As you enjoy those tender, juicy strands of pulled pork in a Super Bowl party sandwich, understand one thing: Southerners may claim pulled pork, but the increasingly popular meat is a cuisine Iowa can also call its own.
After all, one-third of the nation’s 105 million hogs are either born or fed in Iowa in a typical year. Pulled pork, which comes from the top of the pig’s shoulder (or “butt” in the confusing vernacular of pig physiology), is an important contributor to the roughly $6 billion to $8 billion in cash brought in to Iowa hog producers in 2011.
Pork interest groups credit the demand for pulled pork for a 7 percent increase in restaurant sales of pork in 2011, going against the grain of otherwise flat sales.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Des Moines Register