Glenda has told me about this process and I was amazed. Now that I see in written it’s even more vivid in my mind. I want to warn you! If your stomach is a little queasy, read this later!!
Back when I was a young girl we had to help kill hogs. My dad would always start the night before by getting the pit ready for the fire and setting the vat up. A vat was a large barrel cut in half to put water in. He would get up early the next morning and start the fire so the water would be hot to put the hog in so we could scrape the hair off the hog. When the water got hot he would take his 22 rifle and go shoot the hog and cut his throat so he would bleed out. Then he would drag the hog over to the vat and roll him in the hot water. We would all have sharp knives so when the hog came out the water we would start scraping the hair off. This hair was very course and hard to get off. After we got the hair off it was time to gut the hog. Mom would always have pans ready to put the liver, lights, intestines or chitlins in. Then my mom, my sister and I would have to got to the field beside the house and clean the chitlins. Mom would always cut the intestines about two to three feet in length. She would run her hand down the outside of the casing to clean the stuff out of it. Then we would have to pour water through the casing until it was clean. She would always wash them five to six times. We were always far away from the house so we had to carry water in a bucket to where we were working. After we got through cleaning the chitlins outside, mom would take them in the house and wash them again and again. She would use a stick to turn them inside out to clean them some more. While we were cleaning the chitlins dad and my brother would be cutting up the hog into quarters and trimming of the fat. The fat would go into a big pile to be cut up to make cracklings but first we would use salt to rub down the ham and shoulders to put in the smoke house to cure. Dad would cut the back up into pork chop. They would keep the pig’s feet to make “pickled pig feet” and the head which was used to make “hog head cheese”. (See recipe below). After all the meat was put up we would start cutting up the fat into about three to four inch stripes to cook crackling. The fat was put in a large case iron pot over a fire of gas cooker. We had to stir the fat so it would not burn or scorch to the bottom of the pot. Once the fat started to heat up it would turn into oil. You would cook the fat until it was all dried up and all you had left was a crunchy piece of skin. Then you would remove the oil from the fire and let it cool. It was then poured into large buckets and use to cook with. That was how you made lard. You saved everything.
And, believe me or not it is all delicious. Try the recipes out for yourselves.
Grandma Gracie’s Hog head Cheese (Souse meat)
One large hog head
Apple cider vinegar
One large onion – (chopped)
Black pepper
Salt
Red pepper
Sage
Splithog head in half (remove hog brains and tongue) put in large pot and boil until tender. Remove all meat from bones, grind or mash fine. Add sage, red pepper, chopped onion, black pepper and salt to taste. Pour into a large pan: press it down to remove all air. Allow to chill in refrigerator overnight
This has been a family recipe for three generations.
BACKBONE AND RICE (Grease Rice)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds pork backbones
- 6 cups water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups uncooked rice
Preparation
- Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.
- Stir in rice; cover and cook over low heat 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is done. (Do not stir.) Fluff rice with a fork, and serve.
Easy but so delicious!! This is a good recipe to have on New Year’s Day.
(Pork stands for prosperity)
GRANDMA GRACIE’S PICKLED PIGS FEET
3 1/4 lbs. pigs feet
Cold water
2/3 c. white vinegar
6 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. pickling spice
5 pepper kernels
Place clean pigs feet into 4 quart pot. Cover with cold water; bring to boil Simmer until meat is fairly tender. Cool for 8 to 10 hours. Drain, reserving liquid and place meat into jars. Combine 2 1/4 cups of liquid and remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes. Pour over pig’s feet. Cool and refrigerate. Serve cold.
Try it! You just might like it!!
The South I Knew 
Don’t know where I posted my comment on the Hog Killin’. I remember them well at my Grandparent’s farm when I was growing up in Bishopville and later on by my friendship with Laddie and Ernestine Boone of Rowesville. My grandfather, James Edmund McCutchen shot them right in the top of the forehead, then they were immediately drug over to a cedar log rack with a pulley. The hog was pulled up hanging by his hind legs and his throat cut. All the hands would be standing around with cups and jars to receive the fresh blood, which to our amazement, they would drink right down and smack their lips. Then they would lower that hog in a huge cauldron of water to scald and hoist it up again where they would begin scrapping off the hair and outer dark layer of skin. When they finished it would take on a white appearance.. Then it would be gutted and various pieces-parts parceled out to the hands. Out of the innards, Grandfather would save only the liver for making puddin’. That hog would be then put on a long table and cut up as Glenda described, bacon and hams to the smoke house, some cut up to go for making sausage, fat to the rendering pot. I noticed various savory parts would be sitting around on rocks around the fires, ‘dropped’ there by the hands for a quick snack amidst all the labor. The hog killin’ in Rowesville occurred at Norman Hughes’s Hog Parlor where a squealin’ pig would go from dead to sausage in a millisecond. “Uncle Norman” was Ernestine’s uncle and when a hog killing was called, everyone in the countryside would attend and everybody had something to do. When the work was done Laddie would serve the crowd one of his legendary BBQ’s, the hash made from boiling down the hog’s heads and a couple of cow tongues. Talk about GOOD!