Meats and Small Game: The Foxfire Americana Library (4)

by Edited by Foxfire Students

The best slaughtering weight for a hog is from 180 to 240 pounds.

  Kill hogs only when the temperature is 32–35°F. Souring bacteria multiply rapidly at temperatures above 40°. Cure the meat immediately after slaughtering.

  Do not cure a bruised ham as it will spoil.

  A good curing mixture is eight pounds of salt, three pounds of sugar, and three ounces of saltpeter. Apply the mix at the rate of 1¼ ounces per pound. Use a third of the mixture on the first day, another third on the third day, and the last third on the tenth day. Rub it in thoroughly each time.

  On a ham, good salt penetration requires seven days per inch of thickness. Bacon requires from fourteen to sixteen days.

  Add another day to the curing schedule for each day the weather is below freezing.

  Then wash the outside coating of salt off and leave the meat at a temperature below 40° for another twenty to twenty-five days for salt equalization. Then smoke the meat, if desired. Don’t allow the temperature in the smokehouse to exceed 100°. Use hickory, oak, or apple as fuel.

  Smoke hams until they are amber or mahogany in color (usually about two days). Smokehouse should be sealed and ventilated with fans, or completely screened for natural ventilation.

  RECIPES FOR HOG

  THE HEAD

  SOUSE—(Also called “souse meaty,” “headcheese” “pressed hog’s head,” etc.) Prepare the raw hog’s head as follows:

  Trim, scrape, or singe off any hairs or bristles that are left.

  If you intend to use the ears, brains, snout, tongue, or jowls for any purpose other than souse, remove them and set aside to soak. Otherwise, leave them on the head to be ground up. Note that the ears are gristly, and when ground up in the souse, they leave white flukes of gristle in the meat. This is not harmful, but some find it unattractive.

  Cut out the eyes.

  The bulk of the head is now halved or quartered with an axe, or left whole (depending on the size of your pot), and while still fresh, is put in a pot of fresh water, usually to soak overnight. This soaking removes the remaining blood from the meat.

  We have found only a few people who cook the head whole. One reason is that leaving it whole makes it harder to soak the blood out. Bill Lamb gave a different reason, saying, “Henry’d killed a hog, and when he come in from work, they had it sittin’ there cooked. Hadn’t even cut th’ ears out, th’ eyes’r nothin’. Just cooked th’ whole head like it was. Had it sittin’ in a dish. That’uz th’ first thing he seed was that hog lookin’ at him when he come in t’dinner, an’ he just turned and went back an’ never eat a bite.”

  After soaking, rinse the head until the rinse water runs clear. Then put it in a pot of clean, salty water and cook it slowly until it is good and tender, and the meat begins to fall off the bones. Then remove all meat from the bones and run through a food chopper.

  Seasoning depends on your own taste. Some use, per head, one tablespoon of sage, a half teaspoon ground red pepper, and salt and black pepper to taste. Others use one onion, one pod of strong red pepper chopped fine, and one teaspoon of salt. Beulah Perry uses a little red and black pepper, an onion, a little corn meal, and sage and garlic to taste. Evie Carpenter adds a little vinegar, along with sage, black pepper and onion.

  The meat and seasoning are now thoroughly mixed, and then put into capped jars, a mold, or a plate (covered with a clean white cloth). Then, if it is not to be eaten immediately, it is put into the smokehouse where the winter weather will keep it fresh. It can either be eaten cold, or reheated, depending on your preference.

  Another method—Proceed as before through the seasoning step. Then put the mixture in a skillet and place on the back of the wood stove until the grease is runny. Remove from the fire, put a plate on top of the meat, and apply pressure to make the grease run out. Repeat until all the grease is out and poured off. Remove the plate, put the meat on a clean plate, and keep in a cold place. Slice as needed.

  SCRAPPLE—As told by Mrs. Mann Norton, “Take th’ head, an’ take th’ eyeballs out, an’ th’ ears, an’ cut down in there. Then y’got all th’ hairs off of it. Y’put it in a big pot an’ cooked it til th’ meat just turned loose of th’ main big bone.

  “Y’lifted them bones out, an’ laid your meat over in there an’ felt of it with your hands t’see if they wadn’t no bones in it. Then y’strain yer liquid through a strainer so th’ little bones’d come out. Put’cher liquid back in a pot, and put that mashed meat back in that liquid. Put’cher sage an’ pepper in there. Then y’stir it ’til it got t’boilin’. Then y’stick plain corn meal in there til it’s just plumb thick. Then y’pour it up in a mold, an’ cut it off’n fry it, an’ brown it. Tastes just like fish.”

  Mann Norton added, “Just hold your tongue so y’didn’t swaller it when y’went t’eatin’!”

  HOG’S HEAD STEW—This recipe comes from the Joanne Carver family. Every harvesttime they plunge into a cooking-canning spree that goes for days and leaves them more than ready for the winter. The measurements given below yielded sixty-three quarts last time around. If you can’t handle quite that much, cut proportionally, subtracting or adding other ingredients according to preference.

  1½ hog’s heads

  2 shoulders or hams of venison

  4 chickens

  1 peck onions

  1 gallon Irish potatoes

  5 half gallons each of tomatoes, corn, peas, carrots

  6 large cans tomato juice to thin

  1 package poultry seasoning

  bay leaves to taste

  5 pounds salt (or to taste)

  Worcestershire Sauce to taste

  pepper to taste

  broth may be substituted for, or added to the tomato juice

  Cook the meat until it comes easily off the bones. Cool, remove the meat from the bones, and grind it up (or run through a food chopper) together with the other ingredients. Place the mixture in quart jars, seal, and cook in a pressure cooker for sixty minutes at ten pounds pressure. Then store away for the lean months.

  Her mother’s recipe for the same stew, provided us by Brenda Carver, varies somewhat: 1 hog’s head, 2 chickens, 4 pounds ground beef, 1 gallon potatoes, 1 gallon tomatoes, 4 number two cans each of peas, corn, and carrots. Chop and blend ingredients, can, cook in pressure cooker for thirty minutes.

  JOWLS—The jowls are fatty, so they are often removed rather than being combined with the souse meat. Some salt them down and cure them just like hams or middlin’ meat, and save them until warm weather to be boiled with vegetables. Others grind them up with the sausage meat.

  Some also fry them. As Bill Lamb said, “Now you talkin’ about part of a hog that I love is th’ jowls. They ain’t a better tastin’ bite’a meat in a hog than th’ jowl is. You fry it.”

  TONGUE—Clean by pouring boiling water over it and scraping it. Then boil until tender in a little salt water with pepper added if you wish. Slice and serve.

  BRAIN—Most of our contacts put the brains in hot water to loosen the veil of skin covering them. Then they boil them in one cup of water, adding salt and pepper to taste while stirring. When cooked, they mash them with a potato masher, put them in a pan, and scramble them with eggs.

  Others let them stand in cold water for one to two hours. Then they drain them and remove any unwanted fibers. Then cook as above for twenty minutes in salted water and proceed as above, using eggs, etc.

  SNOUT (also called the “rooter”)—the snout is often cleaned and roasted. Mann Norton claims, “Lot’a people throwed away that they called th’ rooter. Oh I forbid that. I’d rather have that as any part a’-th’ hog. Oh that’s good eatin’.”

  EARS—If the ears were not used in souse, they could also be boiled in salt water until tender, and eaten. Very few of our contacts used them alone, however, due to the amount of gristle they contain, especially at the tips.

  INTERNAL ORGANS

  LIVER—Most of our contacts used the liver for “liver pudding,” or “liver mush.” They made it as
follows—Cut up the liver, wash it well, and remove skin. Boil until tender in salted water. Then remove and run through a colander until fine, or mash well. Mix the meat with one cup of the broth it was cooked in. Bring to a boil slowly, stirring in sifted corn meal until thick. Also stir in salt (to taste), a half teaspoon black pepper, two tablespoons sage, and a little red pepper if desired.

  Pour into a mold and let sit until cold. Slice and eat. Some eat it as a sandwich, or warm the slices in bacon fat or grease before eating.

  HEART—None of our contacts used the heart by itself, but none of them threw it away, either. Some canned it after cleaning, with backbones and ribs for use later in stews. Others boiled the heart, backbone, and lights (lungs) together for stew. Still another boiled kidneys, heart, tail, and tongue together for stew.

  LIGHTS (more commonly known as lungs)—Nowhere did we run into as much difference of opinion as with this item. One said, “It’s very good—very good.” Another said, “Lots’a folks like th’ lights, but I never did.” Another comment was simply, “Feed’em to th’ dogs!” Those recipes we did get—

  Boil them in just enough salted water to cover them after cleaning them well. Don’t use too much water or it will steal some of their flavor. If there isn’t any water left when they’re done, it’s better.

  Cook them down to the consistency of a gravy, mash, and serve. They cannot be kept.

  Another chopped up the lights with the liver and tongue, added a chopped onion, red pepper, salt, and cooked until tender.

  STOMACH (also called the “paunch” or “punch”)—Cut the stomach free of intestines, split, and wash out well. Scrape it down and soak in salt water for three days. Then rinse, cut up, and cook like chitlins. (Most of our contacts also removed the inside layer when cutting it up prior to frying.)

  INTESTINES (called “chitterlings” or, more commonly, “chitlins.”)—Sections of the intestine are put in a jar of salt water and allowed to sit for three or four days. Then they are taken out, rinsed, washed, and rinsed again. In winter, they can be lightly salted, put up in jars, and kept for a few days before cooking.

  When cooking, cut up in small pieces and remove any unwanted layers of lining. Then boil in salt water with a half pod of pepper until tender. Dip into a batter made of flour, water, and baking powder (with an egg if desired) and fry; or roll in corn meal and fry in grease.

  THE REMAINDER

  FEET—Rake hot coals out on the fireplace hearth. Put the feet on the hearth with the hooves against the coals. When very hot, the hooves can be sliced out of the meat easily, and the remainder of the hair scraped or singed off, and the meat scraped clean. Then put in a pot of salt water and cook, or roast.

  The feet can also be boiled in salty water until the meat slips off the hooves. They can be pickled too.

  Mann Norton said, “Doc Neville, now he always wanted th’ feet. I’d pack’em in a shoe box just as full as I could get it and mail ’em to him.”

  BACKBONE/RIBS—These can either be put together and stewed like chicken parts, barbecued, or canned with a teaspoon of salt per quart can. Water is not necessary when heating as they make their own gravy.

  TAIL—Often the tail was saved for use in stews. One contact made a stew of feet, ears, tail, salt, and red pepper, boiled until tender.

  SKIN—The mother of one of our contacts used to save pieces of skin, put them in a pan, and roast them. Then the children could “eat it all along.”

  SAUSAGE—Use any combination of lean meat not used otherwise. This includes trimmings of lean meat from hams, shoulders, middlin’ meat, etc. It can also include the tenderloin, meat from the head, and, if you wish, the jowls.

  Take ten pounds of lean pork, a quarter cup salt, a half cup brown sugar, two tablespoons sage, two teaspoons black pepper, and two teaspoons red pepper. Many parch their own red pepper in front of the fireplace, crush it, and then add it to the sausage.

  Run the mixture through a sausage grinder, fry it good and brown (but not completely cooked since it has to be reheated when served), pack into jars (half to three-quarters full) while still very hot, pour hot grease over the top, close the jars, and turn them upside down to cool. When the grease cools, it seals the lids shut, and the sausage will keep until you are ready to use it. It is usually stored with the jars remaining upside down.

  Other ways to store it:

  Roll the sausage into balls, pack them in a churn jar, pour hot grease over the top, tie a cloth over the lid, and set in the water trough of your spring house.

  Pack the sausage in sections of cleaned, small intestine, tie the intestine off at both ends, and hang from the joists of the smokehouse for curing.

  Remove the ear from a corn shuck, pack the sausage inside after washing the shuck thoroughly, tie the end of the shuck closed with string or wire, and hang in the smokehouse.

  Pack in small, clean, white cloth sacks and hang in smokehouse.

  FAT—The fat is trimmed from entrails, hams, shoulders, middlin’, etc. It is left out all night in the lard pot so that the cold weather can solidify it and make it easier to cut up.

  In the morning, the fat is cut up into pieces about the size of hens’ eggs and put in a pot containing just enough water to keep it from sticking to the sides when cooked. The pot is then placed over a fire, and the fat is allowed to cook slowly. It is stirred often. By evening, the grease will have boiled out, the water evaporated, and the hard residue called “cracklin’s” will have fallen to the bottom.

  The grease (lard) is poured into containers, allowed to harden, and is used all winter for cooking. The cracklin’s are saved for bread.

  Add soda if you don’t want many cracklin’s. The soda also keeps it from smelling while cooking and from tasting strong.

  DRESSING AND COOKING WILD ANIMAL FOODS

  RACCOON

  SKINNING AND DRESSING—Many hunters cut the jugular vein and bleed the coon as soon as they have killed one to prevent the meat from spoiling. Then they either bring it home and skin it, or skin it in the field. It is done as follows:

  Ring the hind legs and the front legs at the foot joint. Split the pelt on the inside middle of both hind legs from the ring to the crotch.

  Repeat on front legs, splitting to the middle of the chest.

  Then split the pelt up the middle of the underside from the crotch, through the split from the front legs, and up to the end of the bottom jaw.

  Cut around tail on the underside only. Connect split. Skin out both hind legs, and make a small slice between bone and tendon and insert a gamblin’ stick. Hang the coon up. Take two small sticks, and grip them together firmly so that the base of the tail is between. Pull carefully while holding the sticks tightly clamped together, and the tail will slide off the tail bone (Illustration 13). If you want to keep the skin, be sure not to pull the tail off.

  Work the pelt off to the front legs, slicing the mesentery between skin and muscle when necessary (Illustration 14). Slice up to front legs, and then skin the front legs out. If you want to eat the coon, remove the two pear-shaped musk glands from under the forearms.

  ILLUSTRATION 13 U. G. McCoy clamps the tail between two sticks and slides the pelt off the tail bone. The coon is hanging upside down from a gamblin’ stick.

  ILLUSTRATION 14 Now he works the pelt up to the shoulders slicing the mesentery, where necessary, with his pocket knife.

  Skin around the neck until you get to the head (Illustration 15). Cut the ears off even with the head. If you make a bad ear hole, the pelt’s value will be reduced by fifty cents. Skin right around the eyes leaving only the eyeballs. Then go down the snout, cutting off the end so that the nose button is still attached to the pelt.

  Now split the flesh down the middle from throat to crotch and remove intestines and organs. Cut off the head, tail, and feet, and soak the carcass in cold water (preferably overnight unless you have just killed it) to get the blood out.

  ILLUSTRATION 15 Carefully, he works the pelt off over the coon
’s head

  COOKING—The most common way of cooking coon is to put it in a pot of salted water (one spoon of salt per pound), one or two pods of red pepper or one tablespoon of black pepper, and let it boil in a pot with no lid until the meat is tender. Remove, put in a greased baking pan, and bake until golden brown.

  To parboil, add either broken spicewood twigs, an onion or two, a teaspoonful of vinegar, or some potatoes to the water to remove the wild taste. Take out, roll in flour, salt and pepper, and bake in a greased Dutch Oven turning the meat often. Another method is to rub the parboiled coon with salt and pepper, and dot it with butter. Place quartered sweet potatoes around the meat, and bake it in an oven at four hundred degrees until the meat and potatoes are tender. The meat can also be parboiled, cut into pieces, rolled in corn meal, and then fried in lard.

  Another contact told us that his method was to sprinkle the skinned carcass all over with salt and leave it overnight on a pan that was tipped so that as the salt drew the water out, it would drain. The next morning he packs it in ice and cools the meat, then parboils it, cuts it into two halves, and bakes it like a ham, basting it with a sauce containing poultry seasoning. Still another woman told us that rather than skinning the coon, her family always dipped the coon in boiling water to which ashes had been added to help loosen the hair. Then the coon was scraped clean, gutted, and the chest cavity filled with sweet potatoes. It was then baked until brown and tender.

  Apparently it is also possible to salt the scraped, gutted carcass and smoke it like a ham for later use.

  POSSUM

  DRESSING—Few people in this area bother to skin the few possums they eat. The prevailing tradition is to scald the possum in boiling water containing a half cup of lime or ashes. Then it is scraped until hairless, gutted (it should have been bled immediately after caught), the musk glands under the forearms removed, and either the head or at least the eyes removed. The carcass is then soaked, preferably overnight, before cooking.