Some of you are older than me, but I remember the one hog killing I went to in the 60's was a group thing. They shot him, about 200 lbs, and then rolled him in lye water to get his hair out. Everyone assisted and then the meat was divided up afterwards. My uncle put his on a flatbed wagon and put it in the garage until he hung it in the smokehouse. Had flies all over it. I remember having some of later. My aunt would cut squrrs? out of it, bugs I guess. The meat was dark, but tasty. Was this the way the meat was done in the 1800's ? Kevin

Back when I was a child, hog killing was a neighborhood thing. All the neighbors would come over to help each other. There was lots of sharing, back then. Each family would have anywhere fron 1 to 5-6 very large hogs each season. Daddy would always go kill the hog with a special butcher knife, (My mother still has that butcher knife and I washed it the last time I was down there). Dad and the boys would load the hog on a slide pulled by one of the farm mules or horses,and bring it to the back yard where it was put in a vat of boiling water and taken out and the hair was easily removed after the scalding, they they would hang the hog from a tree or something else and they would cut it open from one end to the other and gut it and then it was washed out with boiling water. It was then placed on a large table and cut into various parts. the hams and other parts were salted down and placed in a large wooden box filled with salt for curing. Eventually the hams were hung up in the smoke house and smoked with hickory wood. There were no flies ever in our smoke house. Sausage were ground and seasoned, the lard was cooked out. We always had several hogs for killing each year, some weighing between 400-600 lbs each. We always had plenty to eat, even though there were 12 of us living in the house for several yers, Mother and Daddy, 7 of us children, Mother's parents and Daddy's Mother. I've been in on lye soap making and hominy cooking and syrup making too. My father was the third member of his immediate family to work the sawmill circuit. His father was a sawyer, then Dad's older brother went in to the business as a sawyer and when daddy was old enough he learned the trade from his father and brother. All three of them were highly sought after for their skill. The tradition stopped with my Father, as none of his children followed in his footsteps. My three oldest brothers went into the military and when they got out they went into the electronic business, one of them went into teaching electronics at a local Junior College. The youngest son went into the Air Force and made a career of it. I am the oldest daughter and my career startrd out and lasted for many years in the photography business, I then went to work for the police department as a comminications officer. The next daughter is a registered nurse and the baby of the family is my youngest sister who went into the teaching profession. Our Mother will be 96 years of age in August and is in good health, still lives alone, has a wonderful memory and everybody says she's the best cook ever. So it looks like craklin bread hasn't been bad for her ! Hope y'all didn't get bored with this. Mary ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Morgan" <retread2006@sbcglobal.net> To: <tncannon@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 7:31 AM Subject: [TNCANNON] Hog > Some of you are older than me, but I remember the one hog killing I went > to in the 60's was a group thing. They shot him, about 200 lbs, and then > rolled him in lye water to get his hair out. Everyone assisted and then > the meat was divided up afterwards. My uncle put his on a flatbed wagon > and put it in the garage until he hung it in the smokehouse. Had flies all > over it. I remember having some of later. My aunt would cut squrrs? out of > it, bugs I guess. The meat was dark, but tasty. > Was this the way the meat was done in the 1800's ? > Kevin > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > TNCANNON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Very interesting, Mary! Cecelia in Texas > Back when I was a child, hog killing was a neighborhood thing. All the > neighbors would come over to help each other. There was lots of sharing, > > Hope y'all didn't get bored with this. > > Mary >

Very interesting, Mary! Cecelia in Texas > Back when I was a child, hog killing was a neighborhood thing. All the > neighbors would come over to help each other. There was lots of sharing, > > Hope y'all didn't get bored with this. > > Mary >