Tropical Zone Gardening: It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without..., 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
Today I'm going to talk about Romanian's favorite (cooking) animal: the pig. I'm not planning to offend anybody, either vegetarian or non-pork eater. But as a nation, Romanians have two meats that are linked with the big holidays: lamb in spring and pork in winter. And the majority stick to that, against all the medical issues of cholesterol...

There's no Christmas without pork, in all kinds of preparations. Geographically speaking, we have winter, serious winter. My favorite cookbook writer (it's not just a cookbook, since it's written more like a story, with some history and traditions presented, as is a collection of traditional dishes) says that we were forced to eat the pork by our harsh winters. probably the fat meat helps in getting the energy.

Sayings from the popular wisdom also talk about pork:
"The pork gets you through the winter"
" the one that has luck with (growing) pigs, is lucky in everything"
"pork (meat) is the bounty of the household"
and my all time favorite: "there's no bird like the pig"

Today is pork day. It is the day the animal is sacrificed for the Christmas holidays. I'm not going to say much about this. I love the meat, but I don't wanna know how it gets on my plate. We (as kids) never went to Grandma (in the village) before the Christmas Eve! But it appears that the rituals for this event have deep roots, in the times when gods were pleased by the worshipers by life sacrifices, initially human (Brrrr!), than, when Christianism expanded, were replaced by animal sacrifices. In some cultures, the pig (hog) was a sacred animal.
Reminiscences of these rituals are found still in the rural areas. And it is always some fire involved (IGNAT comes from the Latin "ignis" which means fire), but, not surprisingly (because of the amount of work involved) they start with fire early in the morning.

Myths and legends and oral folk literature say that the bones of the pork sacrificed on Ignat Day should be buried, and from them a Lilac will sprout. Why lilac? Don't know, really. I've read many legends, but Lilac is not frequently met.

When I grew up, it was very difficult to find meat. You either would not find it in store, or you would, but had to wait in long, long lines (over 500 people!). My grandparents were old enough and ill enough not to cope with this. Mom and Dad didn't have the time, and the two of us would have been trampled...
But in wintertime, my father would go to my other grandma (Bunica, his Mom) and would come back with the meat. Sadly, he would always go by train, even if less convenient than by car (cold, longer time of travel, crowded), and would bring the meat with his back, in the rucksack. There was a reason for that. Communists knew that this is the day to get the meat. Policemen would put "filters" on the roads, stopping cars, searching and confiscating any meat they would see. The reason: "you didn't buy it from the store, so it might be contaminated". On the other hand, the peasants that grew pigs were obligated to have the pig/pork inspected, so it didn't really fit...
To us, it was really true that the pork got us thru winter. That was almost the only meat in our house.

Anyway, the pork meat would arrive in our house on Ignat day. While in the villages, the peasants would celebrate this day by cooking pork in all possible ways and eating it and having a party, in the cities the day meant only work, for the preparations.

There is a real pork (culinary) culture in Romania. It isn't only roast or grilled pork. there are sausages ("carnati"), liver sausages ("caltabos" and "sangerete"), ham ("sunca"), cheese head ("toba"), pork aspic ("piftie"), a kind of meatloaf ("drob"), meatballs ("chiftele"), either fresh, or smoked or salt cured, or boiled, even baked, in the oven, on the stove... a thousand ways of preparing it. You name it , we do it! There are, again, regional variations. My Grandparents from my mother's side came from the Northeastern part (the Moldavia region). My dad (and Grandma) came from Transylvania (central). And while there were differences, there was a perfect harmony surrounding the cooks. My belief is that, while Moldavians are the greatest at deserts, the Transylvanians are the best at meats!

So today, almost any Romanian prepares the meats. In my house, it was always the day for: home-made sausages (that would be split in two parts- one to be eaten fresh, another to be smoked), smoked ham, roast pork, liver sausages and piftie. Some in the house didn't like the cheese head (toba), so it was either a very small one, or none at all.

Then, ground meat would go as an ingredient for sarmale (one kind of this food you probably know as "stuffed cabbages"), sausages and meatballs.

Are you wondering what am I cooking? To my shame, the tradition of preparing sausages will stop at my Dad. I never prepared them, and I don't have all the necessary things here either.
Oh, well, I buy them... I will roast meat in the oven. I'm preparing "sarmale" (I grind the meat myself), and we'll also have ham and meatballs (but for us these are as aperitifs, not a main course...). Another goodie that I'm going to make is "tochitura": it is made from bits of pork meat, fresh and smoked sausages, smoked ham and bacon, that are cooked on the stove together, first fried than smothered with wine and spices, yummy!
I will also cook "piftie", "drob" and liver pate, but they are made with chicken or turkey (need a high ratio of bone and cartilage to meat to have a good aspic! and I like the chicken liver better than any other liver)

And this is just part of the dishes that will be on our table. The sweets are yet to follow, and there are a few more appetizers, but not "porky".
When Romanians celebrate, they do it big style! this kind of events, you eat (and drink) from noon till midnight...

(I don't find any pics with food, mainly because it always upset me that professional photographers, at weddings, would always take pics of the tables (and you would be charged for them, even if you don't want them...), and of the people eating - I don't like to be immortalized eating, LOL... so here's a snowman)