Today, December 18th, is National Roast Suckling Pig Day.

Roast suckling pig may seem like an old fashioned dish, and that's because it is. There are recipes for suckling pig dating back to Roman times - there are likely even older ones, just no extant recipes.

The suckling pig itself some may find offensive as a concept. It's a piglet that has been raised on its mother's milk and then slaughtered between two and six weeks old.

The pig will then be roasted whole, so will require a fair amount of oven space to cook. It can be found in cuisines across the world.

Image: By Till Krech (www.flickr.com/photos/extranoise/226368390/) [CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons