It is from the Irish that the word ‘griskin’ comes, meaning the best part of the loin. Some idea of the usefulness of the pig is given in this extract from The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–50, of Baltiboys House,Blessington. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
November 20th, 1842
‘A present from old Peggy, the back griskins of her pig … it will be the most delicious bacon ever cured, but all the comfort that so small a weight of consumable material will give, the skin for a sieve, the lard for kitchen and the bones for soup, the blood for puddings, and the inmeats, a week’s dinners, it will be a very merry Christmas …’