h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not sure what nosebagbadger means either... but I have to say I would avoid british pork from supermarkets, as it is both tasteless and dry. I suspect this is the intensively reared stuff.

I buy pork across the counter from my local Spar in Lanzarote, and can confirm it is a far superior product. I can also, occasionally, get the pork from the pigs that are fed on acorns and whose meat goes onto making the cured hams (serrano). The black iberican pigs. Now that is something else!

Rules concerning British pork are generally stringent, I can't speak for Danish pork flavour but their treatment of animal rules are rather poor (especially for a Scandinavian country)

Quite often, pork is served as ham. This makes it even harder to tell how good the quality is.

I'm afraid you're right, Nosebagbadger. Since we have joined the EU Danish farmers and lorry drivers and slaughterhouses and the like only have EU rules to live up to

We are also very concerned about the amounts of penicillin we are feeding to our pigs

You *can* however still buy ecological free range pigs in Denmark. I'm not sure how many of them are exported to the UK, Japan and Germany though. These countries are our biggest markets, I believe

Some places have wild pigs. Atlanta is said to be one such place. Maybe some of the Hawaiian islands as well. Wild boars are the ultimate free-range pigs!

aye, and I think they are both healthier and tastier

The black iberican pigs mentioned by Lanzababy are incredible - but unfortunately so are their price here

even here it´s very expensive. The only way to get the stuff at good price is to go to the areas where it is processed. Or get them on-line, I guess.

I have to say that one kind of ham/jamón is the serrano and another the Ibérico. Within the serrano there is a great variety in quality and you can get a good one without paying much

As it happens with wines there are brands or denominatios. Jamones de Trevélez ( Trevélez is a village in Las Alpujarras, near Sierra Nevada, where the ham is cured naturally with the cold of the mountain) the same technique is applied to Jamones of Guijuelo, others of Sierra Aracena... etc.
However, many are cured artificially in cold chambers, but the flavours and texture is ok if the jamón has been given all the time it needs to get cured and has been salted and treated correctly.