The former is a pig…
…whilst the latter is porcelain pottery (albeit both started their inexorable Westward journey via The Middle Kingdom).
The Meishan (in Chinese 梅山猪 and pronounced may-shaun) pig, is very possibly one of the oldest domesticated breeds in the world, originating over 5,000 years ago around the Taihu lake area in China’s Jiangsu province, just west of the coastal city of Shanghai.
Noteworthy immediately for their large drooping ears and baggy, saggy, almost black skin…
..they’re also valued for their fecundity – sows typically having 16 to 18 teats, sometimes in excess of 20, allowing them to easily raise large litters of piglets (up to 15+ piglets often twice a year) – and, interestingly, there seems to be some research indicating that these piglets are born with a more developed digestive systems than those from commercial breeds, which in turn gives them a higher resistance to common digestive diseases, thus offering opportunities for safer, earlier weaning.
They have a sedentary, docile nature (sleeping most of the day, often apparently having to be woken at feeding time), aren’t prone to the usual pig habit of squealing or screaming (unless in heat) and — totally unlike most other pig breeds I know — don’t even bother testing their boundary fences, making them extremely easy to manage, whilst the breed’s comparatively small size along along with an ability to survive in more space-limited areas — whilst still thriving on a pasture or scrubland diet, one higher than normal in fibre and roughage — all goes to make them pretty much ideal for a peasant stock. [That this placidity also means they have a lower environmental impact on pastures & woods when compared to other heritage & commercial pig breeds, is another obvious win.]
They produce an intensely micro-marbled, tender, real ‘depth of flavour’, red pork, very, very reminiscent to my mind of that from the Mangalitsa. Like them, their lard and fats are significantly lighter & finer, rendering out on a lower heat than the commercial breeds, so much so that in Japan and China the bǎn yóu (leaf lard) is highly prized in both baking and cooking, for its finer grain and ‘lighter-on-the-pallet’ taste than that derived from commercial hogs.
So, is this a rare pig? Pretty much, yes; despite their fantastic breeding abilities, in 2018 the Livestock Conservancy organisation called it “critically endangered worldwide” and despite some limited research exports to the USA (from which programmes admittedly there’s now grown up a US breeding association and an increasing popularity with farmers, cooks and shoppers) and a few similarly sent to England & France in the 1990s, this lovely pig is in real need of a much wider breeding programme and some favourable publicity. Whilst like all old breeds, they’re of course slower growing, they still come in at a respectable weight (up to 450lbs) so are more economically viable than the very smallest breeds and offer a quality of meat and lard that should be a real beacon for small-holders and non-intensive farms. I’m almost tempted by a couple for the back-garden…
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