A lemon decorated to look like a pig. May bring good luck
A lemon pig with foil tail and coin in mouth
A lemon pig is a lemon that has been decorated to take on the appearance of a pig. Construction normally includes matchstick legs, clove or peppercorn eyes and a foil tail. Early lemon pigs appear to have been made as amusements, but from the 1970s onwards they have become associated with good luck and the New Year.
Origin
Image of a completed lemon pig in seated position, from The Enterprise newspaper, Wellington Ohio, 1898
The first mention of a lemon pig appears to be as a child's amusement in a book by Frank Bellows in 1865, although no construction details are given.[1]Atlas Obscura found a lemon pig in a newspaper story in 1882.[2] The 1895 book How to behave and how to amuse. A handy manual of etiquette and parlor games describes the creation of a pig from a lemon among a list of other 'tricks' that may be performed at the dinnertable, alongside such other tricks as a tortoise made from a muscatel raisin. The purpose appears to be merely to amuse.[3] The same year a novel featured a character promising to make a lemon pig if a child behaves well.[4] In 1902, Good Housekeeping magazine described the creation of lemon pigs as a novel way of serving a fruit cocktail or iced juice.[2]
More recently the creation of lemon pigs has become associated with New Year, and with good luck.[5] These associations may have begun after their inclusion in the book 401 Party and Holiday Ideasfrom Alcoa. The ideas and recipes featured the use of Alcoa aluminium foil, and in this instance the pig had a tail made from twisted foil, and a coin inserted in its mouth. Retro food author Anna Pallai wrote about lemon pigs in a tweet from her account 70s Dinner Party in 2017, and this may have caused a modern resurgence in their popularity.[6] The suggestion is that the pig is made at New Year, and absorbs bad luck during the year. It is then destroyed at the end of the year.
Construction of a lemon pig requires slicing to create ears and a mouth, and the insertion of four matchsticks for legs. Eyes may be made from cloves, peppercorns, or grapeseeds. A tail of twisted, curled foil or parsley may be added, although the pig sent to President Hayes had a tail made of twine.[8] A coin may be inserted in the mouth.[1][9]
^MacNair Wright, Julia (1895). A new Samaritan. The story of an heiress. New York: American Tract Society. You'll drink some lemonade, wont you, Jenny ? And, if you take a good sleep, to-morrow I will make you a funny pig out of a lemon.
