The Slaughter Of The Pig

On 19 June 2009, the regional government's health ministry issued a decree related to the sanitary control of pigs destined to be consumed privately. It was, said some, the death of what Antoni Maria Alcover, the famed philologist of Manacor, had defined in the dictionary of Catalan dialects as "the act of killing, above all ... of most animals". This act, defined in the dictionary as being a feminine noun, was "matança". Objectors to the decree took exception to rules being laid down for a long-established tradition: the wintertime slaughter of the fattened pig.

If you care to look at Mallorcan town hall websites, you will find that there are rules for this slaughter. In 2009 not all town halls were complying because, so they said, they hadn't been informed of the decree. One town hall which was complying was Sineu's. Five years later, and as with all well and truly informed town halls in Mallorca, it instructs the local citizenry that a slaughtered pig has to be given a bill of health by a vet. The animal has to have a mandatory trichinoscopic examination to check there is no trichinella parasite, the so-called pork worm. Old habits were dying hard in 2009. They didn't have such examinations in our day; that was the kind of reaction. And maybe they didn't have trichinosis disease which, at its most extreme, is fatal; death can occur within ten days of eating infected meat.

The matança (plural matances) is traditionally a gathering of family and others to perform the slaughter of a pig which has been fattened since early spring and to then prepare the pig in all manner of ways. It is a tradition that goes back over the centuries. The pig's products could sustain a family for months, and these products were to include the sobrassada. It benefited from the preservative nature of the "paprika tap de cortí" and was to become, along with other types of charcuterie, a mainstay of traditional Mallorcan cuisine.

The matança is not nowadays widely practised. Or at least the reported number of matances which this year have been subject to veterinary examination would suggest this to be the case; just over 500 inspections have been carried out. Nevertheless, and as with so many other Mallorcan traditions, there is a custom to be honoured and to be perpetuated. Which is where the town of Sineu comes into the equation. Today is the Fira de Ses Matances de Sineu, and central to the fair is a demonstration of what to do with the pig once it has been slaughtered (in an abattoir). Not a single part of the pig goes to waste - every piece of meat, the blood, the offal, the organs, the trotters, the fat are processed. It might all sound a bit gruesome, but then this is how it once was. There was no place for squeamishness when sustenance was needed, and it didn't matter that the pig had become more or less a part of the family. It might be noted that once upon a time pigs were essentially domestic animals rather than animals for farming. The production of meat was concentrated more on lamb and goat before an explosion in the cultivation of fig trees in the nineteenth century gave rise to far greater levels of pig farming; the fig is very fattening.

Tradition decrees that the slaughter of the pig doesn't occur until 11 November (Saint Martin's Day) and that it is more likely to occur nearer to Christmas time and so provide dishes for the festive period. Though the pig is the animal most commonly associated with the matança, it doesn't have exclusive rights on the slaughter; turkeys, for example, are also fattened and go towards the making of those festive meals.

The matances fair in Sineu is a recent innovation. It started in 2003 as a theme to be appended to the Fair of Saint Thomas, he who was the doubting Thomas of biblical fame. His day, as in the anniversary of his death, isn't in fact until next Sunday. But what's a week when there's a fair to be held? The second Sunday of December is Thomas's day in Sineu, and as part of the fair today there will also be a contest for the largest pig. Mallorcan fairs love a how-big-is-something competition, and last year the winning pig (the regular pink variety) weighed in at 315 kilos. There is a separate contest for the largest black pig as well.

So, in Sineu today it is all about the pig. If you prefer not to watch the demonstration put on by the pork butchers, there are plenty of gastronomic treats to sample; mostly all of them of course of pig origin and with the sobrassada taking a starring role. On balance perhaps, an event that vegetarians might prefer to give a miss, but an event which, nonetheless, is a celebration of how Mallorca once was.