A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig By Charles Lamb

A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig By Charles Lamb

Dissertation - a long essay on a particular subject

Lamb begins the essay with a humorous anecdote which his friend Thomas Manning seems to have shared with him. The anecdote reveals how the practice of roasting pigs began in primitive times with an accidental event in a Chinese village. After providing an extremely humorous account of the event, Lamb proceeds to describe with intense feeling his unusual passion for a* roasted pig and says that though he would like to share all good things of life with his friends, he would never like to part with a roast pig even out of utmost compulsions of generosity,

The manuscript goes on to say, that the art of roasting, or rather broiling (which I take to be the elder brother) was accidentally discovered in the manner following. The swine-herd, Ho-ti, having gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the care of his eldest son Bo-bo, a great lubberly boy, who being fond of playing with fire, as younkers of his age commonly are, let some sparks escape into a bundle of straw, which kindling quickly, spread the conflagration over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced to ashes.

Together with the cottage (a sorry antediluvian make-shift of a building, you may think it), what was of much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number, perished. China pigs have been esteemed a luxury all over the east from the remotest periods that we read of. Bo-bo was in the utmost consternation, as you may think, not so much for the sake of !

the tenement, which his father and he could easily build up again with i a few dry branches, and the labour of an hour or -two, at any time, as for the loss of the pigs. While he was thinking what he should say to his father, and wringing hi< hands over the smoking remnants of one of those untimely sufferers, an odour assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before experienced. What could it proceed from ? - - not from the burnt cottage -- he had smelt that smell before -- indeed 1 this was by no means the first accident of the kind which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young fire-brand.

Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think. He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it. He burnt his fingers, and to cool them he applied them in his booby fashion to his mouth. Some of the crumbs of the scorched skin had come away with his fingers, and for the first time in his life (in the world's life indeed, for before him no man had known it) he tasted -- crackling!

Again he felt and fumbled at the pig. It did not bum him so much now, still he licked his fingers from a sort of habit. The truth at length broke into his slow understanding, that it . was the pig that smelt so, and the pig that tasted so delicious; and, surrendering himself up to the new-born pleasure, he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming it down his throat in his beastly fashion, when his sire entered amid the smoking rafters, armed with retributory cudgel, and finding how affairs stood, began to rain blows upon the young rogue's shoulders, as thick as hail-stones, which Bo-bo heeded not any more than if they had been flies. The tickling pleasure, which he experienced in his lower regions, had rendered him quite callous to any inconveniences he might feel in those remote quarters. His father might lay on but he could not beat him from his pig, till he had fairly made an end of it, when, becoming a little more sensible of his -hation, something like the following dialogue ensued.

"You graceless whelp, what have you got there devouring? Is it not enough that you have burnt me down three houses with your dog's tricks, and be hanged to you, but you must be eating fire, and I know not what -- what have you got there, I say ?"

"0 father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats."

The ears of Ho-ti tingled with horror. He cursed his son, and he cursed himself that ever he should beget a son that should eat burnt pig.

Bo-bo, whose scent was wonderfully sharpened since morning, soon raked out another pig, and fairly rending it asunder, thrust the lesser half by main force into the fists of Ho-ti, still shouting out

"Eat, eat, eat the burnt pig, father, only taste -- 0 Lord," -- with such-like barbarous ejaculations, cramming all the while as if he would choke.

Ho-ti trembled every joint while he grasped the abominable thing, wavering whether he should not put his son to death for an unnatural young monster,. when the crackling scorching his fingers, as it had done his son's, and applying the same remedy to them, he in his turn tasted some of its flavour, which, make what sour mouths he would for a pretence, proved not altogether displeasing to him. In conclusion (for the manuscript here is a little tedious) both father and son fairly sat down to the mess, and never left off till they had dispatched all that remained of the litter

Lamb's story explains how one day a mischievous young child in a Chinese village accidentally set fire to a house that had a fine litter of pigs inside. After the fire, the boy felt an appetizing flavor coming from the burnt pigs. On tasting the crackling he found it delicious. His father returned at that very time and was shocked to see his son eating the flesh of burnt pigs. But on being urged by his son, the father too tasted the burnt flesh and discovered to his utter surprise its superior taste. For a while the father and the son kept the whole incident a closely guarded secret. But, since they allowed their cottage to be burnt quite frequently, the secret became known to the villagers who too were attracted by the aroma of succulent roast pork. Nobody ha smelt anything like that before because, in that particular village, it had never been a custom to cook food. Even the jury and the judge from the taste of the burnt pigs irresistible. And so, from that time, the art ( roasting was discovered. However, there was a problem. From then on . every time the villagers wanted roast pork for dinner, they went and burned their houses down!