elia's final reference to his schooldays at St. Omer's actually ties his gluttony to Guy Fawkes' scheme of exploding king, lords, and commons. By bursting pretensions and snobbery, Lamb's essay thus self-reflexively presents itself as a figurative equivalent to the "superhuman plot" of Fawkes.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

• General Arts and Humanities

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• Guy Fawkes Arts & Humanities 100%
• Pig Arts & Humanities 59%
• Cannibalism Arts & Humanities 47%
• Saturnalia Arts & Humanities 46%
• Snobbery Arts & Humanities 43%
• Misrule Arts & Humanities 43%
• Gluttony Arts & Humanities 43%
• Social History Arts & Humanities 41%

T1 - Satiric models for Charles Lamb's "a dissertation upon roast pig"

AU - Monsman, Gerald

N2 - Though hitherto overlooked in social histories of cookery, Charles Lamb's essay approaches its subject through the new literary-culinary writing that appeared with European romanticism. Although Lamb's persona, Elia, never hesitates to express everywhere his idiosyncratic likes and dislikes, in "Roast Pig" he passes beyond eccentricity to become a morally transgressive figure. Lamb's implicit swipe at the vegetarians and his borrowings from modern and classical sources, such as Swift's "Modest Proposal" and the recipes or scenes in Apicius and Petronius, suggest that he undoubtedly expected his readers to recognize the false notes of excess, vanity, and even infant cannibalism revealed by Elia's appetite. The Latin satura-ae denotes a mélange, either literally a dish of various ingredients or, etymologically, the Roman invention of the satiric genre itself, that loose mixing of a variety of literary types. Fittingly, the pig-platters of Trimalchio and Elia thus turn back upon both the festival of the Saturnalia and, under the aegis of Saturn's misrule, upon the zeugmatic nature of satire itself. Elia's final reference to his schooldays at St. Omer's actually ties his gluttony to Guy Fawkes' scheme of exploding king, lords, and commons. By bursting pretensions and snobbery, Lamb's essay thus self-reflexively presents itself as a figurative equivalent to the "superhuman plot" of Fawkes.

AB - Though hitherto overlooked in social histories of cookery, Charles Lamb's essay approaches its subject through the new literary-culinary writing that appeared with European romanticism. Although Lamb's persona, Elia, never hesitates to express everywhere his idiosyncratic likes and dislikes, in "Roast Pig" he passes beyond eccentricity to become a morally transgressive figure. Lamb's implicit swipe at the vegetarians and his borrowings from modern and classical sources, such as Swift's "Modest Proposal" and the recipes or scenes in Apicius and Petronius, suggest that he undoubtedly expected his readers to recognize the false notes of excess, vanity, and even infant cannibalism revealed by Elia's appetite. The Latin satura-ae denotes a mélange, either literally a dish of various ingredients or, etymologically, the Roman invention of the satiric genre itself, that loose mixing of a variety of literary types. Fittingly, the pig-platters of Trimalchio and Elia thus turn back upon both the festival of the Saturnalia and, under the aegis of Saturn's misrule, upon the zeugmatic nature of satire itself. Elia's final reference to his schooldays at St. Omer's actually ties his gluttony to Guy Fawkes' scheme of exploding king, lords, and commons. By bursting pretensions and snobbery, Lamb's essay thus self-reflexively presents itself as a figurative equivalent to the "superhuman plot" of Fawkes.

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A dissertation upon roast pig

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ORIGIN OF CHARLES LAMB'S "DISSERTATION ON ROAST PIG."; TION ON ROAST PIG."

Nearly everyone is familiar with the above ludicrous dissertation. But how many are aware that the diverting account there given of the origin of eating roasted flesh is identical in substance with that quoted by Poryphry in his treatise on "Abstinence from Animal Food?" View Full Article in Timesmachine »

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Charles Lamb Dissertation Upon a Roast Pig Summary

The essay tells the story of how the art of roasting meat was accidentally discovered. In ancient times, mankind ate their meat raw, but a Chinese manuscript suggests that a golden age known as the Cooks’ holiday marked the transition to cooking meat. The story revolves around a swineherd named Ho-ti and his son Bo-bo.

One day, Bo-bo accidentally sets his cottage on fire, along with a litter of new-farrowed pigs. As the fire burns, Bo-bo discovers the delicious taste of the burnt pig’s skin and flesh. He indulges in eating it, despite his father’s anger. Eventually, both father and son enjoy the burnt pig together. They are warned not to reveal their secret, as their neighbors would consider it abominable.

However, fires continue to break out in Ho-ti’s cottage, and the mystery is discovered. Father and son are summoned to trial, where the burnt pig is presented as evidence. Surprisingly, the jury members, after burning their fingers on the pig, declare the culprits not guilty without any consultation.

The judge buys up all the pigs in the area after a court decision, causing a shortage and increasing prices. Fires break out in the town, leading to the closure of insurance offices and a decline in architecture.

A sage discovers a way to cook pig without burning down houses, leading to the invention of the gridiron and later roasting by string or spit. The narrator argues that roast pig, particularly young and tender suckling pig, is the most delicious delicacy.

The narrator describes the unique qualities of roast pig, including the crisp crackling and the combination of fat and lean meat. The narrator praises the taste and versatility of pig, stating that it satisfies both the strong and weak appetites. The narrator expresses a willingness to share other food with friends but draws the line at giving away pig, considering it a personal blessing.

The narrator recalls an incident from his childhood where the gave away a plum-cake his aunt had given him to a beggar. He initially felt proud of his act of charity but later regretted it, realizing he had been ungrateful to his aunt. The narrator reflects on the pleasure his aunt would have felt if he had enjoyed the cake himself, and he feels guilty for his impulsive act of giving it away.

The essay then shifts to discussing the sacrifice of young pigs in the past and questions the wisdom of the practice. It ponders whether the method of whipping the pigs before their death could have enhanced the flavor of the meat, and whether it justifies the inhumane treatment.

The essay mentions a debate among young students about whether the intense pleasure a man might experience from eating a pig subjected to whipping justifies using that method to kill the animal. The outcome of the debate is forgotten. The essay concludes by suggesting a sauce for the pig, emphasizing the exclusion of onions and the use of mild sage. It also describes the pig as a delicate and fragile creature.

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Frederick Stuart Church

A Dissertation upon Roast Pig (Charles Lamb's 'Essays of Elia')

Original Etching in Sepia by the American artist, Frederick Stuart Church.

View other original etchings by Frederick Stuart Church.

View other original works of art published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York for "Essays of Elia"

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21 Tips For A Successful Pig Roast

I n many parts of the country, a summertime pig roast is a time-honored tradition. Although it would be nice to do so, a pig roast is not a spur-of-the-moment event and requires thought and planning to pull it off successfully. Chef Cory Bahr, owner and founder of Parish Restaurant in Monroe, Louisiana, has racked up some experience in the pig roast arena. As chefs are wont to do, his initial attempt was ambitious, to put it politely.

"My first time roasting a pig; of course, I wasn't roasting just one. I roasted six," he jokes before revealing his limited success in that experience. While ambition might have gotten the better of the situation, he's learned from those lessons, building on them and vastly improving his process, of which he's agreed to share his finer points with us here. Hopefully, you'll find that with planning, preparation, and managing expectations, your inaugural pig roast will succeed.

Decide What You're Going To Cook On

So you've decided to roast your first pig. There are many ways to bring this about, based on your available space, budget, and skill level. Geographical and cultural norms can also play into how you go about roasting a pig.

You could dig a pit and bury the pig in coals for hours, use a roasting box like a Caja China, spit roast it, or even  smoke a small pig on your charcoal grill . Bahr prefers to use a reverse flow smoker from Lang or to build a pit out of cinder blocks and expanded steel for his roasting. To keep the scope of this article to a manageable level, we'll focus on those two mediums for cooking, although many of the same principles apply to spit-roasting.

Plan Your Timing

A pig roast isn't usually a small affair involving a handful of friends or family; a whole roasted pig usually dictates a larger audience to consume it. Not to put more pressure on you, but those people will be staring hungrily at you if the pig isn't ready on time.

A good timing guideline is to allow one hour and 15 minutes per 10 pounds of hanging weight of your guest of honor. As there are many variables in the cooking process, add another hour to that time just to be safe. Two other important factors to add to your cooking time are the time it takes your fire to be ready and the time you need to rest your pig and then pick or carve it. Allow an hour or more for your fire and another hour to an hour and a half for resting and picking.

Get The Right Fuel

Before buying your pig, you need to plan for what fuel you will use. Bahr prefers a mix of charcoal and hardwood, but you can use either. Know which type of charcoal best suits your purposes, if that's your choice.

Lump charcoal burns longer, but briquettes are easier to manage. For wood, Bahr advises that you secure dry, cured hardwood. "Green" wood will pop and spark due to the water content trapped inside it, giving you the worst smoke flavor and a layer of creosote on your meat. Likewise, old, wet wood will give you off-flavored smoke, and neither will provide you with a good bed of coals for cooking because your heat is boiling off the wood's water content. Dry, cured wood will give you a good bed of coals and a more pleasant smoke flavor.

You Really Want To Use Oak

When people mention a pig roast, the most common woods that come to mind are hickory and mesquite. Both are fine wood choices, but they also carry intense flavors. Bahr prefers using red oak for roasting pigs because it has mild smoke that fits well with a variety of foods.

There's nothing wrong with using a stronger flavored wood but be prepared for the assertiveness of that flavor. Consider your wood a key seasoning element of your pig roast. Bahr will start with oak and sometimes use hickory or another stronger flavored wood, but only for the first 25% to 50% of the cooking time so that the pig gains that smoky wood flavor but maintains a balance between the wood and the meat. He wants to taste the wood, but not at the expense of the meat's flavor, and that's where the oak wood best serves him.

Stock Your Pantry

A whole pig requires considerably more seasoning and ingredients than you think. There are three main points of seasoning your pig; before, during, and after cooking, and you'll need enough ingredients to accomplish each. You'll need a rub, whether buying one pre-made or blending your own.

Then you'll need a commercial mop sauce or ingredients to make one to apply during the cooking process. Finally, you'll need seasoning after the pig is done. As a food safety precaution, you can't reuse any rub that may have come in contact with the raw pork, so you'll need fresh or untouched ingredients. The time to ascertain you have enough ingredients on hand is before you start cooking, as you don't want to make an emergency grocery store run mid-cook.

Source Your Pig

"A commodity pig is going to taste like one, so we always source a local-ish pig from a good producer," Bahr says. Pastured pork is a nebulous concept, but it usually indicates that a pig has lived its life as a pig would, moving around in various environments like fields and woods. Pastured pigs are often from heritage breeds, selectively bred to create a meat-to-marbling ratio that brings more moisture to the meat and more character to the table.

Commodity pigs are raised in more confined circumstances, yielding lower marbling and "the other white meat," which is horrible for the pig's mental health and means less flavor. A pastured pig will usually have reddish meat, a thick layer of fat, and has hopefully enjoyed an idyllic life, all contributing to a more flavorful pig.

Select The Right-Sized Pig

Roasting a whole pig is a delicious, highly inefficient way of feeding a large group of people. A whole pig has its skeleton intact, and the cooking process will decrease the mass of the meat via fat and moisture loss during cooking.

According to Bahr, a 60 to 80-pound pig will yield 20 to 30 pounds of meat. Roughly translated, he says a 75-pound pig will feed 40 to 50 people with side dishes. With that knowledge, you can find a pig that's neither too big nor too small for your crowd. There are two other factors to consider when selecting a pig, the first of which is knowing the size of your cooking surface to determine if the pig will fit in your cooker after it's butterflied. The second consideration is whether you can move the pig by yourself or if you'll need help, provided that's available.

Season Your Pig

The first step in preparing your pig to cook is to have your butcher butterfly it, if possible, as it is a detailed task best left to a professional. Then it's time to season the pig. There are many excellent commercially-available rubs on the market to choose from, or you can make your own. Bahr prefers simplicity in his rub, which consists of two parts salt, one part black pepper, and ½ part white. He says you can add more ingredients if you'd like, but try his simple rub before getting adventurous.

Bahr finds the skin is too tough to absorb any significant flavor, so he only seasons the inside of the meat. Season the pig for at least an hour before cooking, packing the rub into the meat. Leaving the rub on longer than an hour lets it act as a dry brine , but an hour is a minimum, allowing the rub to be drawn into the meat before cooking.

Make Your Mop And Know When To Use It

Roasting and smoking have a drying effect on meat, and that might not be the end goal we're seeking in roasting a pig. A mop sauce is an effective tool to counter that drying and add flavor to the "bark" of the meat.

The hardened exterior of your rub creates a craggy surface that your mop will stick to, building complexity and moistening meat. Bahr likes to use about ¼ cup of dried Thai chiles that have been very roughly chopped, some thinly sliced onions , apple cider vinegar, and Crystal brand hot sauce to make his mop. He'll apply it periodically during the cooking process or whenever the rub starts to look too dried out, simply slathering it on with a pastry brush or a specially-made BBQ mop.

Let Your Pig Warm Up

A whole pig is a large piece of meat with varying thicknesses and densities, and those facts don't bode well for the pig roasting evenly. You can mitigate this by letting your pig warm up before it hits the fire. When you pull your pig out of refrigeration, it's cold all the way through.

If you immediately place it on the cooker, the outside portions of the pig will heat and cook while the interior meat remains cold, resulting in uneven cooking. Warming it outside the refrigerator for one to two hours, if not longer, gives the meat temperature a chance to equalize somewhat, resulting in a more efficient and, therefore, even transfer of heat, which results in a more even cook for your pig.

Wrap The Tender Parts

The ears, tail, and sometimes the hocks should raise an eyebrow about the density and evenness of the pig's cooking. These thinner areas will cook much quicker than the rest of the body, most likely burning before the body meat is done. Bahr recommends wrapping these parts in a few layers of aluminum foil before cooking to avoid burning them. Simply hold them away from the body and wrap them two or three times to insulate them.

When the pig is about 75% cooked, he removes the foil. These pieces have been cooking while the rest of the meat has, so they'll be done at this point, but the skin will be soggy and flabby. Exposing them to direct heat will crisp them up quickly.

Build A Good Fire

Bahr starts his fire with an even layer of charcoal in the cooker, using a propane torch to ignite the charcoal. He then adds wood to the burning charcoal and lets it all burn down to glowing coals before moving to the next step.

Follow these steps, and then, using a rake or something similar, arrange the coals so there's a thin, even layer across the cooker where the center mass of the pig will rest. With the rest of the coals, bank a slightly higher pile of coals under where the head and butts will lay and another similar mound under the hams. Doing this will concentrate heat on the thicker parts of the pig and allow the bellies and loins to cook without overdoing them.

Manage Your Heat

After your fire is ready, place your pig skin-side down on a rack over the fire. Your initial load of wood or charcoal will burn down, and your instinct might say just to add more unburned wood. This is exactly the wrong thing to do because you don't want flames involved when roasting a pig.

When starting your cooking fire, start a second fire off to the side in a safe spot, like a fire pit or a sandy area, or you can construct a burn barrel for this purpose. What you want from this is a ready supply of hot coals to add as your fire burns down. Remove them from the pit or barrel with a shovel and place them strategically under your pig as needed.

Monitor Your Cooking

A meat thermometer with several remote probes will be your best friend during the cooking process. In the vernacular, "lookin' ain't cookin'," which means opening your cooker to see what's happening inside lowers the cooker's temperature and slows the cooking process. By keeping a probe in the ham, another in a shoulder, and one monitoring the pit temperature, you don't need to open the cooker. You'll have a clear picture of the pig's thickest parts and know the ambient temperature.

Another helpful tool is an infrared thermometer, which you can aim at your coals and the cooking surface to take their temperatures. This information can signal the need to add new coals or rearrange existing ones if the fire is too hot.

Don't Smoke It Out

We touched on this briefly when discussing wood, but smoke isn't always the best ingredient to add to your pig roast. To clarify, there's good smoke and bad. We've mentioned that Bahr likes to add wood for smoke for a portion of the cook, but not the entire time.

This method adds smoke to the depth and complexity of the wood-cooked flavor, but it doesn't become a flavor where it battles for domination over your rub, the mop, and the pig itself. Likewise, soaking some chips and throwing them onto your perfect-temperature fire lowers the heat and adds creosote-laden horrible flavors to the end product. You reach a more balanced end product by exercising restraint and viewing your wood and smoke as ingredients rather than simply a cooking vehicle.

Let The Fire Do The Work

If there's a point in this conversation that Bahr can't stress enough, you'll never outsmart slow, controlled cooking in a pig roast. You're not racing to get the meat to 190 degrees Fahrenheit to 200 degrees Fahrenheit as fast as possible. By cooking low and slow, you're rendering the subcutaneous and intramuscular fat and breaking down tough connective tissue, resulting in a tender, juicy end product.

If you're running short on time, increasing the heat will affect the outside of the pig long before the heat carries to the inside, and you'll have a dry, scorched exterior on your pig and an undercooked interior. "The first time I cooked a pig, it would have been fine if I had two more hours," Bahr says, noting his mistake. Do yourself and your guests a favor and exercise a little patience.

Be Gentle With The Skin

You'll see many variations that contradict this, but when roasting a whole pig in this manner, the skin is ultra-important. So be gentle with it and do not poke holes in it or tear it. Roasting a pig skin-side down renders and crisps the skin, it's true, but the skin also serves as a vessel for rendered fat and juices and a flame barrier.

If the skin gets even a tiny tear in it, all that fat and all those juices immediately drain onto your hot coals. Grease meeting heat usually results in a grease fire, and with the amount generated by a whole pig, that fire can not only ruin your pig but also be extremely dangerous to you, your guests, and the surrounding area.

Save Your Juices

After spending extra time and care to maintain the pig skin's integrity to ensure you keep the juices and fat, what's the end goal? First, pouring them back into the meat after you pull it adds flavor and moisture to the pork, so why pass up the extra flavor?

You've paid for those in the pig's weight, and it's just maintaining your investment. Letting everything settle and allowing the fat to rise to the top, Bahr skims that fat and uses that for flavoring collard greens, slow-cooked beans , or other dishes that call for pork fat, bacon fat, or even ham hocks, adding the wood taste and smoky flavor to the dish. It's all that more rewarding knowing that you worked hard to create that added flavor.

Let The Meat Rest

When you've finally gotten your pig to the magic temperature and removed it from the heat, it's time to dig in, right? If you rest steaks, roasts, and poultry, why would a pig be any different? Resting meat is just that, allowing the muscle fibers of the meat to relax, in turn enabling them to hold the juices better.

Bahr lets his pigs rest for 30 to 45 minutes before moving to the pig-picking part of the show. He also says that he doesn't tent them, as the internal heat from the pig, especially from the bones, which are naturally good conductors of heat, will keep the pig warm during the rest, and tenting allows condensation to form, which can sog your perfectly crisp pig skin.

Pick It Well

First things first, get that beautiful, crispy skin out of the way and set it to the side. We'll talk more about what to do with that later. The natural tendency is to dig into the pig's torso or the butts or hams first and then work toward the end.

That's fine, but don't forget the extra bits, like the tail, hocks, and ears. Where people tend to stop is at the shoulder, never approaching the neck. Bahr emphasizes the beauty of the meat from the pig's head and neck. Considering the nature of the pig's anatomy, the jowls, cheeks, and neck are well-used extra-marbled muscles that yield tender, fat-laden meat that's every bit as good as the more prime bits and shouldn't be left untouched.

Finish It Right

Once you've finished picking the meat off the carcass, there's one step left in the process. While you've worked hard to build a good crust of rub and mop, a large portion of the pig has never been seasoned. Bahr adds more of his rub ingredients with the collected juices into the meat and mixes it well, seasoning all the meat more thoroughly.

You can also chop up the crispy skin and mix it with the meat, or you can break it up and serve it on the side. Enhancing a basic rub, you can augment it with some garlic and onion powder to round out the flavor and add some of your mop ingredients, like cider vinegar and hot sauce. Now it's time to eat.

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