As distasteful as some might view the title, that's what it was
"back in the day". Maybe some prefer "hog butchering"?
Anyhow, when the weather got cooler (there was no home
refrigeration), it was time to butcher hogs for the food supply
for the coming year. This was a multi-step job involving the whole
family...and likely neighbors who got a little fresh meat out of
the deal.
First, one had to slaughter the animal, drain the blood and remove
the body hair.
Daddy (J. C. ("JC", "Buck") Mixson, 1917) was the head honcho here.
The pig would be killed and suspended and the throat slit so that
the blood would drain out.
Then, he would take a 55 gallon drum and place it in the ground at an
angle. While digging the hole and doing this, the women folk would
be bringing a pot of water to a boil. I'm talking about a huge cast
iron pot set over a raging fire. I don't know how much it held,
but it was a considerable amount of water.
(That was the same old black iron pot used to boil clothes on wash
day, to cook down wild game for dog food, etc..) BTW, I still have
our old home made paddle used to stir whatever was being cooked
or boiled. I use it now to stir my pot of brunswick stew which I've
made for pig pickins' for years. (See a recipe at:
Brunswick Stew (Small batch) .)
When the water was boiling and the pig drained, the boiling water
would be placed in the drum in the ground. The pig would then be
placed into the drum and rotated, then removed, turned around,
reinserted and rotated again. The idea was to completely soak the
body in the scalding water. Much as one uses hot water to shave
today, this softened the hide/hair to allow hair removal. Hair
removal was accomplished by scraping the body with a large knife.
Once the hair was removed, the pig was then hung up on a limb. I
think head down; I'm not sure.
Once hung the serious butchering could begin. The body was slit
from stem to stern opening the cavity so that all the insides
could be removed.
The women folk took all the internals into the kitchen to begin
preparing those meats for consumption. This included such delights
as "Onnie's Hog Liver Pudding" (see Onnie's Hog Liver Pudding )
which used the head, liver, lungs, heart, sweetbreads, kidneys, etc..
Today, I guess that sounds a bit gross; I looked forward to tasting
the first cookings.
Also, the intestines were prepared for making sausage. They were
washed well, turned inside out and scraped clean...ready to be
stuffed with ground sausage meat. The large intestine was used to
encase the liver pudding described above. Another use for the
intestines was for chitlins' (chitterlings). They were battered
and fried. They were downright good but smelled a bit when cooking.
To borrow an expression from a play I starred in in high school
( The Monkey's Uncle ), they were "distinctly odoriferous"!
While this preparation was being done, the men folk would be
cutting up the pig into various sections...hams, shoulders, sides,
ribs, chops, etc.. Naturally all "scrap meat" was saved to grind
into sausage.
I always looked forward to the first sausage, too. Once the "scrap"
meats were taken into the kitchen, they were cut into small chunks,
seasoning added and then ground using an old hand operated grinder
clamped to the kitchen table. Once the meat was ground, the grinder
was reconfigured with a metal snout over which the intestine (casing)
was placed. The meat then came out of the grinder and stuffed the
casing. At appropriate lengths, the stuffed casing was given a few
twists to create a string of several stuffed sausages. (I guess
the stuffing might have been done as part of the grinding process...
i.e., the metal snout attached and the casings filled as the meat
exited the grinder. I'm thinking it might have been double ground,
so the snout would be used on the second grinding. I'm not sure
about this.)
Morris tells of hog killing as
"...
Hog killing was always after the first week of real cold weather
so that the blow flies would be gone, the meat would keep, and
you could ask friends or whoever could, to help. In return for
their help you gave them fresh meat such as spare ribs and back
bone and liver. You gave away these because you had no place to
keep them .
The hams ,shoulders and sides (bacon) went to Williston cold storage
for a few weeks, and then brought home dipped in borax solution to
help keep the bugs off. After this you used bear grass to hang meat
in the smoke house. ..."
Morris also wrote:
"... Dad always shot the hogs with a 22 rifle single shot then a
soon as he could he would stick them in the while on the ground.
This let them bleed and your meat would not be as bloodie. The hair
came off in the hot water if it was wright tempature other wise they
shaved it off. ... Hogs were measured as to how much lard you made.
Lard cans were 5 gal with a flat top straight sides. At night you
cooked the lard out in the big wash pot .All fat was saved for lard.
This was the time you fried the sausage around the fire to see if
it was seasoned right. We would (kill) from 8 to 10 hogs. I can also
remember frying ribs and sausage then packing it in the lard. It
would keep for awhile . It seems like we made about 5 cans of lard.
All hogs were fatten on peanuts. You just turned hogs lose in the
peanut field
..."
I don't have a clear memory of using Williston cold storage; we
must have as we had no refrigeration. No electricity; no refrigerator;
nothing.
We did have a smoke house out back. I definitely remember the
wonderful smell of the smoked meat when one went in to retrieve
the coming meal.
The smoke house and treatment kept the meat edible for months. Not
to worry if a little mold collected. Just scrape it off and enjoy!
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