Why one should abstain from eating pork

[OwlHoot]

Very true. In 600 AD, when the Prophet Mahommed was cobbling together Islam out of bits of Christianity & Judaism, pork was a risky thing to eat.

No more than any other meat or fish. The real reason was that no pig could survive in most parts of the hot deforested environment of the Middle East, aside from a few marshy areas on the red sea coast (where arabs happily breed and eat pigs to this day). Thus eating pork would require (in effect) importing the meat - it's what's called making virtue out of necessity.

[hattra]

No more than any other meat or fish. The real reason was that no pig could survive in most parts of the hot deforested environment of the Middle East, aside from a few marshy areas on the red sea coast (where arabs happily breed and eat pigs to this day). Thus eating pork would require (in effect) importing the meat - it's what's called making virtue out of necessity.

Wild pig does prefer marshland, true, (before Hussein al-Tikriti drained all the marshes, you could go boar hunting in the Iraqi marshes, for instance) but domesticated pigs were kept in the Middle East at the time of Christ (Gaderene swine and all that) despite 2000 years of Jewish dietary tradition. Beef, goat and lamb though are much easier to handle, even in the temperatures in the Middle East because they all need to hang for several days (and much longer in an ice house) and can safely do so, even without refrigeration, whereas pork would be off by the end of the first day. Chicken should really have been classed with pork but probably wasn't because chickens were traditionally bought alive, and only killed just before they went into the pot. Fish is quite easy to preserve (salted or dried) & so was relatively safe

[BoredBloke]

If you could get a normal pink pig (and not one of those pot bellied ones) and it could stay at piglet size, I'd have one as a pet anyday over a cat or a dog. As a kid we used to keep pigs and they are intelligent, clean and affectionate animals and when you get bored of them you can slice them up really thin and shove them on a butty with a bit of red sauce. mmmmmmmmmmmm!

[Churchill]

<cough>

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Long Pig....

Crackling....


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Soylent Green is People!

Crocodile is quite tasty.

[The Lone Gunman]

Crocodile is quite tasty.

Bring me a crocodile sandwhich............. and make it snappy.


I think some of you have missed the rhetorical nature of, and ironic wit in, Threadeds original post. Did you all check the linky?

[Churchill]

Bring me a crocodile sandwhich............. and make it snappy.


I think some of you have missed the rhetorical nature of, and ironic wit in, Threadeds original post. Did you all check the linky?

Nope, I merely assumed that Threaded was trying to keep all the pork products to himself.

Avaracious swine that he is!

[The Lone Gunman]

Nope, I merely assumed that Threaded was trying to keep all the pork products to himself.

Avaracious swine that he is!

I didn't mean you Churcy, sorry if it read that way. You made no ref to the o.p. or the original subject. niiiice.

Your first assumption may be correct, particularly the pies.

[Churchill]

I didn't mean you Churcy, sorry if it read that way. You made no ref to the o.p. or the original subject. niiiice.

Your first assumption may be correct, particularly the pies.

Since when was relevance a prerequisite on this forum?

[cojak]

I would imagine the rule only permitting washing in running water came from the same sensible precautions thus avoiding areas of still water and malaria-carrying mosquitos.

Modern hygene and the connection between today's religions - discuss...

[freakydancer]

Pork chop tastes good, bacon tastes good.