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This is a lost art. Does anyone here know what to do from start to finish from killing the hog to throwing him on the cooker? have not seen this done. All the old timers around here just buy a hog prepared for the cooker. They know how to cook them and can remember when they used to do the killings but they can't remember some of the steps. This is something that we had better not forget. The ins and outs of a smoke house as well.CF
I have to admit I don't, saw it done once, could figure it out if I got hungry enough. I bet 99% of people today don't even know how to kill and clean a chicken let alone a hog. Watching Anthony Bourdain the other night guy on there said the average age for a butcher in London is near 70, young folk don't want the job. Seems like most folks today are dependent going to the store and the internet for everything they need or think they need. A good example, the other morning one of the college boys had a flat tire on his work truck, asks me who do we call to change it. I said hang on, let me find out, I walk in my office, call his cell phone and tell him to change the !@$%^(* tire.
Do a search on mother earth news, they did an issue back in 1970's.
the part I remember when I was a kid was boiling the hog in a 55 gallon drum full of boiling water, then scraping off the hair. Lots of sharp knives and a big butcher knife. They only did it in the winter, like right before Christmas. They used a 22 in the head and caught the bullet in a trashcan lid.
I've watched my father use a 22 rifle and drop a hog in the lot and cut his throat. Drag it out of the lot hang it up gut it and skin it out. At that point the carcass was taken into town to the locker where they cut it up, wrapped it and froze it.
As an adult while I was working in virus production producing Veterinary Virus Vaccines when they were still producing viruses using primary pig kidney cells as the substrate to grow bulk rabies virus. The kidneys of 30 to 40 lb hogs were were aseptically minced and planted in glass roller bottles where the individual kidney cells would attach to the glass and grow out producing a cell monolayer one cell thick. The tissue culture bottles were infected with seed virus and later harvest the fluids of bulk virus.
To get the kidneys with the help of an assistant I would use a stun gun to kill the hogs then cut their throats and hang them up and aseptically remove the kidneys. It was a bloody job that some assistants couldn't handle even though they were warned before hand just how gruesome it actually was. Once the hog was killed it was placed close to a drain in the floor in corner of the room where the throat was cut. When I was trained they would use the scalpel and cut the throat just below the jaw. Once I was doing it I would use the throat cutting technique I watched my father use where the knife blade was placed in where the neck attached to the chest so the knife blade would sever the larger veins and arteries coming off of and close to the heart and getting a much larger and quicker bleed. I would grade my self on the stick on just how high the blood would splatter on the wall in the corner.
At that time we were also using primary kidney cells of rabbits, cats and dogs to produce various other virus types like IBR, BVD bovine viruses and Canine distemper viruses and the least offensive technique involved producing equine eastern and western encephalo virus using chick embryos as the cell substrate for production. These other critters were put down using dry ice to suffocate them in plastic bags. Putting the puppies down I usually delayed going into the room and not have seen them while still alive before removing the kidneys.
Fortunately the virus vaccines today are not produced with primary cells like in the past. Now days various cell lines where the original critter was killed many years ago are used. The cell lines are frozen and grown out producing more cells which can be used for production or freezing down the subsequent cell passages.
Hmmm, I dont know the proper process. I do know the sows are alot better. If its a boar hog he'd better not have any gonads. other than that, add fat to the minced shoulders, hams cure, loins cure, eat up.
If you can get it watch the Anthony Bourdain episode on Cajun country, watched on Cox on demand last night. They killed a hog and had about 15 different people cooking all different dishes from it. They even all cook and party the night before the hog killing. Those folks sure know how to have a good time.
i havnt killed any hogs for several years but have done many times .i stillremember how and have a scalder that i had made of rolled 3/8 plate.works great.i build a fire under the scalder and then kill the hogs.22 placed perfectly is the ticket,many stories about missing the spot have been told.stick the jugular the second it drops with a 10 to 12 in.boning knife,then straight to the scalder several mins each side in hot water 190 to 200 degees until the hair loosens remove and srape off hair with clam shells work fast then gut it.to smoke the hams pack salt into the hock end with your finger then layer salt in bottom of cooler then hams then cover completly with salt and let sit 6 weeks.use curing salt no iodine,remove hams brush off salt and smoke coat with mollasses,twenty mule team borax and black pepper .best 8 to 12 months later.best to do this in cold weather kill in dec jan for next years holidays ham.be glad to help ya and you can use my scalder.,
youtube has lots of videos on that subject.