Casey Recommends: A Good Luck Lemon Pig for the New Year

”Have you made your good luck Lemon Pig yet?” That’s what my friend Brook asked yesterday on Instagram. And no, I hadn’t, because I’d never heard of a good luck Lemon Pig! But I had to make one right away.

The lemon pig has a twisted (ha ha) history as a New Year’s good luck charm, with various sources reporting its origins in the late 19th century as something people made for a bit of cheap fun.

According to Gastro Obscura, Alcoa (the Pittsburgh-based aluminum company) revived the trend in the 1970s and added the lucky New Year aspect in a cookbook targeted to party hostesses — because what makes a gathering more fun than adding aluminum foil?

And then social media picked up on this retro trend a few years ago, and now I’m part of the revival, and I’m OK with that too.

The lemon pig might be a recent phenomenon, but pigs do have a storied connection with the New Year, symbolizing prosperity and forward movement. However, they’re usually eaten to bring all of this to the recipient instead of sitting on your desk as a cute citrus symbol. You can read more about this in my famous pork and sauerkraut post on Good Food Stories.

So a lemon pig is no weirder or more unbelievable of a way to bring good luck into your life than eating a plate of kielbasa and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. And now I’m going to do both henceforth.

(I forgot to eat my lucky ‘bassi and kraut last year for New Year’s, and 2023 was a frickin’ doozy. So I made sure to eat four servings this year as insurance. Also because Dan hates it, so I ate it all.)