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Favorite pork related memory: Thanksgiving 2005, wherein I watched my uncle carve a bacon-wrapped turkey for my Jewish family's holiday.

I'm Southern, so I have lots of pork memories to choose from. I guess I think most fondly on the times my mom and I would roll up rumaki. I felt very debonair and grown up slathering chicken livers and bacon with soy sauce.

Sunday after church breakfast at my grandparents home in the Poconos. Mom went all out with bacon, sausage, omelets, waffles, fresh fruit and her freshly made orange sour cream scones. I can almost still smell it.

I would love to get my hands on some chorizo and make a paella for Christmas!

Making sausage for the first time with my friends. We used an old hand crank grinder that they found in their mom's garage. Eating homemade sausage for the first time was a life altering moment.

Grandfather's big Saturday breakfasts with eggs, pancakes, and sausage.

pork belly with grilled squid and avocado in barcelona. life changing experience...

then there was the gypsy pork chops with the thickest bacon i've ever had in budapest.

Mum would occasionally render salt pork to pan-fry potatoes in. The potatoes were brilliant of course, but it's the tiny pieces of fried salt pork that I was waiting for patiently whenever she did that!

bacon with eggs.
in the morning.
at grandma's house.
with biscuits.
good.

When I was pregnant with our third child last year, whenever I made a pork roast, I craved sandwiches made with cold leftovers on fresh bread. I would pack a sandwich for lunch but always ate it as a second breakfast at about 10 am.

My favorite pork memory would have to be a pool party at an aunts house near Chicago in I think it was the summer of 1980, they made tenderloin sandwiches, pounded thin ,and breaded,was really good, sadly most of those aunts ,and uncles are gone now.

thick cut country bacon in a cast iron skillet over the campfire with my dad and bro...

McRib has made my mouth happy way more times than Twizzlers.

Listening to my grandmother tell stories about how her and my grandfather use to process a pig on the farm and how it was an all day event. It was a giant pig processing party where they would take that hog and make bacon, sausage, ham etc until there was nothing left of that pig.

a homemade sandwich of prosciutto, provolone, pesto, and mustard -- on focaccia from an Italian bakery in North Beach, San Francisco

2008's Grad Student Bacon Cure-Off: can't go wrong with 8-lbs of pork belly and friends.

I think my favorite pork memory would be the first time I hosted a big dinner party for my friends after getting married, and I made the most delicious orange, clove and burbon glazed ham...everyone was nom nom noming it and I was so proud of myself for having pulled off such a feast all by myself.

omg i LOVE pork.

Fondest memory was the occassional whole pig roasts we would have in my hometown-- slow smoked for almost 24 hours, turned into the most delicious pulled pork!

homemade link sausage, fresh after a butchering!

eating double cooked pork at spicy and tasty

Attending a friend's pig roasting luau over the summer -- with a 200 lb. pig roasting on a spit in a rotisserie. yum, the sweet smell of pig.

biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast at grandma's house

Is pepperoni porky enough? I proposed to my fiancee by writing "marry me" in pepperoni on a homemade pizza.

My friend Andre's BBQ ribs. Big enought to make Fred Flinstone happy.

according to my shiksa mother, my first word was "ham", much to my jewish grandparents' chagrin. apparently i sat at my high chair pounding the little table screaming for ham as i gobbled up slice after slice of deli ham.

Having jamon iberico de bellato for the first time! I will never forget that moment! Best ham ever!

My favorite pork product memory would be attending my very first North Carolina Pig Pickin'. There is nothing like chopped cue on a soft, warm bun with a side of just made hushpuppies and an ice cold beer. Eastern NC style cue, mind you.

I've got two - learning to make shuijiao, those Chinese pork dumplings when I lived in Taiwan, and then watching my great uncle and later my dad make bacon bread, which is something that Hungarians for generations have been subsisting on when there was nothing else to eat, and now we eat at American backyard barbeques.

I grew up in New England so when we moved to Richmond, VA, the sudden change in food culture totally rocked my world. My first bite of a pulled pork sandwich during Richmond's annual High on The Hog event was a revelation.

We have never looked back - and by the way, Edward's Pepper Bacon is astonishingly good and a family favorite!!

Oh, any Holiday morning I wake up and Mom's saved me a couple pieces of wobbly bacon. I can wax ecstatic about countless restaurants, but really? Mom's wobbly bacon is the best.

Special runner up to my annual camping trip with friends, where we started BaconFest -- a special breakfast where ten of us regularly went through five pounds of bacon (or more). For those who were not comatose, there was hiking afterward. :)

My fav memory is at my grandmothers house smelling the bacon and coffee every morning when I stayed there.

Another one was when I first moved to FL I went to a Christmas party at a spanish persons house and saw the pig on the spit with an apple in its mouth. That was not a very fond memory but it sure stayed in my head!

I'll say it again: Fighting with my family over the crispy pig skin from our whole roasted pig on Christmas Eve...every year :)

Lard-based roux.

I was vegetarian for six years, and had a health-freak mother for all the years before that. My first bite of real bacon was cooked for me by my then-special man friend one weekend. He then proceeded to eat most of the pound of bacon he'd cooked, which might have been the sexiest thing I've ever seen.

pulled pork sandwiches from home.

Waking up to the wonderful smell of sausage on Sunday mornings..

Thnaks

Roast pork, Chinese style, and Barbecued pork (Char Siew) eaten with white rice.

Eating a pulled pork sandwich with my mom on the day I graduated from college.

Bacon wrapped pork loin slow smoked over hickory... yum... my husband's specialty. I think I went into a pork induced coma.

My momo made the yummiest pork tenderloin for Christmas day, with rosemary and garlic!

My mother was going in to the hospital to have brain surgery and made sure I knew that there was a coupon for a free ham in her bedside drawer that was expiring the next Sunday. She didn't want it to go unused if she didn't make it through.

Christmas mornings mean breakfast casserole made with Neese's sausage. Yum!

My mom used to work as a flight attendant, and when I was in middle school and high school I would join her on her trips during summer vacation. It was a lot of fun and we got to spend time together, just us. After I went away to college, my summers were full of internships or summer school, and I just didn't have to time to fly away with her. One weekend, we flew to San Francisco for the day and walked around everywhere. We ended up in Chinatown, passed by a place with the pigs and ducks hanging in the window, and she bought a pound of roast pig. With our snack in a box and plenty of napkins, we found a park bench and dug in. Just me and my mom, enjoying the tender, salty pork and the crunchy, delicious pork skin. It was one of the best trips I've ever taken.

Fondest pork memory? I can't think of any pork I haven't been fond of. How about my first taste of a delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwich on a soft bun with sauce on the side and a pickle.

Recently I made candied bacon ice cream. It was one of the proudest moments in my life (not kidding--it's good). Put it on top of fresh hot waffles. Fond memories indeed....

I'm not sure this counts but it was taking my husband to see live pigs for the first time at a county fair. He's a city boy! First time he ever saw where his beloved scrapple originated.

not one particular memory, but eating grilled ssamkyupsal @ home with my family. we always have so much, we all eat until we are about to pass out.

the first time my dad took me to work with him and got me a pork bun on the way to the office. this was when he worked at the DA's office next to chinatown. memory brings tears to my eyes.

Every summer I would visit my grandmother and she would always fix us bacon wrapped hot dogs roasted in the oven! Deliciously sinful!

Pork pump (shoulder) from lake spring in monterey park, ca. Sheer pork ecstasy

My fondest pork memory is when I was about 8 years old. My family butchered a hog. I remember eating the pork, too, but the actual act of butchering the hog is one of my fondest!

always asked for pork roast for my birthday dinner.

my neighbor's pulled pork sandwiches

Best pork experience by far... just sprung from the hospital in Kuala Lumpur, fresh roasted pork with super crispy skin chopped up into little melty bites, and lots of pain killers.

My dad & his friends smoking pork in a homemade smoker at 3am.... luckily it's warm in Hawai'i!

Oh dear sweet porky Jebus. My favorite moments would be, in no particular order: Eating Candido Lopez's roast suckling pig (the most luscious porky goodness I've ever had), tearing into my first proper pork belly at Cabrito, and any time I can get back to North Carolina for some (vinegar-based) BBQ.

After moving to SC from Philadelphia, it has to be the first time I had Southern Barbecue at Bucky's BBQ in Greenville, SC. I always thought Barbecue was an event, not a food. It's delicious!

pigging out on bacon bacon bacon and swiss grilled sandwiches with granny growing up-t that and salami were here addictions

Babi Guling at Ibu Oka in Ubud, Bali.

Holding a double-blind bacon taste test!

pork loin chop with the bone in, seasoned with sea salt, thyme, rosemary, and marjoram, put under the broiler, cooked until the fat is crispy on both sides...yummy

cooking sausage and pancakes with my grandfather and pouring maple syrup all over both

Sitting around the kitchen table with my brothers and sisters eating peanutbutter toast with crisp, crumbled bacon on top.

Nibbling (sneaking) bacon while I am cooking breakfast for my family.

My first bite of a homemade ham biscuit in Virginia a few years ago...and all the bites thereafter.

eating blt's with my mom.

(since I just composed this for a similar giveaway next week I have to repeat myself...)

Last year I visited a friend in Vegas and she took me to a little dive bar named the Double Down. The Double Down has two signature drinks; one is obscenely titled & I shall not name it though I believe Anthony Bourdain had it (saw that ep after the trip), the other is a bacon martini. Well, I do love the bacon so I got one. The bartender grabbed a bottle of vodka with bacon floating in it. Seriously.

Conclusion? Straight alcohol not consumed in shot form is not really my thing but it was interesting. The smell was absolutely putrid, but the taste wasn't bad. Like vodka with a smack of bacon.

A much more delicious story involves hippies & a Wilbur roasted underground luau style, but the bacon martini is definitely my favorite pork story.

I remember eating thick-cut bacon that had a hard, crunchy rind on it when I was a child. I would eat the bacon leaving the rind til last, then nibble on it... taking my time and enjoying the texture. I have a difficult time finding it in grocery stores now.

My family has a saying, "if it has pig in it, then it must be good" We are a family that loves pork in all varieties. My brother and I even have a ham dance which we began one christmas when we were so excited about the honey smoked ham we were about to pick up for dinner. The dance has continued throughout the holidays now.

Whenever I drove by the Habersett home in Media, PA, I chuckled over the cute little iron pig on their mailbox. They make the best pork scrapple, bar none, in the whole USA. After I moved to CA, whenever I visited Media I would buy it and freeze it to take home on the plane. Now that I'm back in PA, I buy it and freeze it to take to my children in NYC and Virginia. I like it best fried crisp with maple syrup :-)

Fondest pork memory - having roasted suckling pig for the first time in a hole in the wall cafe in Hong Kong. My first taste of roasted suckling pig was awesome!!!

A great breakfast has to have thick sliced fried bacon & eggs and biscuits & gravy. This reminds me of cold snowy winter mornings! Thanks!

Reintroducing myself to bacon after far too many years as a vegetarian...dear god, was I blown away. Nomgasm, indeed.

My favorite was going to a work-related BBQ with a friend. I didn't know his friend, who was hosting the event, was cooking a whole pig, and never having seen one, I think I kind of got a little weirded out when he opened the "grill." He saw that and took my hand and asked me a few questions about what kind of meat I liked to eat, and went to carve off some meat for me (while I'm silently praying "not from the face, please, not from the face).

He promised me, with all his Southern charm, that I'd love it...and darn if I didn't! Now I'm first in line at a Pig Pickin' - but not from the face, please!

I am from NJ and my favorite food that I cannot find here is "pork roll" otherwise known as Taylor Ham!

Well I suppose I have two. Number one is the eureka moment of standing in a restaurant kitchen as someone pulled bacon on a pan out of the oven and saying to myself "oh that's how you do it." Number two is the first ever time that I saw a bacon weave. Or maybe one of these: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanhoose/sets/72157611254060062/

Holidays are expensive food wise.. Love to win this.

My last visit to Daisy May's BBQ was pure pork paradise and my fondest (recent) pork memory.

I have had a life long love for pork, especially for bacon. When I was 4 my grandparents took me and my sisters on a vacation in their RV. My grandmother had cooked a pound of bacon and set it on the table while she finished up the rest. I sat down and ate the entire pound of bacon - somehow unnoticed - until everyone came to the table to eat. I can still hear my grandfather screaming about it but I also remember that the bacon was worth it!

My girlfriend bargained with an antiques dealer that she was over charging for a particular piece of damaged jewelry. So, the woman nocked about 25% off the price and threw in two pounds of fresh, homemade breakfast sausage that her husband made. Antiquing never tasted so good!

for our family reunion in the outer banks, nc two summers ago, my dad took apart his smoker and mailed it down to our vacation house in advance of our arrival. i thought he was crazy until i bit into the first of many pulled pork sandwiches with homemade kansas city style bbq sauce...heavenly and so worth the day of cooking and ridiculous cost of shipping the smoker!

The day my wife kicked me outta the house.It was wicked cold out on christmas Eve,and there was no room at the Motel 6.I had to sleep in the pigpen with Bessie, our 300 pound Duroc hog.We had to snuggle to keep warm that night,and warm we stayed

Discovering the joy that a little pork sausage can bring to a meal after 10+ years of being meat-free. Pork is by far my favorite meat :)

I remember eating pork chops with my family for Sunday dinner after church. Everybody was there-and those are special memories considering several of our family members have passed on.

When I was little, my beloved Grandfather would slow cook bacon early in the morning, the smell would wake me up. Once awake, he would make the best scrambled eggs and bacon and potato pancakes in the world. To this day the smell of fresh bacon reminds me of my wonderful Polish Grandpa! Thanks for the contest. Happy Holidays.

My mom using salt pork diced up for her scalloped potatoes

My fondest memories of pork are from my mother's homecooking. My mom would make the best sausage and gravy every Sunday morning. She also made the best cheese sauce to go with pork chops because I was picky eater as a child.

My other memories are just stories that my grandfather and dad told me about raising hogs over the years in Indiana. My grandfather got to go to a lot of cool places to export and sell the hogs over the years. They raised grand champion pigs.

the first time i cooked a shoulder on our smoker

Years ago my hormonally imbalanced self not only loved but CRAVED pork ribs with BBQ sauce. I even made a Baby Back Rib Screensaver. Ribs are still my favorite thing to eat.

My grandparents had an earthen cellar that grandpa dug and timbered. At one end of shelves for grandma's canned goods, grandpa always had a slab of bacon hanging. He would cut thickness to spec! So good.

my jewish grandmother's chopped liver and bacon on rye

The first time I gilled baby back ribs and my guests were very happy. Not the best pork I've ever had but it convinced me that I could cook. Looking back it was a simple lesson but it was a step above mac and cheese out of a box. I cook real good now.

:-)

Z

Getting up Sunday mornings before football when I was a kid, waiting for my dad to fry up some bacon.

Large pieces of thick cut bacon in a big bowl of homemade baked beans full of brown sugar and maple syrup.

Once, and just once, my mother decided that we should make our own sausage. It was memorable, for many reasons.

My fondest pork memory is ribs on the grill with family coming

Barbecuing ribs in 35 degree weather while recovering from a near-fatal auto accident. The ribs were so worth the cold, wet, and discomfort - codeine was my friend after lunch.

pork roasted outside on a turning stick, i'm not sure how to explain it. it was in croatia.

I made my dad the best BBQ ribs one year for his birthday and he said they were the best he had ever had!

It would have to be the first time I tried porchetta....so porky and delicious.

My dad's pork chops and apple sauce.

When I lived in Muenster, Germany, there was a little cart in my neighborhood a couple of days a week that sold Schweinehaxe (ham hocks) that came right of the spit. It was a very cheap thrill, but a right tasty one, to chomp on one of those dudes on a cold, blustery day.

Okay I love watching Anthony Bourdain's show. I saw one of his shows where he went to Puerto Rico and found some awesome whole roast pig. Well a few months later we ended up visiting Puerto RIco. Well I remembered the show and we actually drove all over the country in search of this restaurant that he had gone. After 3 hours we found it and had the best, and I mean the best, roast pork I have ever had. thank god for Anthony Bourdain and PORK!!!!

Has to be thick sliced fried bacon & eggs and biscuits & gravy.

When I was a kid, the smell of the kitchen on Saturday morning when my mom would make breakfast - pancakes or french toast with glorious, glorious bacon.

Sunday brunch bacon and eggs fried in the fat. The promise of this was often the only thing that kept me quiet through church.

Does being chased by a pig on my grandpa's farm and losing my shoe in the mud count?

We always had fresh bacon, sausage or ham at our breakfast table. growing up.

It's very brave to ask a Kentuckian to share their favorite pork memory. I'll take the high road and select the first time I made a standing pork rib crown roast.

Making bacon on a campfire. The sound of sizzling and smell bacon on a open fire

I noticed that one of the pigs in the graphic is wearing a sash emblazened with "Ireland". I wouldn't be consuming any pork from Ireland, there's been a recent scandal with contaminated Irish pork there. Shop shelves were cleared out, as a result.

i've got two. one, from a luau in hawaii when i went there with my dad over christmas when i was 15. the other memory is not so much fond as it is memorable (in a very NSFW way). i was making breakfast for an ex boyfriend, frying bacon while topless. moral of the story: never fry bacon while topless, unless you want polka dotted oil burns all over your frontside. yep, goodtimes.

oh there are so many...but one fond porcine memory of relatively recent vintage stands out...the joy of biting into the pulled pork po'boy at New Orleans Jazzfest this year, after waiting in line for it in the pouring rain...I think the waiting, the smell, the whole scene just heightened the porky excitement. Even damp it couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for its yumminess!!

Converting my mother back from being vegetarian last December with one bite of my Bi-bacon Chicken. (Two?! kinds of bacon!?)

Eating a "pork chop on a stick" at the Illinois State Fair this year (actually a ginormous brined, grilled chop with its bone) . . . right after watching the pork show. Nothing like pork on the hoof to give you an appetite for pork on the grill!

"Pigging out" on korean style bbq pork belly on my birthday last year... sooo good.

My first bacon cheeseburger. I was smitten for life...

Honey ham on easter

No doubt the all night construction of the fire pit and the roasting of the pig outside of Ann Arbor in 60's for a wedding celebration (that was very much part of that time and that place!).

Bacon. My mom hated cooking bacon it was a real treat when it turned up at mealtime.

When in college--Driving to NY Chinatown in the middle of the night on Chinese spare rib and dumpling runs

Tacos al pastor in Tijuana FTW

The crunchy pork skin of Chinese style roasted pig.

My Ex is mexican and used to cook at a mexican little store. Well he would deep fry pig snouts and we would eat them with some hot sauce on em. Oh these were so good. Of course sometimes when i would look at it you could see those holes in the nostrils. but yuymmy.

Eating pork ribs when I was a kid. It was so messy and so delicious.

Spending a year in France, and getting invited to a family/small village ritual slaying of a hog, with most of the parts cooked that evening, and accompanied with leftover cured parts from the previous years' slaughter, all washed down with great, locally made wine.

braised pork belly. nanbei shau guan in monterey park, ca. unfortunately the restaurant has since closed.

My favorite pork memory is definitely the thick sliced bacon at Peter Luger's. I love bacon and a bigger, thicker piece of bacon that is twinkling with grease is delicious.

It just keeps getting better. This morning a neighbor brought by some of his homemade apple sausage...almost as memorable as the cracklin' pone I had as a kid.

Taylor Pork Roll and egg sandwich with ketchup- nj style

I got married outside at my parents lake house in North Carolina... for the rehearsal dinner, my father cooked a big pig, on his pig cooker, in the traditional "NC BBQ" way, with all the usuals, it was fantastic, and I think our guests really enjoyed that more than the catered reception the next day, even the yankees..I mean "out of towners" ;-)

Neighborhood pig roasts as a kid. The whole street chipped in for the pig, used the one empty lot for the roasting, plenty of side dishes, games, and fun the entire day. You don't find many neighborhoods like that anymore.

I've been cooking a lot of pork these days. Almost every meal that I've made this year for company has featured pork so I've enjoyed it a lot with good friends and family.

ham, melted gruyere cheese and butter panini in Paris

Smithfield Ham. Thank goodness for Smithfield hame.

The first time I tasted Parma prosciutto.

dipping my bacon in maple syrup for the first time in college.

sleeping in a lawn chair outside all night next to a whole pig cooking on monster grill for a holiday party.

Eating a whole bunch of thick sliced bacon on Christmas morning when I was a child

pennsylvania dutch bacon for breakfast at my in-laws
my aunts chinese bbq pork (char siu) which she makes in the rice cooker
my mom's breaded pork chops

My dad used to have huge BBQ feasts. My brothers would stay up all night turning the pork ( whole pigs ) on the huge fire pit. Well that night when no one was looking our favorite lab Bear snatched him a whole pig and ate it. The next day he was laying there looking like a stuffed pig. He was soooo miserable which made my dad very happy. Thank goodness he didn't have any long lasting stomach complications and lived to a grand old age :-)

My first smoked pork shoulder, pulled as BBQ for a party. Nervous since it was my first; proud when it was perfect.

in my recent history, the first time i tried bacon salt was amazing!

My fondest memory is the first time I cooked a pork tenderloin. I called my mom and got instructions over the phone. She told me how to prep it, what temp to cook it and how to tell when it was done. She took a lot of time and patience teaching me how to cook it. Now when ever my friends or family have a get together they get me to bring my pork tenderloin because it is always so fabulous! My second favorite memory is when I won a tee-shirt that says "Nice Chops" and I wear it proudly!

My daughter's graduation party was hosted by her boyfriend's father, who raised only a few pigs each year for personal use. He raised one specifically for her party and did a lovely pig roast. Best pork I ever ate, and the chickens he stuffed the pig with were basted with pig grease while they cooked and that made them so tasty. Mmmm.

Pork chile verde burritos at a hole-in-the-wall corner grocery store in Ventura County, CA.

Catching my Jewish Step-Dad (and self described Kosher Jew) sneaking a bacon- wrapped scallop at a wedding. I used that bit of information to my benefit for many years! Hahaha.

I love stuffed pork chops and had them for Mom and I, ,just before my Mom passed away., She really enjoyed that meal.

My aunt used to bring us real scrapple from Philly whenever she came to visit us in NC.

My father making spaghetti sauce on Sundays with boneless pork ribs in it.

fondest pork memory was when my mexican friend introduced me to Chorizo... one of the best days of my life :D

My favorite pork memory is every year at Christmas when I was a child my mom would bake a ham and it had pineapple and cherries on top and was so delicious.

My fondest pork memory is the Christmas where mom insisted on getting a honey baked ham and my grandmother through a fit because she didn't want my mom to spend that much. So my mom takes my grandmother with her to buy it, gets there, sees that the line is huge and walks out. My grandmother tells her to go to Sam's Club and get the ham there. My grandma still talks about that every year. That she won the ham battle that is.

Roasting a whole suckling pig Balinese style over a fire pit. Really fun, really tasty.

My favorite memory is those great cookouts of down home southern bbq. I miss that food.

Just a couple months ago when I learned that great pulled pork was within my ability.

Having grown up on a hog farm, I have many memories. Perhaps the greatest occurred when I was in 8th grade. I just gotten home from school when a neighbor down the road (3 miles) called to say one of our hogs was in her yard. Turns out the hired hand did not close the trailer gate properly and one daring hog made a jump to freedom at the stop sign. The remarkable thing is my dad hauled the other 40 hogs on the trailer nearly 40 miles to market and never knew the gate had opened or one had escaped. Of course, my brother and I had to keep the escapee cornered for about an hour and a half waiting on my dad to come home with the trailer. (This was long before the day of cell phones). I think I even threatened the neighbors 5 pound dog a time ot two!

Every time I go home to visit my parents I go to this fabulous bbq place and get a huge bbq salad. Makes the drive home seem a lot better when I take that first bite.

my greatest memories of the hogs growing up is we used to ride them, we would hop on and they would squeal and run off, if you were lucky you could hang on. mom and dad would yell at us for making them tough to eat so we couldn't ride them for a couple weeks before they were butchered. TO MUCH FUN!

I have so many favorites. My newest favorite is NC pork bbq! I love it!

my cats love char siu!

My family loves pork in all forms - and so do I. However, I'm the only one who can't stand green peppers, and once, when I was a teenager, in a fit of pique over seeing the hated ingredient on an otherwise gorgeous pork roast, I pulled the roast from the oven and carefully picked out each and every one, tossing them into the trash. I still haven't heard the last of that.

Oh, and the first time I had prosciutto, peas and linguine - it's one of my favorite food memories every, because I'd never realized food could be that good!

Growing up on a farm in the South, I always loved going into the smokehouse with my dad to check on the country hams we had hanging in there to see how they were coming along. I just loved the smell of it! We also made our own sausage too... all from the hogs we raised.

Praise the lard and pass the bacon!

My favorite porcine memory? Would have to be the pig roast at our wedding. We "cut the pig" instead of the cake.

Dad's bacon sandwiches get my vote for best pork memory!

Thanks so much for this very fun giveaway!

My fondest pork memory was when we attended a Fourth of July party and they roasted a pig. It was so fine! The music, dancing, fireworks and all the good food made a lasting impression in my mind! That pork was so tender and delicious!

Being tricked by my grandmother into eating pigs' feet when I was 5 ears old.

Going with with my grandmother to the butcher, bringing home a cardboard box full of things wrapped in string and white paper, and sitting in the kitchen while she rendered bacon and made her bacon cornbread. I miss her more than the biscuits, but it shouldn't be as close as it is.

Going to a pig roast when I was a little girl and realizing for the first time where pork chops came from. Once I tasted the roast pork I was just fine with it, though.

Being a chef I had to work on my birthday last year, bummer. But I made it memorable when I cooked up a nice big plate of chicken fried bacon. It was so delicious, I even made the creamy white gravy dipping sauce with some leftover bacon fat. Mmm mmm, even though I was wincing/sweating walking up the stairs later.
But how can you ever forget your first pig roast (USC Gamecocks tailgate), the first pork belly experience, or just the smell of bacon in the morning (definately better than coffee or napalm anyday! I love the PIG!!

My dad use to make us Pork Chops and Eggs every Sunday morning :)

My fondest pork memory was feeding pigs on my aunt's ranch in Cotati, California when I was real young, and then when the pigs weren't looking, we'd hop on them and ride them around the pen! I guess I thought they were pets! Good thing I didn't realize at the time they were the source of my some favorites foods....bacon, ribs, pork burgers!!!

My fondest pork recipe is of Fried Chitlins & Hog Maws

In my part of the country, chitlins come in 10 pound buckets. Hog maws come in smaller packages found in the freezer case. If you can find the larger containers and like the recipe, simply use several times the ingredients to end up with the same percentages. Local supermarkets also carry smaller packages. After cleaning the chitterlings of the fat you will only end up with about half as much volume.

Ingredients:

2 pounds hog maws (pig stomach)

2 pounds chitterlings (pig intestines)

3 quarts water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper (flakes)

1 medium peeled onion (white or yellow)

The hog maws are the thickest and will therefore take the longest to cook. Rinse them thoroughly as you trim off the excess fat. Put them in a 6 quart pot along with your 3 quarts water, onion, pepper, and salt. Bring them to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes.

While maws are cooking, rinse chitterlings thoroughly and trim the extra fat off them. Like most organ meats, they have a lot of fat. Add chitterlings to pot after maws have cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes. Cook another 1 hour 30 minutes or until tender. Add a little extra water if necessary.

Prepare a large cast iron skillet with 1/4 stick of butter. Remove maws and chitterlings from pot and slice. I use to slice them right in the preheated skillet although you can use a cutting board. Then stir with a large metal spoon as you lightly brown them. You can pour out the water from the pot, including the onion. The onion added a little flavor and made them smell nicer while simmering.

A variation on this recipe is to slice the chitterlings and hog maws into pieces as above, but them put them back in the pot with the stock. Again, you can get rid of the onion. Cover the pot and simmer the cut up mixture for another 50 minutes.

If you don't like onion or don't have onion, you can add four or five bay leaves to the mixture instead.. Again, you throw the bay leaves away before frying or cooking down the chitterlings.

By now the hog maws and chitterlings should be thoroughly done and almost falling apart. You can serve them with your favorite side dishes such as greens, maccaroni and cheese, or rice. I actually prefer to eat them by themselves, with several splashes of hot sauce. However, they are fattening and it's tough not to eat too much. So you probably should have a side dish.

Store the leftovers in the refrigerator. Like so many other great soul food dishes, chitlins taste even better after the flavor has soaked in for a few hours. The leftovers won't last long.

Eating a sausage grinder with onions and peppers on the boardwalk.

My favorite pork memory was when my granddaddy taught me how to cook fried pork chops. He also tried to teach me how to make gravy but I never could do that. I'm the reason there are dry gravy mixes in a package.I'm gravy-impaired.

eating hot dogs and whipped cream with my sister

MMMMM. bacon. Homer and I both love bacon and sausage.

Taylor ham, egg and cheese on a hard roll. Can you imagine the fat content in that? Oh I don't eat them anymore but they sure were good!

My dad's italian sausage and spaghetti-- the pork sausage all brown and split on the grill. yum! It's the only thing i request when I go home to the folks..

spare ribs in china town on christmas eve!

My New Jersey mother would fry up thin slices of porkroll with four notches in butter, which we would eat with thick onion slices and ketchup on white bread -- Hardly gourmet or healthy, but very tasty!

My grandmother's Christmas ham. It would melt in your mouth.

Making stuffed pork loin on the grill @ Allegany State Park....it amazed everyone at the camp site!

having all my Jewish friends pick at my Easter Ham and ask to be invited back next year

I can't say as I've ever thought about it. We love having BLT's on a Saturday afternoon. Pork roast tonight!

My fondest pork memory is of my first BLT sandwich. My mom was not home and I was about 7 years old. My dad never made lunch for the kids but this time he was stuck.

Somehow he pulled up the memory of BLT and we ate like kings. Ever since then, I have loved bacon, ham steak, ham sandwich, and ham salad sandwich. I am hooked!

Memories of my Grandad Cooking a hog allnight long the night before Christmas eve when I was a kid

Porkchops at Coopers Barbecue in Llano, TX, really hard to beat.

Staying at the cottage with my aunt & cousins; they'd make breakfast and have bacon along with the pancakes or the eggs. My cousins loved to dip the bacon into the maple syrup, but I as a purist, liked to crunch the bacon first before eating anything else.

Remembering my mother making bacon in the oven...The smell of it cooking on a weekend morning...nice. Thanks for this chance.

I remember sitting at the dinner table and having Nana (my grandmother) ask, "Aren't you going to eat your fat?"

For New Year's my Mom makes the best pork tenderloin with glazed onions-yum!

The first time I had homemade salo--salted pork fat, an Eastern European staple. Sliced almost transparent, on dark chewy bread. I was probably 3 years old, visiting my grandfather's village in Belarus for the summer. Sigh. Those were the days...

Corky's BBQ im Memphis garrettsambo@aol.com

Bar B Que prk and potato salad---yum

My first pork chop in my life was fryed up by my uncle. We were on vacation and I had never had a pok chop until then. I wondered why my mom would never make them. I guess my dad was not to fond of pork. I love it and cook it all the time as an adult!

devouring really crispy "face bacon" - yes, it's bacon made from pig's jowls. amazing...

Remembering hog rendering time at my grandparent's farm when I was a small child will always leave that wonderful smell of brown sugar and seeing the hams hung up to cure will always be a great memory.

When I was a young girl my grandparents used to make us bacon sandhiches. I remember that when you would walk in their house it would smell like bacon it brings back a warm fuzzy feeling. Thanks Michelle Lopez Bill110@optonline.net

the Taylor ham sandwich with cheese and mustard on a kaiser roll that I was craving for bfast this morning.

Eating BLTs with my grandmother on summer afternoons. I can easily call up the quality of the light coming through her kitchen windows, and the taste of the hot, crispy strips of bacon.

Growing up sunday's were always big family style breakfast with all of us sitting at the table handing around platters of eggs, potato's and of course sausage and bacon.

my fondest memory is when i ROASTED my fiirst PORK ROAST and it canme out so great i had invited family for dinner and was concerned i picked the wronmg thing but all turned out well

i had one of those hot dogs deep fried with bacon rapped around it, oh yeah, that was good!

Love my mom's pork roast -- and although she's been gone for 20 years, I can still taste it!

My favorite pork memory is every Easter my aunt making Ham in Dough and us fighting over the dough pieces.

My fondest pork memory is trying the Mo's Bacon Bar for the first time. ;0P

The first time I had pulled pork was when my sister made it for me. Thank you!

ham, have not had a bad meal when it comes to pork. best is pork loin on any day grilled. best memory is yesterday, dreamed about ham

Well, I gotta tell you, my fondest pork memory doesn't involve food. My son caught a live pig at a rodeo event. A rancher walked up right after and offered him $50 for his squeeling gunny sack of pig. SOLD! (thankfully, my son likes money. He likes pork too but not so much that he would keep the pig, raise it, and butcher it)

Spending a day running the smoker with it loaded with racks of ribs and making that thin blue smoke. The day hopefully ends with my friends and family all having smiles after tasting those ribs.

Eating a pulled pork sandwich at a full pig roast in Northern Michigan while a Lynard Skynard cover band played and about 50 Harleys revved their engines.

My first pig roast!

The first time I made bacon in the oven the bacon turned out crispy with bacon fat crystallized on it so with every bite you got the crunch of bacon and the meltingly wonderful mouthfeel of bacon fat. That's my favorite pork memory along with bacon ice cream. sigh bacon.

My first Irish Breakfast after a long night out - it was quite a life saver.

After college, this Yankee moved down to the great state of Texas. My first Mexican breakfast of migas introduced me to chorizo - OMG! For a Jewish girl, it was like a taste of heaven!

I had chosen Pork Soubise as my final exam dish while I was a student at the French Culinary Institute. We had done the dish in "class" several times and I had cooked it at home twice fo friends, so I could practically do it with my eyes closed, figured out the perfect seasoning ratio, and made it my own. The night of the final, I walked into the kitchen confident and grabbed my bustray full of ingredients from the walk-in. When I pulled out the pork and found that it was a rack of pork and not the chops I was practicing with, I gave myself a crash course in maticuloiusly slicing the chops off the rack and cleaning the bones for presentation, using 30 precious minutes I hadn't budgeted for. The rest of the night was a high-speed blur, but the dish came out beautifully.

During my childhood, we had a small farm and raised our own hogs, as well as cows and chickens. There's nothing like FRESH sausage and bacon at breakfast time. And talk about a BBQ pork shoulder! Wow! Those were the days!

I always remember the agony of smelling my Grandma's Sunday pork roast dinner and having to wait a few hours with that delicious smell before we sat down to eat. I also remember her telling me when she was teaching me to make pie crust to never use anything but lard. Needless to say her crusts were without peer. Of course over the years I listened to the food naysayers and switched to things like vegetable fat but last year at Christmas time I decided that I would try lard. The cheers of my family and friends still ring in my ears and of course I didn't let on that I used lard but I will never use anything but lard again for pie crust.

Introducing my young niece (age 5) to jamon ibirico.

When we were stationed in Germany, we had bratkartoffel (fried potatoes) at restaurant that had lovely chunks of bacon, as well as a bit of onion. I never had bad bratkartoffel whilst in Germany, but these were absolutely
the best.

Traveling through eastern North Carolina, having barbecue, was heaven on earth. That chopped pork, with a splash of vinegar, oh my mouth is watering as I write this........

Christmas 2005 in New Orleans Serving Lidia Bastianich's roasted pork shoulder to 7 friends who didn't have kitchens or electrcity or gas yet.

My first spit roasting of a pig in college. We started in the early morning as the sun came up. I believe we finished as the sun came down.

My favorite "pork"memory has to be the weekend my then 6 year old son had spent the weekend with his grandparents.His grandfather had slaughtered a pig and gave my son some choice treats to take for show and tell at school.Thank goodness I checked his bag,he had a tail,eyeballs and feet.I don't think his teacher would have been too thrilled to have him show those particular items.My son still remembers it as mom wouldn't let me take his pig things to school.He was very upset with me as I messed up his show and tell day but I wouldn't budge :).

We got turkey for Thanksgiving, but always ham for Easter.

In college, I interned on Capitol Hill for an amazing Oklahoma congressman. He held a fundraiser over the summer - a "pig pull" fundraiser. When I first saw the whole roasted pig displayed upon the buffet table I was just a tad horrified. It was probably the first time I had ever seen one...and it just looked so much like a....pig. And then the congressman pulled off a piece of roasted pig and handed it to me and.......damn! So good! I'll never forget it.

My first pulled-pork sandwich, at my cousins' house in NC. Unlike anything I've ever eaten, ever.

My ex was a militant vegetarian.

After we broke up, I helped her move stuff into her new apartment on Charles St. It was a hot summer day so I cracked open the windows to let some air in. Soon as the air trickled in, we were greeted by the unmistakable smell of bacon. Turns out she moved next door to the Corner Bistro.

I went next door and ordered a bistro burger with a double helping of bacon. Pig never tasted so sweet.

my mother used to always make pork chops with stuffing on top they were so delicious :)

Family Tradition to server Pork Roast on New Year's Day!

My first pig roast. There is something special about all that pork ready for pickin.

First pig roast as well for me, 110lb lovingly titled Wilbur. SC vinegar sauce and hushpuppies.

My fondest memory is eating home cured bacon from my sister's farm when I
was a child.

New Years Day at my grandparents. They were french Candians, and no one knows how to cook pork like Canadians....great memories.

Bacon , Bacon Bacon. Love bacon. Everytime I eat it is a good memory

there is an amish market near us that makes amazing things called haugh wings. they are a cut of pork that is bbqed and looks like a larger chicken leg. they are so amazingly good and fall off the bone.

The first time we butchered pigs.

I would have to say that my fondest memory of pork would be,
years ago my sister-in-law at that time they live they on a farm.
They had a pig roast which I had never been to before that time.
I had a super good time and the way that the pig was roasted made the meat very tender and very good, even tho I thought it was weird keeping the head on. Thank you

My fondest memory is of my mothers pork roast dinners she would make. She was from Denmark and this is a very popular dinner for the Danes.

My dad's red stewed pork shoulder....and gramma's sweet and sour ribs...::drool::

receiving a bacon of the month club membership - christmas 2004.

pork betty at bozu in williamsburg. melt in your mouth pork belly. can't beat it.

Singing bacon songs with my mom!

Sweet

My fondest memory was when I was four years old and went to Germany to visit our relatives when they came one morning grabbing pigs from the front and back and throwing them on a truck to go to the butcher and having all kinds of meats and wursts from it for dinner.

It's a tie -- between (1) the day I realized that all of the flavor in a pork chop is right next to the bone (I know, I know, DUH), because that changed my life, and (2) eating suckling pig in Spain, with that super crisp thin skin and melt-in-your mouth soft, fatty baby piggie meat inside.

Bacon in an ancient (okay, just really old) cast iron skillet...with eggs right after, fried up in the bacon fat so that the get a crisp ring around the outside.

My favorite pork memory is nice crisp bacon on a winter morning. I just love it . Thanks!
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