Butchering - Or Turning a Hog into Useful and Delicious Things

January 20, 1932  We butchered a hog.  John H. Reimers, C. Dalkes, and Anna Friesen helped us.  Nice weather but very muddy, so the cars got stuck.

Butchering day was an important event for the Siemens family, as it was for all farmers.  It was expensive to buy meat in the store, if it was even available at all, so raising their own meat was much more economical.  Even though it was a long, long day of hard physical work, it was also a great social occasion with a lot of laughing, story-telling, and visiting.  Everyone looked forward to butchering day, and neighbors helped each other out.

Who was the work crew on this day?  First of all, Cornelius and his wife Margaret (my grandparents) and their four children Mary (19 years old), Jake (18), Corney (16), and John (14).  Then Grandma Siemens’ older brother John H. Reimer and wife Katharina were there and her older sister Anna (Reimer) with her husband Cornelius Dalke.  Finally, Anna R. Friesen (20 years old) who was Grandma Siemens’ niece was living with the Dalkes, so she also came to help.  Son Jake must have taken advantage of these opportunities to get to know Anna Friesen because they were married a few years later.

Usually the Siemens butchered two hogs, although on this day they only butchered one.  The day started with the Siemens doing their chores before breakfast.  Then the friends who were helping would come for breakfast at about 6:00 a.m. and then start butchering while it was still dark.  In the morning the women cooked in the kitchen to feed the crew dinner and faspa later on while the men got the actual butchering started.

No one had a gun, so they would kill the hog with a sledgehammer blow to the head and cut the throat to bleed it out.  (All you city slickers would do well to experience where your meat comes from.)  Next, they hung the hog up in the garage and scalded it by dipping it in a barrel of boiling water.  Then they would scrape off the bristles, saving the skin for the liverwurst.  Then they would cut the hog in halves and scrape the lard off the skin.  Next, the meat was cut into pieces – the ribs, bacon, hams, etc. were cut up.  By this point the cooking inside was far enough along that some of the women would come out and help with the meat and lard.

The lard had to be ground and rendered.  A wood fire was built under the rendering kettle, the Miagrope, and the ground lard was put in with the spare ribs.  The lard had to be stirred constantly while it rendered, or melted, and then cooked for several hours.  Once the lard started rendering, everyone would eat dinner (the noon meal), while one man stirred the lard.  It was very important to control the fire so that the lard and cracklings would not scorch.

The noon meal was very good with plenty of food because there were a lot of people to feed who had been working very hard since early morning.  Usually the meal consisted of fried chicken, which was a treat; potatoes; and fresh pies that had been baked that morning.

Next the meat for the sausage, liverwurst, and head cheese was ground up.  The sausage and liverwurst were stuffed in the intestines, which the women had cleaned.  The liverwurst was a mixture of ground pork and liver and was cooked, but the sausage was kept raw and then smoked the next day.  For head cheese the head was picked clean of meat, cooked, and ground up and pressed into a loaf. 

When the lard was ready, they would strain out the cracklings, the bit of meat from the lard, and pour the liquid lard into stone crocks.  It was very important to add up the number of gallons of lard from a hog – a good hog would give twenty gallons.  The lard was the cooking and baking fat that was used throughout the year and was stored for the whole year in the cool basement.

Once the lard was finished the work was mostly done.  Everyone would sit down for faspa and eat spare ribs that had been cooking in the lard, which was another treat.  Finally, everyone who had helped would get some meat to take home.  Unfortunately, the yard was muddy, probably from melting snow, so the cars got stuck and had to be gotten out, even though everyone was tired.  Then the Siemens still had to clean all the pots and pans, the cutting table, and the knives and then do chores again.  They had started long before sunrise and worked until long after sunset, but this was a day that would provide them with meat and fat for the whole year.  And it had been a lot of fun as well.