Hog-killing Time Meant Lots of Hard Work in Tallow Flat

By MILTON PARTAIN

Contributing writer


When, a really good cold spell came, preferaby the first half of
December, it ,was.hog killing timein TallowFlat.
The temperature needed to be in at least the low 40s, but the 30s
were even better. With no refrigeration, natural cold was needed
to keep the meat from spoiling while it was being processed,
The barrows that had been capturedin the fall hog hunt and
brought home to be penned and fed were fat enough by this lime
to be ready for slaughter. They were fed plemtiful amounts of corn mash and slop, including kitchen scraps, to make a rapid weight gain and put on more fat that
could be rendered into lard, An ideal weight was between 150 and 200 pounds on the hoof. Less than that and there was not enough meat to make all the work involved
worthwhile; more than that and it was difficult to handle for processing.
The preparations included filling the huge cast iron washpot with bucket after bucket of water drawn from the well by rope and pulley. The pot stood on legs high
enough so that oak wood could be laid beneath and around it and
burned to bring the water to a boil. A slanted hole was dug into
the ground and a 55-gallon drum or barrel was set into it at an angle so that several gallons of hot water could be poured in without spilling. Knives were sharpened
and a stout rope was thrown over a strong branch of a convenient tree.
Once the hog had been killed and bled, a piece of seasoned oak
limb that had been sharpened on both ends was inserted in slits made between the ligaments and the bone of the rear legs. This piece of wood had to be strong
enough to support the weight of the hog without bending or breaking, The rope slung over the tree limb was tied to the center of the stick and the carcass was hoisted
off the ground by manpower. It was then inserted into the barrel
with the hot water and left long enough for the hair to start turning
loose, The carcass was pulled out and raised to a convenient working height, and everyone started grabhing handfuls of hot hair, working as fast as possible
before cooling made the hair tighten again, This procedure was
repeated several times: dip back in tbe barrel, pull hair, throw
buckets of boiling water over the hanging hog, until the majority of
the hair had been removed, Then the scraping began.
Butcher knives were pulled down the skin to scrape off the
remaining hairs, The head and ears were the /host difficult areas
to scrape, Repeating w~shing and scraping eventually left the carcass a clean white and it was ready for butchering. A cut was made from the rear to the neck on the belly side and the body cavity was opened. Entrails were pulled loose and dumped into a No, 3 wash tuh,
The liver and kidneys and some of the smaller intestines that could be used for sausage casings were saved, but the remainder was carried away from the house and
dumped, The everpresent pack of dogs would then fight and growl
and chew until the refuse was corisumed. Larger pieces of fat were trimmed and thrown into a bucket or small tub, to which trimmings would be added to later. All would
be heated to extract lard, which would be saved in one-gallon
syrup buckets and used for cooking. Cholesterol levels in Tallow
Flat were probably astronomical, but since no one there had ever
heard of cholesterol, and hog lard was the only readily available
cooking oil, it was used almost exclusively in frying and baking. ~ The hams and shoulders were removed and hung in the smoke house where a low, smoldering,
hickory wood fire was kept going for days, the smoke permeating
and flavoring the meat. They were then covered with a commercial
sugarcuring preparation that would preserve and add moreflavor to the
meat and turn the raw pork into sugarcured ham and bacon.
The fattier sides and bellies were covered with a curing salt and became salt pork,
used for flavoring beans and other vegetables.
Almost no part of the hog was wasted. Even the brains were mixed with eggs and scrambled
for next morning's breakfast. It took a lot of ingenuity and hard
work to survive in Tallow Flat in those days, but everyone worked
together and developed a closeness and sharing that we could
use more of in today's world.

Milton Partain's column about
his memories of Tallow Flat, located
near Splendora, appear periodically in the Sun.