In the history of our country, the status of pigs has also experienced a series of changes. First, in the Zhou Dynasty, it was stipulated: "The emperor eats Tailao, cattle, sheep and hogs are all available. The princes eat cattle, and the ministers eat sheep." "The doctor eats pigs, the scholars eat fish, and the common people eat vegetables." From the status of cattle, sheep, and pigs, pigs have the lowest status.
In the Tang Dynasty, the status of mutton was higher than that of pork. For example, in the poem "Gift to the Orchid at the Hotel" written by He Chao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, he wrote: On the jade plate, there are carp and carp, and the golden tripod is cooking sheep.
In the Song Dynasty, Mr. Su Dongpo was particularly fond of pork. He not only invented Dongpo Pork, but also wrote an ode to pork: Huangzhou’s good pork is as cheap as dirt. The rich don't want to eat, the poor don't know how to cook. They get up in the morning and take two bowls, so full that the king doesn't care. It can be seen from here that the status of pork is not high.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the status of mutton began to rise, but after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the status of pork could no longer be shaken.
The price of pork is closely related to people's livelihood. If one day, the price of beef in our country rises, it may not attract our attention; but the recent rise in pork has triggered a lot of heated discussions among our people. So the question is, why does our country like pork so much?
When it comes to whether we prefer to eat pork or beef, many people will retort: ??If the price of beef decreases, then we will also tend to choose beef. However, what you need to know is that the reason why beef prices are high is not because supply exceeds demand and drives up prices. But the production cost of beef is high, and there is no way to sell it at a low price. The reason why foreign beef prices are low is because foreign countries have ways to control the cost of raising cattle, and they can still make money even if they are sold at low prices.
The reason why our country cannot reduce the production cost of beef is that our country’s climate is not suitable for raising cattle. The growth of cattle cannot be separated from grassland, and many places in our country have a monsoon climate, that is, the same period of rain and heat, which is very suitable for cultivating crops. Therefore, many areas in our country have been developed into cultivated land, which reduces the living space for cattle and makes beef production unsatisfactory. my country’s demand for meat food.
Pigs are on the contrary. First of all, they are omnivores and eat almost anything. They eat not only wheat bran and bean dregs, but also grass and wheat straw. Our country is a big agricultural country. When we harvest wheat and rice, we also harvest a large amount of agricultural by-products, and these agricultural by-products can just be used to raise pigs.
Another advantage of raising pork is that it can provide high-quality fertilizer. Before the invention of chemical fertilizers, the yield of crops was very limited. If you want to increase the yield per mu, you must regularly provide organic fertilizer to the land, and pig manure is a high-quality organic fertilizer.
Judging from the composition of feces, the organic matter content in pig manure reaches 15% and the content in cow manure is 14.5%; the nitrogen content in pig manure is about 0.5% and that of cow manure is about 0.3% . In addition, the organic matter in pig manure is easier to be absorbed by crops and has strong fertility retention.
More importantly, the yield of pig manure is very high. Pu Songling wrote: "One pig is raised every year, and only the original is taken after selling it. Twenty carts of manure are accumulated in one year, more than The price will be paid according to the price of the car, and the one who sells pigs will be compensated for the price." In addition, in the past, people believed that "there are many pigs in the shed and there is more rice in the shed, so raising pigs is the most important thing in farming."
Because pork is very closely related to agriculture, and our country has developed a variety of ways to eat pork, such as: braised pork, twice-cooked pork, stewed pork belly, sauce elbow, Jinhua ham... in In Chinese culture, cooking a good dish cannot be separated from the blessing of pork. Therefore, pork has begun to firmly occupy the top of our country's dining table, affecting our eating habits and cultural atmosphere.