Bygone Era: Old Fashioned Hog Killin'

[elmacgyver0]

Wolfdog91, you have a knack for telling a story that holds the attention.
It is a skill if nurtured I believe could really go places.
Anyway, I really enjoyed your story.

[1hole]

... And yes headless chickens can fly.

Yeah, but they're really odd to watch because headless chickens can't fly straight. And they can't fly very high either 'cause they don't know which way is up.

But, with self supplied chickens, cows, hogs, fish, corn and roots, country boys and their families can survive.

City folk can rob each other and eat, at least until the last city boy runs out of (packaged) food. Then they'll have to sit down beside themselves and cry until their light goes out.

It's sad that virtually all of America's once self-sufficient family background has been lost. (Biden & team will probably say that loss is all Trump's fault.)

[M-Tecs]

Yeah, but they're really odd to watch because headless chickens can't fly straight. And they can't fly very high either 'cause they don't know which way is up.

The flapping proves the lift and the body weight helps with the balance. My aunt needed 6 chickens once and we were tasked with chopping the heads off. We threw them in the air so all of them would fly but we also knew if they hit the ground and got bruised we would be in trouble so we would catch them out of the air. Headless chickens spray a lot of blood. When we brought them in my aunt thought we got into an axe fight. Needless to say we only did that once.

[Hogtamer]

Me and Bulter woulda got along just fine. Scraping scalded hogs was never my favorite though.

[Wolfdog91]

Wow kinda wasn't expecting this big of a response been ripping and running all day and come back on the what? 40 something replies sorry I have been here to respond to Everyone

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[Wolfdog91]

Oh yeah baby Wolfdog!!! Good deal, Went to my first Boucherie couple of generations ago.
I remember the boiling pot, Men pouring hot water on the hanging hog, A special knife was used to scrape the hair off, Seems it had 2 handles?
Locally boucherie's still take place, Mostly at fairs.
You can still catch it in the town of Basile La. Swine capital of La.

Think your referring to either a draw knife or a fleshing knife. It's crazy but I remember most of them guys using with a single or double side razor blade like what would come out if a box cutter to do all the work. They where meticulous to say the least

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[Winger Ed.]

Some phases of the limited amount of processing I've done always reminded me of
Hans Solo in "Star Wars" when he was freezing and cut open that monster.

When all its innards came popping out he said, 'And I thought they smelled bad on the outside'.

[buckwheatpaul]

Great post....we process a lot of wild hogs that we trap and shoot and when we do we set up an assembly line of sorts....we have one that keeps the knives sharp while we skin, gut and process the carcass. With the cold weather we like to hang them from the front loader of a tractor in a shed or quarter and put in an old refrigerator if it is warm. Then the cutting up and grinding and then the final product of sausage or brats....makes your mouth water when you see the final product!

[curdog]

I can remember when i was a kid back in the late sixties I would go to a friends who lived on a farm and they would butcher a hog in the winter. I would help them render lard and they would make blood sausage and head cheese. Blood sausage is good fried with scrambled eggs and head cheese is good with crackers.hot sauce and of course a cold beer. Thank you for the very cool post and pictures, brings back memories.............................Curdog

[Bulldogger]

Wow kinda wasn't expecting this big of a response been ripping and running all day and come back on the what? 40 something replies sorry I have been here to respond to Everyone

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Thanks for sharing your story Wolfdog91. Clearly you struck a chord with plenty of folks here, me included.

Why not write up some more stories?

Bulldogger

[contender1]

Yep,, this thread got to a lot of us. Shows were all aren't totally lost.

Heck,, it got me to thinking,, and I got down my FireFox book. Book #1,, had info on hog killing & processing. Some pics too. brought back more smiles, as I re-read that chapter. Especially some of the quotes from the older folks.

And I also had to chuckle,, as I brought this up with my wonderful better half. Miss Penny put it quite bluntly; "We aren't going to start raising hogs & butchering them. I've scrapped my last hog,, UUGGHHH!!!!!!!! "
She too remembers such events.

[white eagle]

I know the feelings you have and share them
I have the same trouble with time we can not stop it time goes by people leave us and it is left in our hands to carry on
weather we do or not is up to each of us that is the hand we are dealt
like you I long for the good ol days with the people that shared them with me
thanks for sharing your story although I have never done what you did I have the same fondness of the memories that were given
carry on young man

[JWFilips]

Great thread! I have what I have been told is an old "Hog Dispatcher" very simple single shot .22 rimfire...very strange little gun...no sights!
Pics below:

[1Papalote]

I remember my mother cleaning the stomachs at a table made of a 55 gal drum and a plywood top. Stomachs were emptied, rinsed, scrubbed, washed, bleached etc until clean enough to hold head sausage. Later years we skinned the hogs.
My grandmother (b. 1904) told me they'd put the hams in a salt box, on angle to drain, for nine days, then smoked.
Seems we could never get enough cold weather anymore to spend a week killing hogs. Been a while since we butchered, last beef was 20 years back, hogs even further .

[MT Gianni]

i enjoyed reading about your memories. We rarely raise a hog over 250 lbs here, most get slaughtered at 225. Nice lean meat but you don't get the massive cuts you do with large hogs.

[farmbif]

my taste b buds are salivating thinking of fresh cracklings, maybe with some file gumbo and fresh smoked boudin.

[Frosty Boolit]

Great thread, these things are not lost forever. I know you will do something like this one day wolfdog because it is in you. Younger guys have a primal desire to carry on whatever dad or grandpa did. I know I do.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

As a boy in the 1940s I watched many hog killings. I remember one that did not go well. Problem being hogs are hard to dispatch. The man shot the pig in the head with some rifle he had brought back from the war. The cartridge looked small to me, and it was. The pig just shook his head and laid down. They decided to stick the pig with a large butcher knife. We have all heard the expression, he screamed like a stuck pig, well I know first-hand what that means. I watched for a while longer and went home. The next day I asked my friend who was there if they finally killed the pig? He said they had to shoot the best again. When my dad killed a pig, he hired a man with a gun large enough to do the job. After killing the pig, they would they lower into an oil drum, actually two welded together. After a few minutes they pulled it out and started scraping hair. I have no recollection of then cutting the pig up. I well remember one very large sow my father had who was mean. She would even chase him when he went in to feed her. He secured a ladder to a fruit tree just to get away from her. When she started feeding, he could come. When it came time to kill the beast, he called the man to do the job. She weighed about 400 LBS. When the man shot, she took off running around the back lot. My brother jumped on her back and tried to ride her. He soon fell off. The man shot her when she stopped running. I have no recollection of what happened next. I do know I was glad to see that hog from hell gone.

[M-Tecs]

22 Longs and 22LR have been dispatching hogs and steers since the 1880's. That would be hundreds of millions if not billons. I've personally killed 450 pound hogs with one shot from a 22LR. Yes, you have to hit the spot but the 22 LR is more than adequate if the shooter is. The spot is different between hogs and steers and I am not sure how much larger the spot is than a quarter, but I do know if I hit a quarter sized spot it drops them like Thors Hammer. On hogs it's an X from the bottom of the ears to the eyes. On a steer it's an X from the horns (or where the horns would be) to the eyes.

Most people shoot first than bleed. If you have lift equipment sticking without shooting or stunning will bleeds them out better. Some of the major knife makers still make sticking knives. You hang the hog by the hind leg and stick straight in. Entry point is just at the front of the breast bone. The target is the veins and artery's going into the heart but not the heart itself. Bleeds them best and the hog is dead within seconds. Sticking the heart prevents it from pumping properly and they don't bleed out as well.

Morton Salt used to produce an excellent guide called "Home Meat Curing made easy". Still can be found used. For anyone doing their own hog I highly recommend it. Sticking starts on page 7 Digital version here: https://archive.org/details/HomeMeat...adeEasy009.jpg You have to click through each page to view.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

M-Tecs maybe you are right about how easy it is to kill a pig with a .22. I guess that's the reason the men down in Texas who fly around in helicopters are shooting Ruger 10-22s. Come to think of it, they were using ARS in .308 caliber. I guess they just grow a tougher pig in the Lone Star state.