Berkshire
Exterior
Berkshire piglets are black with white legs and a white spot on the nose. It is a hefty pig - a sow weighs an average of three hundred, a boar four hundred pounds - with erect, slightly forward bending ears, a straight belly and a straight back.
The Berkshire breed is one of the oldest pig breeds in England and originated in the county of Berkshire. The piglets were discovered here over three hundred years ago by English statesman Oliver Cromwell who wrote about the good quality of the piglets' meat. He used the piglets to feed his army. Word soon spread that the ham and bacon from this pig were second to none. The English royal family also enjoyed the meat. For years Windsor Castle was the domain of a complete rot.
The breed is still bred, but has been crossed with piglets from Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In fact, the breed is now more widely kept in the United States than in England.
History
Meat
Increasing interest in traditional pork production has brought the Berkshire pig back into the spotlight. It is still among the rare breeds, but the number of Berkshires is growing again. Thanks to a fine marbling, the meat is beautifully full and pure flavored, juicy and tender, making it very popular with top chefs. The culinary interest stimulates demand and thus breeding. The British Pig Association counted over four hundred sows and 120 purebred boars in 2014.
The meat of the Berkshire pig stands out for its dark color and specific marbling that betrays its unique succulence and tenderness at first sight. This is pork at its best. Another distinctive feature of the meat is its special sweet taste. The meat owes its special characteristics to a high pH value, a finer and shorter muscle fiber structure and the high fat content. The high final pH ensures good moisture retention, so that the meat hardly shrinks at all during frying and no to little juices are released during cutting. Even when refrigerated for several days, the meat loses virtually no moisture.