2019 Brockel sausage party ;)
- Thread starter brockel
- Start date
We normally go middle of October. Didn’t work out and had to go with a different pig operation and got lucky that this weekend was mid 40s low 50s during the day and high 30s at night
WildWill
Well-known member
I could handle that it was 90 here today and won't even go below 70 tonight.
JEL
Well-known member
Brockel I see you skinned them. We used to scald and scrape. I still have an old scraper down in my hunting room in my house.
tarheel
Well-known member
Some of the chores of a hog killing were relegated to the kids and early on we'd have to haul buckets of scalding hot water up into the hay loft where some of the women would lower the intestine out the hay window into a #3 wash tub, stick a funnel into the end of it and pour the water through the gut to wash out the poop. After that they'd turn it inside out for a proper cleaning prior to using it for sausage casing. The excess fat and a few leaner trimmings would be cubed up and rendered in Mom's cast iron wash pot. When I got older that was my chore, rendering lard and squeezing cracklins. We didn't call the skins cracklins like some people do nowadays. The fire couldn't be allowed to get too hot or it would scorch the lard so we fired with corncobs; a good source of heat and it allowed better control of the heat.
When all the lard had been rendered out we'd ladle the cracklins into a narrow cotton sack and squeeze the sack with a pair of pine paddles which were wired together toward the end with a piece of copper wire in order to extract all the lard we could get out. The lard was then put into lidded buckets for cooking and the cracklins were canned in quart jars to be used later for making cracklin cornbread or just for snacking.
This was before rural electrification came about so there was no running water or refrigeration with the exception of a small wooden icebox so the hams, shoulders and bacon were salted down and or smoked and kept in the smokehouse, the brains were eaten with eggs for breakfast the next day, the feet were pickled and the head was cut up, cooked down and made into souse which didn't last long around our house. The liver was cooked, a little lard added,spiced up with sage, salt, pepper and then ground fine into the consistency of a pate' and packed into a casing which we called liver pudding and it was pretty much a delicacy for all.
That's enough of a history lecture for the time being, didn't mean to be so long winded but I like to share those experiences from a time when life wasn't so easy and sterile; hope you enjoyed it.
When all the lard had been rendered out we'd ladle the cracklins into a narrow cotton sack and squeeze the sack with a pair of pine paddles which were wired together toward the end with a piece of copper wire in order to extract all the lard we could get out. The lard was then put into lidded buckets for cooking and the cracklins were canned in quart jars to be used later for making cracklin cornbread or just for snacking.
This was before rural electrification came about so there was no running water or refrigeration with the exception of a small wooden icebox so the hams, shoulders and bacon were salted down and or smoked and kept in the smokehouse, the brains were eaten with eggs for breakfast the next day, the feet were pickled and the head was cut up, cooked down and made into souse which didn't last long around our house. The liver was cooked, a little lard added,spiced up with sage, salt, pepper and then ground fine into the consistency of a pate' and packed into a casing which we called liver pudding and it was pretty much a delicacy for all.
That's enough of a history lecture for the time being, didn't mean to be so long winded but I like to share those experiences from a time when life wasn't so easy and sterile; hope you enjoyed it.
Nick87
Well-known member
Simpler times, I think a lot of people today could benefit a lot if some things were done the old way.
WildWill
Well-known member
I still have my grandpa's pig scalder a old cast iron bath tub with the bottom plug welded shut. I only scald when we do a whole pig as mentioned above it's a lot of work. I do normally leave the skin on the shoulders for smoking.
ShadowFast1
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2019
- Messages
- 223
I didn't grow up doing any kind of processing, pig or otherwise. My dad got a pig for us this year and a bunch of books on butchering. I stumbled my way through it well enough. I still have a long way to go in learning about making bacon, ham, sausages, etc. My boss wanted the trotters but he ended up ruining them when he tried to burn the hair off with a propane torch. My wife and daughters appreciated the chops and the awesome loin roast I smoked.
Gotta start somewhere
