Pork for Veal

Professional chefs participate in a blind taste test of ingredients on several cooking competition shows, such as Top Chef, where they are figuratively blindfolded and challenged to identify items by taste. Even for those with impeccable palates, it can be much tougher than you'd think to identify many ostensibly straightforward dishes. This contributes to the ease with which you can, for example, substitute veal for pig in restaurants.

Pork and veal can be extremely similar when prepared and served under the proper conditions. However, one significant distinction that every restaurant owner should be aware of is that some people abstain from eating pork for very particular reasons, such as religious or health concerns. Technically speaking, Jews or Muslims who unintentionally consume pork are not regarded to have violated their faith, yet it nevertheless feels betraying because it is.

Several Florida eateries were discovered switching pork for veal without alerting customers. In fact, four out of ten establishments that the local reporters looked into were engaging in it. The majority of the establishments insisted that if it did occur, it was an error. Veal often costs three times as much as pig, thus the restaurant stands to gain financially from the scheme.