As the winter holidays approach and ham consumption spikes, this much is worth noting: In the land of the cowboy, the country where beef is held up as the meat that defines the American character, the pig in all its succulent, edible incarnations seems to be everywhere.

“As an interest in food, its origins and its preparation spreads around America, it makes sense that the American palate is widening past just burgers and steaks,” says Sasha Wizansky, the co-editor of Meatpaper, a magazine about meat culture in America.

“Practically every scrap of a pig can be transformed into something tasty,” she says, “and you can find a treasure trove of pork-centric dishes and cured products from around the world.”

It's not as if the pig suddenly arrived on the American scene. From the earliest settlements in Virginia, it's one of the oldest domesticated creatures to make its way down American gullets. But somewhere along the line, pork was cast as an also-ran, below burgers and chicken in the culinary taxonomy.

Sure, ham and ribs and Southern barbecue were continuous staples for the American stomach. But for years, many Americans rarely ventured beyond the Shake 'N' Bake pork chop and its workaday suburban brethren. Even pork's longtime slogan, “The Other White Meat,” suggested a status akin to how Avis approaches Hertz.

Is that changing? Ask Michael LaScola, chef and owner of American Seasons, a Nantucket, Mass., restaurant where you'll find every part of the pig harvested into unusual recipes. Crispy pig ears, served up like French fries with a side of smoky ketchup? Check. Pig's head bacon served with eggs sunny side up? Check. Pork-belly fritters with foie gras? Check.

“Pork is definitely my favorite thing to play with and to cook with,” says LaScola, who recently co-hosted an event called Hogtoberfest.

“You can go sweet and you can go savory. And either way it works,” he says. “It has a lot of flavor, but it's not gamey like lamb would be. Or it doesn't have that super-blood-iron kind of thing like some beef.”

And, as meats go, most cuts of pork remain quite affordable — no small matter when you're trying to feed a family during a recession that's pushing into its second year.

Then, of course, there's bacon.

From Wendy's Baconator sandwich to bacon-scented air fresheners and even bacon-flavored mints, the cured and smoked Porkbellicus Americanus has become something of a fetish object. It has reached the point where the words “chocolate-covered bacon” have become, for many, something appetizing.

You can buy “Baconnaise,” a condiment that has earned the good-natured scorn of Jon Stewart, and its companion product, Bacon Salt, which has been shipped to bacon-craving American troops serving in pork-free regions.

You can even join the “Bacon of the Month Club,” perhaps the only subscription-based pork products service in the land. Or perhaps not.

Omaha Steaks, the mail-order company that does a brisk business in premium beef, has offered pork for many decades — including pork chops wrapped in bacon — and is introducing thick-cut microwave bacon.

Don Butler and the National Pork Producers Council point out that pork producers have lost an average of $23 on each hog marketed during the past two years.

But in a land where Bacon Salt and Baconnaise are sustainable consumer products, where there are more than 400 locations of a store called HoneyBaked Ham, surely the long-term prognosis for pork prosperity can't be entirely bleak.