Clark Girls

Now I know where the saying"I'm bleeding like a stuck pig." came from. Read this and you can talk about sticking pigs and the like, with T.Hirschfeld on his front porch while drinking his bourbon. I know how to keep thebourbon coming! "So Tom, have you ever scalded a pig?" I'm going to Toms and Amy's for Thanksgiving and now I am prepared to converse with him about early American food storing practices. That's just how I rolllllll!

The preservation of food usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi, and other undesirable organisms. Prevented, too, is the food becoming rancid or discolored like an apple that is allowed to sit around awhile after being peeled. Drying is one of the oldest methods and can be used for meat and fruits. Pickling and smoking are other methods used in early America that are still used today. Pickling involves placing or cooking food in something that kills bacteria. Often used is brine, vinegar, or a vegetable oil. Hams are often smoked or sugar cured. Freezing could be used in early America only during the winter. Canning involves cooking fruits or vegetables and sealing them in sterile (germ free) jars, cans, or bottles and boiling them to kill bacteria. Canning did not begin until 19th century (1800s). Food may also be preserved by cooking it in a material that solidifies to form a gel. This is called jellying. The woman in the picture above is standing in front or her preserves and under smoked meat.

While back before families could refrigerate their food, fruits could be preserved by being cooked in a syrup made of sugar and water and then being stored in well sealed glass jars, for meat a different system was required.

Today you see many cattle in Carroll County fields. Seldom do you see hogs. In the past the opposite was true. Back then, when the weather turned cold, it was time to butcher hogs. This was because if butchering took place on a hot day, the meat was likely to spoil.

It has been said that the only part of a hog that was not used was the squeal. Besides providing farm families with meat, soap and candles were made from the hog's fat, and brushes were made from its hair. Some of the meat was turned into bacon and ham in a smokehouse. In addition to adding flavor, smoking the meat helped to preserve it.

Neighbors were often invited over to help with the butchering. Sharp knives were used to stab and bleed the hog, shave off its hair, dress the carcass, and carve the meat into various cuts. In order to shave the hog’s hair, the hog was first scalded with water from a container heated over a fire.

Salt was needed for producing fat back, ham, and bacon. Lye was needed to make soap and hominy, and various seasonings were needed to make sausage.

The hog was hung from a pole for cleaning, dressing, and cooling before the meat was carved. Its feet were cut off to be processed into pickled pigs feet. The brains and intestines were also removed to be eaten. The ears, nose, and tail were also removed and eaten. The thick layers of fat on each side of the backbone were made into lard, which was used in baking.

The intestines were washed several times before being slid over sticks inside out. Then the insides were thoroughly washed. Once they were boiled, which was very foul smelling process, this meat, called chitlins or chitterlings, was ready to eat.

Some of the chitlins were laid aside to be used as sausage casings. The basic contents of sausage came from lean meat from the loins and shoulders mixed with fat. A hand-cranked meat grinder was used to grind this meat up. After being mixed with seasonings, this was stuffed into chitlin casings with a hand stuffer. Fat trimmed from the various cuts of meat were cubed for making soap. Salt pork used in frying and flavoring vegetables was created by soaking some of the meat in brine. (Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt.)

In order to smoke meat it was hung in a building called a smokehouse that was made as air tight as possible in order to keep the smoke used to cure the meat from escaping. Hams, shoulders, bacon slabs, and sausage were cured by smoking. The smoke was produced by a fire box on the floor of the smokehouse. Smoked meat might be kept for years without spoiling.