Of course, I generalize. I’m sure there’s a deli out there somewhere that has roast pork. But in this area, if you go to the deli counter at any local supermarket, you’ll find roast turkey, roast chicken, roast beef, and numerous varieties of ham, but no roast pork. Indeed, looking at the Boar’s Head product list confirms that the most prominent deli meat producer doesn’t even make it. Closest thing they have is porketta.
I love a good Cuban sandwich, but I can only make them when I have roast pork leftovers because it seems the only way to get roast pork is to make your own.
What’s the deal? Not enough demand? Too difficult to make a good product with a decent shelf life? Why no roast pork in the deli?
It seems that it’s a meat that never got adapted into lunchmeat status. I wonder if the texture of roast pork doesn’t lend itself to being sliced thinly?
How much effect do we think the Jewish delis of the the world have had on delis in general? Do the delis you’ve looked in have a reasonable selection of other pork products? I’m assuming you’re not looking for roast pork in a kosher deli…
We have roast pork here. It’s not super common, but I’m pretty sure at least once grocery store carries it regularly. It’s not the pressed, formed stuff, either; it looks like an actually pork roast they cut up.
The pork I see in the deli department of grocery stores is pretty much confined to prepared ribs or a pork loin that’s been roasted and cut into half-inch slices. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pork lunchmeat other than ham.
I’ll give it a try. I’ve never noticed that at the counter around here, but I’ve never explicitly asked for it either. Maybe it’s there, but just not advertised on the pricing list, or maybe I never noticed it. Now I can start looking and asking for it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Part of the reason I started this thread was that I was hoping someone would tell me, “Of course they have roast pork. It’s just called blah-de-blah. Get that; it’s just like homemade roast pork.”
“Uncured” ham is the same thing as cured ham. If you look closely at the package, it says it contains no added nitrates except for that from celery juice (or celery powder). Celery has sodium nitrate in it, and they use this as a “natural” curing agent. In other words, they’re trying to slip one past you. “Uncured” ham looks, tastes and smells like cured ham because that’s what it is.
Boar’s Head porketta is close to what you’re looking for. Columbus also makes a roasted pork loin.
I think it’s just that American tend to be very conservative in their meat choices. We tend to only want a very short list of meat items and avoid anything that isn’t on the list.
Yes. We pretty eat only four meats: chicken, beef, pork, and turkey. The average American eats about 110 pounds of meat in a year and less than eight ounces of it is lamb (and that’s an average - the reality is most Americans don’t eat any lamb). To put it in perspective, the average American annual consumption of lamb is lower than the average Israeli annual consumption of pork.
