How to use the whole animal (waste not want not)

[hennible]

Id be working in one big walk in freezer

 

[ozexpat]

I forgot to post my pig here





the pig was the one in front on the left below

 

[hennible]

Nice! Yum!

 

[Amberjem]

nice oz

 

[Beer can]

@ozexpat WOW, nice color, looks like they cooked that one perfect!
I went to a pig roast once that they stuffed the pig with apples, turned out super yummy.

 

[Amberjem]

 

[lazy gardener]

Id be working in one big walk in freezer

That's what I call my deck this time of the year. The grill makes a wonderful place to hold stuff that otherwise might attract the attention of a coon.

 

[Cold Canadian]

I really need to surf this site more ! Missed this posting completely ! But reading all the posts .....yup , read them all .....I see and read a lot of what is familiar to me and growing up on the farm . Chickens were all free range , back in the day it was the real Rhode Island Red , wonderful multi purpose bird , eggs , meat and chicks were always had as long as we had them , Cornish were never in the picture . Fall on the farm was a wonderful time , usually a huge hog that had been selected to be the slaughter hog had been in it's own confines getting healthy meals of greens , chop ( wheat , barley , corn ) soaked in a mixture of milk and water , These things were HUGE , but o so tasty ! , a beef that was also selected as the slaughter animal for the freezer was also feed extra rations to fatten it as it were for that one weekend in fall when my father would go outside in the mid week and somehow know that that weekend the temps etc would be perfect for a massive slaughter ....it was massive ! Normally the Friday was the day it started the beef and hog were first , dispatched , the beef hung so it could cool overnight the hog was done old style , a large rendering pot full of hot water was prepared , once the hog was dispatched it was laid on a ladder with straw under thee ladder to retain some of what would soon be heat as we poured the hot water onto the now covered hog ( gunny sacks to hold the heat ) and wait for the right time and then remove the sacks and start with scrapping the hair off the hog . Always amazed at the fact that no mater what color that hog was it came out white ? But once one side was completely done it was turned and the other side was done as well ......tip of nose to tail ! Then it was hung and gutted , intestines were taken based on what they were intended for ( mom knew ? ) , flushed , soaked in what I believe was a salt brine for a few hours and then washed one more time ? not to sure regrettably.....That pig was then hung to cool down for a few hours as well .....day time temps were always cool in fall so perfect with no bugs etc , air cooled as it were . Once this was done the rendering pot ( some call the wheat cookers , but basically a LARGE pot made of cast iron , about a 1/4 inch thick or more that sat on a round steel skirt that was designed for it , chimney out the back so you would heat it up with firewood , regrettably they are rather hard to find these days as everyone brought them in for scrape ! We would get the water hot as we gathered the chickens which were next for slaughter . These as well as geese were slaughtered , the heart , liver , gizzards as well as feet were all kept , the neck up as close to the head ....apparently they used to do the head as well .....way back in the day ......but the feet were kept for soup and frankly they tasted great these days people would run if they saw them in there bowl ....lol don't know what they were missing ! Saturday was meat cutting , sausage making ,, lard rendering etc day as well as smoking sausage's.......cool days bombarded with wonderful smells that with some fresh baked bread and the evening BBQ along with the other delicacies.........gotta love it ....................how I miss those days and those smells .We also made head cheese , used the hide of the pig , along with any edible meat , usually had only bones left when done

 

[hennible]

Hey cold Canadian glad you found this thread! Considering there's 900,000 odd threads it's pretty easy to miss some lol.
I can't wait for my next butchering session I'm going to hopefully have some Mennonite friends show me how to peel feet again I'll add a guide for chicken feet peeling!

 

[Beer can]

Hi @Cold Canadian !
My parents always had the old heritage breed Rhode Island Reds too!
Cool story. They saved everything back in the day, waste not want not. My grandma said they always saved the blood for pudding and blood sausage and she loved both. I bet you couldn't get anyone to eat that nowdays. I imagine they ate the brains also. I know my dad said when grandpa came home from squirrel hunting he would put the meat in the fridge for dinner and scramble the brains with eggs and fry them up for lunch.
The last chicken butchering I did last summer I saved all the gizzards hearts and liver for frying. And the necks I make chicken neck eggdrop soup. I havent tried the feet yet, maybe next time. I regret not saving the combs, one roo was a white leghorn and his was huge. I saw on food network's tv show 'Chopped' where chicken combs were in the basket.