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A chicken and pig situation
Last week we carried the story of Marks & Spencer and its improved recipe traditional British gammon, unchanged since 1900. Surely a contradiction?
‘Maybe Marks & Spencer improved the recipe of Brian Barley’s Wafer Thin Sliced Traditional British Gammon in 1900 and have stuck with that same recipe ever since,’ points out Dave Jakeman.
The truth may be even stranger. Wally Dug writes to tell us that he thinks it may be the fault of an EU directive. ‘In the UK, gammon comes from pigs. Pigs are quite common, but expensive to farm. In Europe, some countries are bereft of pigs and others can’t afford to farm them, preferring cheaper options such as cows and chickens. To give everyone a level playing field, the EU allows other animals to be classed as “pigs”, so Brian’s “improved recipe traditional British gammon” could quite possibly have originated as a chicken.’
Surely this is a meaty urban myth? We don’t believe for a second that any retailer would sell you chickengammon. Unless, of course, you know different.
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