Salted pork leg more than 100 years still edible

From what was left out in the warehouse, the salted pig's leg became a "pet", which was bought by the owner of insurance 1,000 USD and paid 5,000 USD to hire a babysitter.

In 1931 , PD Gwaltney Jr. walked into a hotel in Washington DC with a suitcase in hand and asked the hotel if it could be stored in a warehouse. The receptionist looked down and asked if the suitcase contained something so important. Mr. Gwaltney replied, "Oh, it's just my pet salted pork leg."

Gwaltney was not joking, he was an expert, owning one of Virginia's most famous smoked pork thigh companies. He always brings his 30-year-old pig's thigh to display at fairs, food shows, or even on navy ships.

As a pet, Mr. Gwaltney's pig's lap also has its own necklace.(Photo: Isle of Wight County Museum).

Gwaltney is really serious with his " pet" when it comes to the hotel security guards to look after it. An insurance company valued the salted pork leg at $ 5,000-77,000, according to today's currency exchange rates.

"Whenever a fair is held, Gwaltney buys a special chain and attaches it to the floor, so no one can steal the smoked thigh , " said Tracey L. Neikirk, curator of the County Museum. Isle of Wight in Smithfield (Virginia), said.

It is part of an ingenious marketing plan to help the town of Smithfield, home of Gwaltney, become the bacon capital of the world. So much so that Queen Victoria ordered six Smithfield salted thighs in just one week in the 19th century. When the fraudsters started selling poor-quality meat, Virginia officials created strict rules. For Smithfield salted pork leg : Pigs must have a diet especially peanuts, and bacon is only processed in state territory.

Gwaltney's career began in 1891, when he and his father sold peanuts and helped the family expand the company's operations with the salt drumsticks chain. Gwaltney learned from his father about marketing lessons. In 1890, Father Gwaltney dug a peanut from a local field, engraved it on the number 1890 and took it as a model to introduce anyone who was curious about the quality of his farm produce. Years later, Father Gwaltney realized that the number written on peanuts created its own value.

Gwaltney's oldest peanut in the world has also become a museum artifact.(Photo: Isle of Wight County Museum).

In 1902, Gwaltney decided to carry out a similar campaign for himself when he pulled from a warehouse an unknowingly forgotten ham. Upon discovering this, he sniffed at the lucrative business opportunity and decided to keep it to see how long it could be preserved.

In August 1921, the Gwaltney peanuts burned, tons of peanuts and a broth bacon also caught fire. According to the Isle of Wight County Museum, the smell of burnt peanuts and grease lingers in the air for weeks at a time. Gwaltney's pet pig leg is lucky to be safe.

The production line is permanently irreversible, Gwaltney frantically promotes the factory's bacon products - and uses his "pet" . First, he bought $ 1,000 insurance for it, then spent $ 5,000 for protection.

In 1932, the pig's thigh appeared in Robert Ripley's book Believe It or Not , claiming it was "still soft and still edible after 30 years."

Mr. Gwaltney's favorite pig's thighs today.(Photo: Isle of Wight County Museum).

Today, the 117-year-old pig's thigh is burnt reddish brown, each flesh is streaked with yellow and white, and the outside is covered with a hard dry skin with deep wrinkles. It sits in a glass case of the Isle of Wight County Museum, along with two other smoked pork thighs - one of which is the world's largest salted pork leg weighing 29.4 kg with a thick layer of peanut-soaked fat.

According to Tracey L. Neikirk, the over-100-year-old pig's leg has a smell of smoke and wood, although it is still edible but cannot taste as good as before."It is more like a piece of dried pork. It will not have the sweetness of meat , " Neikirk said.

The smoking process - salted meat and dried blood vessels - helps the pig's thighs be preserved longer and have a stronger taste. But most smoked pork thighs reach maturity after a year or two."For such a long time, not knowing how the meat was smoked, I'm not sure it is safe to eat," a spokesman for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said.