Josh and his pa again. This is a series of 3 videos that provide an overview of the process (minus the smoking - I don't think they smoke their hams) that takes a hog from hoof to sausage.
If anyone is squeamish, and doesn't really want to know where their morning sausage biscuit comes from, they can safely skip this series. Matter of fact, it's encouraged to skip it under such conditions. The videos are not gratuitously gory or horrific, they're just a part of life. Still, some folks have a more delicate constitution than others.
It's just the hillbilly way.
Killing, scalding, and scraping:
The "singletree" they hang the hog with is actually a part of horse harness. It's the part that goes between the harness and the load being pulled. The hooks on the ends that the hog is being hung from are where the "Traces" from the harness hook to - the tugs that run from the horse's collar to the load, insuring that the horse is "pushing" the load with his shoulders via the collar. The central clevis that they are hanging the singletree from is the part that fastens to the load being pulled.
A singletree is for one horse pulling a load. We also had "doubletrees" made to hook a team of horses to a load, side by side.
Butchering:
Sausage production (while the rest of the hog is curing in a salt box):
I can recall using a grinder that was a hand crank grinder, but I think pap finally stepped into the 20th century and bought a motorized one. It wasn't a big industrial grinder like they are using, just a household model. Both types had a clamp to clamp them to the edge of a kitchen table, and then you were in business. Each type has it's advantages, with the main advantage of the hand=crank variety being exercise if there is no electricity.
.
If anyone is squeamish, and doesn't really want to know where their morning sausage biscuit comes from, they can safely skip this series. Matter of fact, it's encouraged to skip it under such conditions. The videos are not gratuitously gory or horrific, they're just a part of life. Still, some folks have a more delicate constitution than others.
It's just the hillbilly way.
Killing, scalding, and scraping:
The "singletree" they hang the hog with is actually a part of horse harness. It's the part that goes between the harness and the load being pulled. The hooks on the ends that the hog is being hung from are where the "Traces" from the harness hook to - the tugs that run from the horse's collar to the load, insuring that the horse is "pushing" the load with his shoulders via the collar. The central clevis that they are hanging the singletree from is the part that fastens to the load being pulled.
A singletree is for one horse pulling a load. We also had "doubletrees" made to hook a team of horses to a load, side by side.
Butchering:
Sausage production (while the rest of the hog is curing in a salt box):
I can recall using a grinder that was a hand crank grinder, but I think pap finally stepped into the 20th century and bought a motorized one. It wasn't a big industrial grinder like they are using, just a household model. Both types had a clamp to clamp them to the edge of a kitchen table, and then you were in business. Each type has it's advantages, with the main advantage of the hand=crank variety being exercise if there is no electricity.
.