Butchering in Hungary

The butchering season has started again. Reuters has a nice photo (above) from a butchering competition in Kiskunfélegyháza. Their caption is:

Competitors clean a pig during a butchering competition in Kiskunfelegyhaza, 115 km (71.5 miles) south of Budapest, December 13, 2008. Pork features prominently in traditional Hungarian cuisine and the slaughter of pigs is a thriving cottage industry in the countryside during winter.

Here's another photo from the same competition, showing another very fat Mangalitsa:

The hog pictured at the top has a long snout typical of a Mangalitsa.

In general, animals closely related to wild boar have long noses. Long-nosed hogs do better when turned out in the wild and forced to root for food. From generation to generation, feral hogs develop longer and longer noses. Brisbin showed that in his book.

In comparson, the Chinese breeds like the Meishan (who are wonderfully docile, lazy, precocious and profligate) tend to have short noses:

The best book I've seen on pig breeds and their history is this one. There's amazing variation across the world.