Exploding Pork

etat · January 26, 2004, 12:11:23 AM

Duane, actually I have. Mr and Mrs Lamar Elliot who used to keep me and my brother used to make it once or twice a year. I can't remember all the details just that it was a lot of fun watching and helping. Their children, Charles Liddel, and Mrs. Kateth had suffered from polio when they were very young. Charles Liddel was wheelchair bound, and Mrs. Kateth had to wear braces. Still they worked around the house Charles Liddel could drive and they played with us kids. Nothing much slowed them down for two reasons, one, because they didn't want it too and because they had to. They were very poor. Mrs. Keyrons speciality cooking was potato soup, boy could she make it taste good.

They were a great inspriation to me in raising my youngest son Jeremy. By the time he was two years old he had two open heart surgeries . His right side doesn't work so good. Botox treatments has helped a lot with his walking and use of his hand. I just found out lately that when he was very young my older kids used to use him in their experiments, such as putting him in a barrel and rolling him down a hill before they'd try it! Really, hasn't much ever slowed him down. I've even seen him tote whole bundles of shingles up a ladder just to see if he could! When he was born he weighed 2.4 lbs. Now he's pushing 6 FEET TALL!

I was wondering if anyone else had ever helped make lye soap or pump water out of a well! !

Guess I was lucky, never had it in my mouth! ;D But I sure did hate having to go and cut a switch!!!!!!! ;D

Haytrader · January 26, 2004, 04:14:01 AM

   We had neighborhood butcherings when I was a kid. My grandfather would have a couple hogs, my dad the same, and seems like two or three neighbors with a few. Since my grandparents had a new double garage with a washroom attached, they were the hosts of the event. A loader tractor was used to lift the hogs out of the pen and to dip them in one of the barrels of very hot water. Propane was used to heat the water.
   Once the hogs were scalded and gutted, they were split and moved inside. Work tables were made by laying plywood on sawhorses with sheets covering them. The processing was done assembly line fashion with both men and women involved. I am sure I had a job but can't remember what it was as I was small at the time.
   I do remember they injected the hams with a syringe and hung them in burlap sacks while they cured.
   One of my brothers owns the place now and the garage is so full of "stuff" that there is no way you could get a hog in there. Barely a package of bacon.

:D :D :D

SwampDonkey · January 26, 2004, 05:31:23 AM

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Sounds just as fun as chasing the be-headed chickens through the burdock patch when Mr McGrath chopped the heads off with the axe on the hardwood choppin block. :-/

bock bock buck-okkkkkk!

;D

jayhdjr · January 28, 2018, 11:06:11 AM

I laughed so hard on page one, I had to see who else hadn't seen this yet.

starmac · January 28, 2018, 03:43:52 PM

When we butchered hogs at home, we would do the taste test to get the sausage seasoning just right too. We would normally make all the sausage one or two hogs would make along with all the other cuts, then grind a whole hog less the hams into sausage, as we liked our sausage. I remember one year we done a whole hog up in sausage with dad and I doing the seasoning, when done we had it hot enough that mom or none of my sisters would eat it, so we had it all to ourselves, man that was some good sausage.

And old man down the road had a truck farm I picked vegetables on, could no longer eat pork, but he had some antique processing equipment and really farm equipment of all sorts. He had a huge cast iron hog scalding vat, probably the only actual store bought one I have ever seen. He also had a sausage grinder that ran off of the endless belt pto of his tractor. This grinder had a throat that was over a foot in diameter and stood about 3 feet tall. This stuff had not been used in several years by the time I got to know him, and just sit out in the weather, but I tried and tried to buy them, but he wouldn't even talk about selling.

coxy · January 28, 2018, 04:26:19 PM

:D :D funny story I remember when I was 6-7 we had a guy come up and cut our pigs he wouldn't shoot them but after the first one got stuck the second came through the 5 board 2x8 fence and ran me over causing me to get my first 6 stiches in my head after 2 days of looking for the pig the guys son shot it in the head with a 30-30 said he was tired of looking for it and chasing it ;D to this day I can not kill a pig or a cow I can be there when its done but cant do it and I really miss the fresh pork rinds we use to make we would cook them down on our wood stove it was always a battle between my dad and I who was going to get in the pot first to get the good ones oh and cant forget about the how great the doughnuts where with the fresh pig fat uummmmm

47sawdust · January 28, 2018, 04:34:38 PM

I didn't realize how old this post was until I saw ,"In Memorian" next to a few posts.
Kinda like Dead man Talkin'

Kbeitz · January 28, 2018, 04:46:10 PM

I was never much for Pork until I marred my Dominican wife.
Now we cook a whole pig every summer.

Jeff · January 28, 2018, 05:02:07 PM

What a novel idea!

DanG · January 28, 2018, 05:35:27 PM

Quote from: 47sawdust on January 28, 2018, 04:34:38 PM
I didn't realize how old this post was until I saw ,"In Memorian" next to a few posts.
Kinda like Dead man Talkin'

I love it when someone brings up one of these old fun threads from days of yore. It brings back some fond memories of some members who are no longer with us.

starmac · January 28, 2018, 05:38:13 PM

I always ate a lot of pork, we raised hogs growing up and always had somewhere between 50 and 300 head, but I never was around anybody roasting a whole pig. I always heard they were good, and most I heard of roasted them with an apple in their mouth.

Depending on who made it, I liked head cheese, or hated it. I don't remember us ever making any ourselves, we would cook the heads down and mom would make tomales out of the head meat, which was some good vittles.

coxy · January 29, 2018, 06:59:44 AM

yum yum haven't had fresh head cheese in years but your right its good or garbage

petefrom bearswamp · January 29, 2018, 06:37:12 PM

Head cheese? no but pig roast in Harrison Michigan you bet

starmac · January 29, 2018, 07:59:26 PM

Not pork, well there probably was some ham hocks or salt pork or something in it, but my wifes grandmother had a pressure cooker blow up with pinto beans, it caused quite a commotion, and when they finally tore the old farmhouse down, you could still see the claw marks in the sheetrock across the living room ceiling the cat left.

coxy · January 29, 2018, 10:57:53 PM

Quote from: petefrom bearswamp on January 29, 2018, 06:37:12 PM
Head cheese? no but pig roast in Harrison Michigan you bet

you don't know what your missing

justallan1 · February 03, 2018, 07:03:15 PM

Okay no pig stories, but this whole post was pure entertainment!

sawguy21 · February 03, 2018, 09:54:55 PM

Quote from: starmac on January 29, 2018, 07:59:26 PM
Not pork, well there probably was some ham hocks or salt pork or something in it, but my wifes grandmother had a pressure cooker blow up with pinto beans, it caused quite a commotion, and when they finally tore the old farmhouse down, you could still see the claw marks in the sheetrock across the living room ceiling the cat left.

:D :D :D I bet the cat wasn't the only one running for cover. We bought a pig from close friends, Karen, the city girl, was quite fascinated watching it grow and named it Marie. She almost fell over laughing when I reminded her that was my ex girlfriends name. Dave fattened it on fruit, kitchen scraps as well as whey from the cheese plant, I have never had better pork. I was reluctant to try head cheese but held my nose and went for it, actually makes a fine sammich.