Edit: I think we have to see a difference between domesticated pigs, bred and raised for purpose, and their cured, seasoned, fat... and some fat hacked off a wild ibex. If you’ve ever had wild game you’ll know what I mean about gamey flavors. I can only imagine that some ice age ibex would be an acquired taste at best. Pig fat is also some of the most delicious, mild fat around, which is why it’s pigs used in that article.
Absolutely nothing like the sweet tasty pig you get from the store.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning#Observations
> I had now been several days without tasting any thing besides meat: I did not at all dislike this new regimen; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me with hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even with the hope of life before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches nothing but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large proportion of fat, which is of a less animalized nature; and they particularly dislike dry meat, such as that of the agouti. Dr. Richardson, also, has remarked, “that when people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat becomes so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea:” this appears to me a curious physiological fact.
Aaah, here we go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach#Stomach_as_nutrition_s...
>The biggest mistake non-Italian speakers make with this absolutely delicious regional delicacy is that they translate it to “lard”, which, it must be strongly pointed out, it is not. What we call “lard” in English is known as strutto in Italian, which is used commonly for conserving, pastry making or frying. Lardo, however, is cured pig’s back fat, a unique type of salumi.
So, no, what is called 'lard' is not gourmet in Italian cuisine. That's a wholly separate thing from 'lardo', the delicacy you're referring to.
In other words a type of fat is considered a delicacy. That does not mean all fat is a delicacy, but it does mean what the guy ate could have been fairly tasty.
Also, taste has a lot to do with how hungry you are. My father had fairly refined tastes and grew up in France, but said the best meal he ever ate was an can of beans when he was really hungry in the army.
EX: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11315994/Ten-things-n...
A normal man burns about 2,500 calories in a day. We burn between 7,000 to 9,000. That means supplementing your dehydrated food with slabs of butter. In the first few days of the expedition, it tastes revolting, but then your body just craves the fat content and you eat the butter like blocks of cheese.