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I always wonder why pork on the continent tastes better than ours - and is no more expensive.

Probably because despite EU rules to the contrary, they still allow wild grazing and swill feeding. Okay that's a wild generalisation, but they have a different culture regarding the fat to meat ratio. They (sorry another generalisation) accept that salami & cold sausages will have a high proportion of fat which helps preserve them and adds to the taste. We have had it drummed into us for successive generations that fat kills and costs the same as the muscle so go for meat without fat.
The best tasting pork I've had was a few years ago when we were lucky enough to buy a whole British Lop from a friend of a friend in Wales. We've had some great pork from local farm shops but nothing to beat the Lop.................yet

aris wrote:I always wonder why pork on the continent tastes better than ours - and is no more expensive.

I know people's tastes are all very different, but personally i've always found european meat to be very bland and boring same as UK supermarket pork this is where the majority of pork eaten in europe has been cross bread to reduce the amount of fat in the animal to make them leaner where the majority of people want less fat in their meat & mixing this with intensive farming methods the pigs are slaughtered before they get a change to develope any flavour.

Personally i feel that our heritage breeds when slaughtered later, have a taste that will rival any other pork that i've tried.

Heritage breeds will indeed taste better - finding them is the issue. I do find that supermarket pork on the continent is tastier than our supermarket pork though. Perhaps its all in my head though

Or maybe the fact you are in "foreign parts" that you expect it to taste better , plus the continentals are certain their meat in general is far better then anything we can produce, until they are shown what we can do, have done and should still be doing. Getting rare breed/heritage/slow grown pork isn't all that difficult it's just darned expensive

Perhaps i'll give it ago online. My freezers are chocca at the moment - so no point in ordering.

If anyone has any personal experience with rare breed pork sellers online, I would appreciate a recommendation. From what I can see, GOS pork goes for about 8 pounds a kilo in 10kg quantities.

My brother-in-law is visiting from South Africa - he's a vet and we had a chat about pork and flavour etc.

He had some interesting insights. Of course the breed, feed, and conditions the pig is raised it affects flavour, but he says there are also certain cultural differences in how they are raised, and also the gender of the pig you are eating.

In some countries, they geld (remove its bits) from the boars at an early age. This removes any 'boar taint' which can give pork a strong flavour. Different countries geld the boars at slightly differing ages which affects the flavour. He cited an example of the middle east where sheep are never gelded - they like the strong flavour it imparts on the meat. Of course this gelding issue only pertains to male animals. He thinks the best eating in pork comes from the sow (female). Theoretically if you go to a good butcher, he can tell you what you're being sold (male/female). I suspect at the supermarket it is pot luck.

So that could well explain differences in taste in pork from different countries of seemingly the same meat. This may also explain why at the supermarket sometimes you get a nice piece of pork, and then another which tastes different - seemingly from the same batch.

Some food for thought.

aris wrote:..............Some food for thought.

Or food for piggies , high volume breeders tend to use concentrates and pellets as opposed to Free Range which eat a variety of foodstuffs.

Some good points by your BiL

Just got back from a break in West Wales.

Whilst there I went to a small market in St Dogmaels near Cardigan, and being a Tuesday morning they were having a small market. It included a bloke selling Wild Boar from Harmony Herd:

http://www.harmonyherd.co.uk/

As we were late he didn't have much left - I was miffed to see a young lady walking away with a rack of ribs just as I approached.

I bought a boneless 'spare rib chop'. I didn't really know how to cook it, so I did it in a low-ish oven (c.140 C) for about 30 minutes. Absolutely delicious.

Lots of pork experts here. Anyone ever done ribs or pulled pork from wild boar instead of traditional pork?

Steve W