Probably the oldest illustration depicting pig slaughtering in 1420 Europe. A man dressed in blue cuts the throat of a hog with a knife, his helper dressed in green collects the blood and the lady holding the candle prepares to start the fire in a smokehouse in the back. In practice they will save the best meats for eating, hams will be cured in salt for two weeks and the rest will go for different types of sausages. Collected blood will be used to make blood sausages, heads and brains for headcheeses. A pig is the unique animal where nothing is waisted.

Pork became popular for many reasons. Pigs:

• were the second animal to be tamed by humans
• gained weight rapidly
• ate anything
• lived in cities and villages and ate garbage from the streets (they were Rome's first sanitation system)
• fled to the forests during invasions where they flourished

Pigs are most importantly cheap to raise. They tasted great and no part of the animal was wasted. In the past, Europeans were sentimental towards cows since they produced milk and often worked on farms along with the horses. Even when a cow was killed in an accident, it was usually buried. There was a different attitude towards pigs; they were just meat to be consumed.