Richard's Ramblings

By Richard McWilliams

September 30, 2001

The log building is what we called the "Smoke House". It was an annual even sometime after Thanksgiving the special hogs that Granddad "Daddy Moody" had been feeding separate from all the other hogs for "Hog Killing Day". Down by the hog feeding pens, there was a large "vat", a little larger than a bathtub, that had water heating in it and setting on a special fire designed to heat the metal bottom without burning the wooden sides. The temperature had to be just right, so it would be very hot, but not boiling.

A couple of big strong men would be standing by while "Daddy Moody" selected the right hog. He would shoot the animal so it would kill it but not do any damage to what was about to become the winter's supply for the family. Usually it was shot right between the eyes and would be a .22 caliber short. Immediately after the shooter did his part a special knife was used next to open the jugular in the neck so that the blood could be drained as much as possible. Then very quickly the whole 250 to 300 pounds of pork was rolled into the near boiling water and rolled back and forth so that the hair could be "scalded". A couple of fellows using special knives again, would "scrape" all the hair off the skin. It was a real no-no to cut the skin, since the skin would serve a purpose later. All of this would take mere minutes, then the carcass was opened to remove the parts that would be discarded, and make a special effort in extracting the parts that would make a very special meal on "hog Killing Day". Those items would be the Liver, Sweetbread, Brains, etc. One of Chef's Delight was Brains with scrambled eggs.

At this time the muscled boys in the group would load the carcass on a wagon of whatever was available and take it to the "Smoke House". The big board that is seen in the picture would be laying on something by this time to form a make shift table.

Out of the way everybody! "Daddy Moody" is about to show everyone how to butcher pork and do it right. First, we all had "the lecture" a few times in the past day or so about how all the knives had to be sharp, but not just sharp, but sharp the Moody way. This applied for the knife used to do the bleeding and the ones that were used to do the scraping too. Well, that huge hog very quickly began turning into smaller parts, like ham, shoulder, slab of bacon, tenderloins and all the other parts.

Now that all the parts had been separated into their well known parts the next step was to bring out the tub of "sugar curing" and give everything a good rub down in it, except the liver, brains, ect. I don't know that I have ever seen a recipe for the sugar cure, but I remember a few of the ingredients. There was a special salt, not just plain table salt, brown sugar, black pepper and cayenne pepper and just a few that I do remember. This special mixture was rubbed into the hind quarters (hams) and the shoulder especially until you would think they couldn't be rubbed any more.

Now, the day before the "Smoke House" had been cleaned of any leftover meat and other items that had gotten in it for storage. Then a pot of hot coals would be brought in and set in the middle of the small floor space. This fire was kept at a smoldering stage by adding more coals as needed, it was never allowed to burn with a blaze. All the portions of meat would have a wire attached to them for hanging to small beams that were equal to a ceiling joist height. After all the parts had been properly hung up, then the watch time started. The pot of hot coals had to be watched so that they didn't get too hot, yet burn enough to keep a nice smoke filling the air. Many people would use Hickory wood or the smoking of the meat so the meat would have the popular "Hickory Smoked" taste when cooked, especially bacon.

After the curing process was over there would be enough meat to feed the family throughout the winter and spring, about the time that hunting season started and families switched to fresh game meat, as well as fish.