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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2008-10 > 1224522177


From: "Virginia" <>
Subject: Re: [S-I] "Scotch Irish" Thanksgiving Stories
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:02:57 -0700
References: <F20A4C1AB75C4C3BAA5C82E39EE75241@ginia2><1c122030d55bb286f26d4ab54a60e7bf@verizon.net>


As my mother used to tell me, when a pig was butchered they had a use for
everything but the squeal!

As a child, I was just as turned off by fresh pork as you were, but could
manage crisp bacon or an occasional slice of lean ham. My dad firmly
believed that if children were forced to eat foods they disliked they would
hate those foods forever and become picky eaters. He would always tell me
"Just try a little bite. If you don't like it now, you can try it again as
your taste matures." which, of course, made me want to be grown-up enough
to like it. It sure worked for me (and my kids and my grandkids, all of whom
were reared with that same philosophy and have very few food hang-ups). I
remember watching as my brother-in-law made my eight-year-old niece sit at a
table for over an hour to make her to eat a serving of fried potatoes and
onions. She finally forced down a couple of bites through her tears, then
promptly threw up. I won't claim that the eating and weight problems she has
had all her life were the result, but I'm pretty sure it contributed.
Virginia


> Where my mother was raised, they raised hogs for food. So she had no
> idea of beef until she married and moved up north. But I can imagine
> the same thing was done with a hog.
> Personally, I could not eat much pork. I would eat lean bacon, cooked
> crisp. I might eat a piece of ham steak, and God help me, I used to
> eat cracklins' once in a while until I realized what it could do to
> you. Mom just couldn't interest me in a pork roast, or pork chops, or
> any other part of the hog. She would eat the fat of a pork chop or ham,
> >and I would have to leave or turn my head. It nearly gagged me.

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