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You may ask, what has killing hogs and making lard got to do with genealogy? Well, I'm glad you ask. Genealogy is about the past and my past and my genealogy for many generations was in the rural areas of the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia to name a few. Making do with what you had at hand was not by choice but a necessity. With the relatively small farms and the profusion of trees, grass land was not plentiful enough in most cases to raise herds of cattle, except for milking and oxen for working. Hogs on the other hand could live quite well in the woods and thickets. These hogs along with a few chickens and hunting wild game provided the protein and fats needed for survival. I would venture to say that every man, woman and child in the genealogy section of my family had some knowledge of how to set a hen, skin a rabbit, hitch a mule, and butcher a hog. It was a way of life. I grew up in Lawrence County, Arkansas and I have traced several lines and generations of my family. Most lived in Lawrence, Sharp, Izard and Independence Counties in Arkansas. They settled there in the 1840s and 50s and continued a way of life their forefathers had live . In most places the law of the land favored open range, and families had a brand or ear mark for their animals that was known to everyone . You let your hogs free range and checked on them occasionally to keep up with their condition and location. If my memory serves me correctly, hogs fattened on acorns tended to have a bitter tasting meat and did not produce bright white lard . For this reason most hogs to be slaughtered were rounded up and fattened on corn for a month or longer. We did much the same except our hogs only free ranged our own farm. A day or two before the slaughter the hogs were taken of all their food and just given water. The first thing I would point out is the danger of slaughtering and preparing your own meat, of any kind. The need for clean working areas and tools along with the difficulty of keeping proper temperature makes it almost impossible to do this in a manner that is without risk. My advise is just don't do it, leave it to the professionals. If your response is that it has been done for centuries then just remember the life span was much shorter back then. The purpose of this accounting is to acquaint you with a chapter of family life that I only had a brief glimpse. I was born in 1943 in rural Arkansas where electricity was a thing still hoped for and the old way of life was quite common. In many ways life was about the same as it had been for generations. { The people who think their meat comes wrapped in plastic at the local Safeway may want to stop reading about here. } You judged the time by raising the hog and scraping a small section to see if it slip or remove easily. It was important not to let the hog stay in the water too long or the hair would set and was almost impossible to remove. Small places of hair was removed by pouring hot water on it and scraping. It was important not use a scraping knife that was not too sharp. The idea was to scrape it and remove it ,roots and all, not shave it. After the scraping a very sharp knife was used just in case any hair escaped the scraping. Today some people use propane torches to burn the hard to reach hair. Just be careful and don't burn the skin. HOIST I have seen several methods used to hoist the hog up and keep him off the ground. One way was to build a tri-pod out of poles and hang the animal, I have used a pole hung between two trees and I have seen Y-Poles stuck into the ground and a pole placed between them. I have also just hung them from a convenient tree limb. I remember one time when some friends of mine were butchering a calf for a celebration in Memphis, Tennessee and hung it from a tree limb. The limb was not strong enough and broke, and the calf fell to the ground. A short time later the local police arrived and said they had a call that some people had shot a calf out of a tree. In that case I think it is a good idea to invite your neighbors over so you can keep an eye on them. Removing the head was next and this was done simply by cutting around the neck at the base of the head until the entire neck bone was rounded. It was finished by a quick and firm twist and set aside for later use. It was important to have your tubs ready for this operation. This was also the time you appreciated the withholding of food for the last day or two. The idea was to open the entire gut cavity without puncturing the gut. It was done by carefully separating the outer skin and the membrane that holds the gut. A cut was made from the crouch to the chin. With this done and the tubs ready the large intestine was cut loose at the anus and tied off with a string and the entire mass was allowed to slide into the tub. When this was done the liver was removed and the gall bladder was carefully removed. Some of the liver was most times eat that day for supper or used to make liver sausage. [recipe later] Here is where you find people differed in their eating habits. Almost all the hog could be used for some purpose or another. The lungs, heart and were almost always used and the stomach and small intestines were considered a delicacy by some. I have eaten chitterlings only once but as a butcher I have sold them in 10 lb. buckets by the truck loads. More about the chitterlings later. When the carcass was cleaned inside and out it was time
to cut it into usable pieces. This was usually done with the
equipment at hand. Butcher knife and an chopping ax. At the same
time a sausage making operation was started and the lard pot
was going. The lean trimmings went into the sausage mill and
the fat went into the lard pot. The lard pot was started while
the hog was still hanging with the fat from the inside cavity
around the intestines or leaf fat . This is also where you get
cracklins and if you aint had cracklin cornbread,
I just dont know what to say. The ax was used to cut the
hog down the middle into halves. In the old days they just cut
down the back bone on each side staying as close as they could.
you got some good meaty backbones and a nice thick piece of fatback.
Nowadays it is cut in half using a saw and the loins are removed
whole. Making lard was in some ways the most important chore of the day and required careful attention to detail. This was an art that you could become know for and your expertise was in demand on hog killing day . In fact , messing this job up, could make you known also. The lard bucket could get vary rancid before the winter was over, if you didnt do the job right. As mentioned before, the lard pot was started early in
the operation. We used a large iron kettle or pot. A slow fire
was built out of small sticks of wood so the temperature could
be controlled. The first thing into the pot was a small amount
of leaf fat from the gut cavity. This was the most pure fat and
the easiest to render. As the leaf fat begin to render, the other
fat was added slowly and the fire was increased until a slow
boil was achieved. Cooking the lard took a couple of hours or
more and was stirred constantly with a large wooden paddle. If
you were a kid, this was a good time to be somewhere else or
you would be put to work. If you ask my brothers, I am sure they
will tell you that , being somewhere else, was something I was
good at. The art of looking busy and just hiding came in handy. Here is where everyone is an expert and a critic. There
are as many old family recipes as there are old families.
I will start with just the basics. Good pork sausage is made
by grinding and seasoning lean pork trimmings from the bellies,
hams, and shoulders. Sausage should contain from 20 to 30 percent
fat. If more fat is included, the sausage may be too greasy and
shrink too much in cooking. If entire shoulders of hams are used,
it may be necessary to add some fat.
I have used several ingredients to liven up the taste of pork sausage but a really well made sausage does not need much. Add a quart of buttermilk to about 20 lbs. of sausage and
hand mix well, after it sits over night it is indeed a wonderful
flavor. I do not know how this will freeze, I have never had
any left over long enough to try it. I am not going to tell you how to make sausage gravy to go with the hog lard and Martha White Flour biscuits. You will be over at my house every damn morning for breakfast. Here is another place the iron pot or kettle was used. After cleaning the hog head and removing all the hair it was cut into quarters and soaked in cold water overnight. It was given a thorough rinsing in cold water and put into the pot along with other scraps like skin, bones, tongue and heart. This was simmered until the meat slipped from the bone and the skin was easily pierced with your finger. The skins were cooled and ground through the fine plate, about 1/8 th inch holes, on the meat grinder and the meat was picked from the bone and ground through the large plate, about 1/2 inch holes. This was mixed together with broth to the consistency of cake batter. you then added the spices. 1 tablespoon black pepper dash red pepper 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon onion powder dash of marjoram dash of savory Bring this mixture to a boil and remove from heat. Pour into loaf pans and chill. This will setup into loafs and can be refrigerated for a few days and frozen for a month or two. A head cheese press is sometimes used. It can range from a press designed for the job to a heavy weight set on top of the loaf pan. The hogs head usually produces enough gelatin to set the loaf without a press. Liver Sausage is similar to Head Cheese and uses most of
the same ingredients with the addition of the liver. The pork
liver is just an ingredient in this and should not constitute
more than 20 percent of the total by weight. 8 tablespoons salt 2 tablespoons black pepper 2 tablespoons ground sage 1 tablespoon allspice add red pepper if you like or omit the sage or allspice if you prefer. This is a excellent candidate for smoking. Stuff it into beef casings and smoke it, you have made Braunschweiger. Liver Sausage is similar to Head Cheese and uses most of
the same ingredients with the addition of the liver. The pork
liver is just an ingredient in this and should not constitute
more than 20 percent of the total by weight. 8 tablespoons salt 2 tablespoons black pepper 2 tablespoons ground sage 1 tablespoon allspice add red pepper if you like or omit the sage or allspice if you prefer. This is a excellent candidate for smoking. Stuff it into beef casings and smoke it, you have made Braunschweiger. |
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