Ever Wondered What In Tar Nation Is a Hogkilling?

We usually butcher our pigs every November / December. When we do, we invite friends and family over to help and to share the pork.

This year we skipped it as I had cancer surgery.

We plan to get back into the routine next year.

__________________
http://www.mofga.org/

http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

http://www.oldsouthfarm.com/gallery7.htm

I've attended this one twice, and will be there this next class, learning more from the folks that know how. I used to help my dad when I was young, but he did the hard parts. Now I'll be teaching my son and grandson, keeping the knowledge alive.

Posted some pictures of the hog killing this afternoon. Couldn't get a gilt so settled for a 600 pound cull sow. Pimative slaughter/butcher facilaty

__________________
Some folks are well off. I'm just a little off.

Thats good. Maybe that mostly forgotten knowledge will last at least a few more years.Like the pictures.

You have a neat setup. Out of the weather,and warm. Don't you process that skin for lard and "cracklins"?

All these pictures are making me hongry. My wife's at the stove right now cooking country ham,redeye gravy,rice,and hot biscuits......Pictures shortly........ .. She prefers hash browns and aggs rather than rice.

No it goes to waste. Get enough lard from the pigs we slaughter and if thats not enough I can buy raw lard from the local abattoir for 25 cent a pound. Something has happened to cull sow prices. I bought this one for 42 cents a pound live weight.

__________________
Some folks are well off. I'm just a little off.

I've read on this site about coating a ham with salt and some kind of sheet to draw the moisture out of the ham. Properly done the ham can be kept without refrigeration for months. Does anyone do that with the hogs they butcher?

__________________
"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

A great delicacy, at least for me, at hog killing time was scrambled eggs and hog brains.

COWS

My parents, grandparents and uncles used to butcher hogs every year when I was a kid. Everyone had a certain job and they used everything. One of my favorite things my grandma made was goetta. It's made with pin head oatmeal and cooked with some of the meat and a few spices, then put into containers. Then after it's chilled she would fry it up with eggs for breakfast. I'm from northern Ky but am now living in Arkansas and no one here knows what it is.

For me, it's frying up the heart while it's still warm..

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Sounds a lot like scrapple, only that is made with corn meal instead of oats...

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

We did,but you must keep the hams cool enough not to spoil while the salt is working its way to the bone.This day and time ,a meat locker or cooler will do the trick..My guess about three months. Then hang in the smoke house and cold smoke for about three days.Then they will keep no matter how hot it gets.Eventually though,maybe a couple years,they will get to hard from drying out so much.

One of my earliest memories (from when I was two or three) of my grandparents was when they were butchering a hog. My grandmother was yelling at my grandfather while hitting him (lightly) with a switch because he was letting some of the blood from the pig to not be collected in the pot positioned underneath the hog. She wanted to make "Blutwurst" (Blood Sausage) and I guess she wanted all of the blood.

TRellis

If I manage to get enough lard for rendering I always put some ribs and neck bones in. After its done we devour it hot out of the cauldron sprinkled with salt.

__________________
Some folks are well off. I'm just a little off.

We had a cold weekend first weekend in November and did 11. My brother and cousins and several friends all get pigs. I raise them and they come over the first weekend in November that it's cold enough. We kill them all on Saturday, hang them over night and cut them Sunday afternoon. Lunch Saturday is always liver fried with bacon (gotta make sure we save a piece just for that!), mashed potatoes and apples and onions fried together. We skin them - but other than that we use everything but the intestines - there's a point where I do get too lazy. We don't stuff sausages anymore - just all bulk. We eat as much liver, heart, etc. as we can fresh, the rest along with the spleens, lungs kidneys, etc. we grind up and can for the dogs. And of course there's lots and lots of lard! Pig killing is one of the best weekends of the year!

In New Mexico they call it a "matanza". Lots of people show up, they kill a pig, and spend all day taking it apart and preparing all kinds of really delicious things. An old wood stove out in the yard where a couple of grandmas are stirring several pots at a time, and making tortillas. Music, old people teaching the young ones how to do things, a few beers, everybody eating and partying all day until the pig is gone.