My recollections for today will be on the subject of hog killing back in my boyhood days. I will begin when I was big enough to be of some help in the operation.
The hogs in those days were allowed to wander all over the country, living mostly in woodlands eating nuts and acorns and other forms of vegetation. This was before the chestnut blight struck the country and killed all the chestnut trees. The farmers would mark them when they were small by cutting notches in their ears. Each farmer had a certain way to mark his hogs so he would know them where ever he saw them. To explain, one farmer would clip off the point of a pigs right earl another the left earl or cut one or more notches in one or the other of their ears. In this way a pig could be marked in so many different ways that, there was not much danger of getting his hogs mixed up with another mans hogs. Most farmers took extra good care of their sows especially when the pigs were small, and the sows would bring the bunch home in the evening and they would be fed a few ears of corn and get a bucket of kitchen "slop" extra. The hogs of those days wore what would today be called "razor backs" and would not fatten well until they were a year or more old, and would weigh from 250 to 350 pounds when fat.
On the evening before the hogs were to be killed which was usually in November about Thanksgiving we would get out all the wash pots and kettles and fill them full of water, prepare plenty good dry kindling and dry wood to heat the water, gather up all the old worn out plow points and other cast iron junk to heat in the fire to have ready to place in the scalding barrel to bring the water up to scalding temperature for the second hog. Next, dig a hole in the ground and set the scalding tub at an angle of about 35 degrees with a platform for cleaning the hogs on. Next, go to the woods and cut a strong [straight] pole about twenty feet long and five inches at the large end and fasten the large end to a tree or building about eight feet above ground with the other end resting on the ground. The scalding tub was usually a kerosene barrel made of wood and held about fifty five or sixty gallons. The family in those days consisted of Father and Mother, my two sisters, one or two of my older brothers, myself and possibly a hired hand hired for the day.
All being ready, we would arise at four o'clock eager to begin the day of hard but interesting work. One would build fires under the water pots, another would feed the live stock and milk the cows, while the women folks would prepare breakfast, and by good daylight we were ready to begin the slaughter. Armed with the old cap and ball rifle and a couple of good sharp "butcher knives" and a few sharpened table knives for "scrapers" (these knives were made for hard service, and not so much to look at) we would turn the hogs out and drive as close to the place of operation as possible and one of us would blaze away with the old rifle, and while he was reloading the others would "stick" or bleed the first one and by that time he would have another hog kicking ready to be "stuck" and so on until all were ready for cleaning. Usually we killed about four head. We then draged or rolled the first on the platform and filled the barrel to the proper level with hot water. Now right here is a very particular point. If the water is too hot it will cook the cuticle and "set" the hair and make cleaning very difficult. In order to test the water, if a man could pass his finger through the water three times but could not stand the fourth pass it was O.K. Before scalding the hog was "hamstrung" and a gambrel was placed under the tendons of the hind legs to make it easier to handle him while scalding. In cleaning the first hog, the whole bunch would take a hand and make short work of it. Next, the clean hog was taken to the long pole and the gambrel placed over the pole and two men, one on each side could slide it up the proper height for finishing the cleaning and gutting. While the two men worked on the first hog, the rest of us would take an old shovel and carry the red hot plow points and put them into the barrel to bring the water up to the scalding point again, and proceed as with the first hog. By the time the second hog was ready to hang, the first one was placed on a table made of planks laid across two trussel benches ready to be cut up into hams, midlings and shoulders, while the second hog was placed on the pole. This procedure was held all the way through until all hogs were finished. My family always stressed the importance of having plenty of lard and sausage and the hams and shoulders were trimmed closely with that point in view. We lased the "fatbacks" the gut fat and fat off the trimmings for lard. We didn't mind "that greasy taste" you see and hear so much about on TV advertising now days. In fact we loved it. To my taste there is no better bread on earth than hot, home made biscuits made with pure lard, soda and buttermilk. In those days people did not know how to combine seed oil, peanut oil, corn oil, and possibly dog tallow and refine it into a substitute for pure hog lard. We tried awful hard to get the meat trimmed the lard ready for render and the sausage ground and mixed with salt, hot and red pepper so as to have fresh sausage for breakfast the next morning.
The next day was a strenuous day for all of us, especially the women folk. The men took charge of lard rendering, while the women would fry sausage and can it in mason jars, and if properly sealed would keep indefinitely. Part of the sausage was packed in clean cotton bags or pokes that when full, would measure about two and one half inches by twelve or more inches. The sausage was pressed into the bags by means of what we called a "sausage stuffer." This was a long thin tube about a foot long and three inches in diameter with a spout on one end about six inches long and an inch in diameter at the base tapered to three fourths inch at the point. This tube was filled full of sausage a bag placed over the spout and a wooden piston was used to press the sausage into the bag. It worked on the same principle as a veterinarians syringe. These pokes were then hung in the smoke house and used first, because when somewhat aged the meat would tend to get "strong."
The livers would be cut up and placed in a brass kettle with some fat meat taken from the top of the hoghead and perhaps other small trimmings and cooked out door until throughly tender. The whole mass would then be ground in the sausage mill and salt and perhaps other flavorings added, also part of the broth that it was cooked in was added. The German name for this product was "liverworst" but we called it "liver pudding." In order to take care of this product the small intestines of the hog were used. They would be cut into lengths of twelve or more feet and the contents stripped out, then one end tied and turned inside out by means of placing the old rifle ramrod against the tied end and pushing it back through the gun. It was then throughly washed clean and placed in boiling water for a few minutes and the inside could then be stripped off the outside casing of the gut. The outside casing was the part used for storing the liver pudding. One end of the casing would be tied and the other end 'placed over the spout on the sausage stuffer and stripped back over the spout to near the end of the casing. The stuffer would then be filled with pudding and pressure applied by the piston with one hand while slowly releasing the casing with the other hand. When the releasing the casing with the other hand. When the casing was filled the other end was tied and you had a string of pudding about an inch in diameter and twelve or more feet long. They were then coiled over a pole and hung in the smoke house. Were they good eating? Oh Boy, for growing appetites. My father sent me many times from his shoeshop to the smoke house to cut him off a piece of pudding with his "shoe knife" and I usually cut off a bigger piece for myself while I was at it .
Next is the "souse meat." This dish was made mainly of the feet of the hogs, the feet would be cleaned and boiled until the meat could be easily seperated from the bones. It was usually my job to seperate the mess and I could not resist the tempation to eat some of it as I worked. I remember one time I ate a little too much, and what came UP was not near as good tasting as what went DOWN.
Another good dish was made with the broth that was left over from cooking the livers and adding cornmeal to the boiling broth and making a mush out of it. These old time practices were kept up by my family until after the advent of the deep 'freezer. After the deep freeze came along we prepared the same dishes in the very same way, but instead of using so many fruit jars, cloth bags and hog gut,- for storing the products, we used freezer containers for storing in the freezer.
From my point of view, it looks to me -like the old time hog killing is passing away. With all the factories and industries now located in east Tenn. using so much of our manpower, a large percentage of which is drawn from the surrounding farms, and the fact that most of the farmers have almost quit raising corn to fatten them on, that there are so few able bodied men left on farms that it would be hard to get help to butcher just one 200 pound hog, let alone three or four 300 pounders, and I am telling you, hog killing is no one man job.
The worker gets his pay check and of necessity spends a portion or possibly all of it for the support of his family, and if there is any money left over we can't take it with us. We won't need money where we are going.
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