Butchering on the farm was a common occurrence at one time. Each area had its own particular method.
Our area was known as Dutch Comers and lies in the southwest corner of Lee Township, Carroll County, Ohio. Ray's father went to school at Dutch Comer's School. All that remains now is some building stone and oak trees along State Route 9 on the road to Kilgore, Ohio.
Neighbors gathered to help each other and each person usually had a particular job they were good at. It usually meant a day off from school for the older children, but there was some question about how much was work for them or play among themselves. The adults mingled work with visiting.
A day in the late fall was selected by each family. Weather reporting, as we know it today, did not exist. A cold but not freezing day was necessary. I have heard stories of weather problems they had some years.
The men of each family would get out their stored equipment and set up ahead of that busy day. Equipment was stored in out buildings, smoke houses, unheated basements, barns, etc. Getting ready was not an easy task.
Scalding vats or watertight barrels were arranged over hot fires and near a large raised sled or platform, on which to place the hog after dunking in the boiling water. This was done to remove the hair with special scrapers, usually a hand-made item.
Lots of wood and water was necessary. Most water had to be carried. Few had any type of running water.
Many tools, beyond my remembrance, were needed and had to be clean. A hoist of some type to hang the hog for cooling out and then sectioned into quarters. The quarters were then taken indoors. Sharp knives were a must. Iron and copper kettles, each for a different purpose.
The families going from home to home, helping each other: This was the essence of the endeavor. The women took along their favorite covered dish and some needed tools to work with. Sometimes the host family provided the meal.
This was a frantic time for most women as it was their job to get the equipment all cleaned, the house in order and the meal ready.
A lack of heat and available water, cold or hot, made it all the more difficult.
Lucky was the woman that had a husband or older children who would pitch in and help.
The recipes that follow were used by the Long family and by most others in the neighborhood.
BACK BONES AND RIBS
These were cooked outdoors over an open fire in large iron kettles.
Place ribs, bones and broth in a pre-prepared, suitable size crock. Store in a cold, but not freezing, room. Fat will rise to the top and form a seal. This will keep a month or more. The weather will dictate.
Once the crock is opened it sours quickly. (There was no refrigeration in the old days.) These were great with sauerkraut.
Today, I would recommend cooling, then remove fat and divide into gallon ziplock freezer bags, meat, gel and all. Freeze.
SAUSAGE SEASONING
Grandma Long would bake her sausage in 1/2 gallon or gallon crocks. The fat would come to the top and seal it. It seemed to keep a long time in those days, in what she called her cold room upstairs. Length of baking time I don't remember.
HEAD CHEESE, prepared from the heads and other scraps, was also cooked, ground up, seasoned and baked in the same way. I remember this combined with baked sausage made great stuffed peppers. Today the Sausage and Head Cheese could be baked and then frozen after it is cooled.
Fat conscious people would consider this as consuming too much fat. But actually it was mostly removed when ready to use.
PUDDING (Pan Haus)
BROTH FROM COOKING HEAD CHEESE MEAT was
cooled, fat removed, and used to make Pan Haus, a pudding made
with com meal. What you buy today cannot hold a candle to the
flavor as it was then. This could also be made, cold, cut into slabs
and frozen.
BRINE FOR STUFFED SAUSAGE
Grandma Long always proportioned the sausage according to
amounts needed for stuffing or baking.
(Pour brine off for several days, reheat and cool. Blood soaks out and needs cooking.)
Coil sausage into a pre-prepared crock and pour brine over sausage. Use a clean weight to keep sausage beneath brine.
You will need to pour melted and cooled to gel stage, lard on top to seal meat.
Today after curing time to absorb brine, I would then smoke or freeze the sausage to preserve it.
CLEANING INTESTINES for casings. May Harple always did this and remembering watching her, I suggest you buy yours at the market.
Times Improved?
Families today don't eat like in the old days. Physical energy was one of their main sources of power. We now have many energy saving devices. None of which seem to save time. It seems like there is more and more to do.
The times changed about 1955. Most farmers and others were working away from home. There was no time for things as they used to be. Much has been lost because of this, including the wonderful flavor we had in our meat. What has also been lost is the trust we had in our neighbors.
Reprinted from the Summer '96 newsletter of the Carroll County Historical Society.