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!