Killing a pig

[piazzola]

All of us that had something to do with pigs and piglets we know that is disgusting but when it has to be done we have done it or do it.

Pigs gives us lots of ingredients and small goods including hams, sausages and preserved small goods everything can be preserved one way or another.

I'd found it hard to aim for the jugular on the killing table with a vat underneath to collect the blood for the sausages or and yet some of my piglets ran away soon after I started.

I'd like to know the different countries methods more specifically.

What your methods?

[Chris Amirault]

There are two remarkable depictions of pig killing in In Pursuit of Flavor by Edna Lewis (southern US) and Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli (Italy). Both draw the routines of the late fall pig kill. If anyone has those books handy and has time (I've neither at the moment), add them here; if not, I'll try to get to them in a bit.

[Peter the eater]

What are your methods?

Our neighbor shows up with a gun and a truck. The next day he comes back with the primal cuts in big boxes.

[Chris Hennes]

In these parts the "backyard" technique seems to be a bullet to the head. Not sure about the bigger operations, though.

[lemniscate]

We always shot the big ones, but I really don't know how the sucklings were slaughtered. We never ate suckling pig, but sold them. Mostly Italian families bought them and took them away live.

My Deputy Sheriff uncle always wanted to shoot the pigs. He was stationed at a Courthouse (60's and 70's) and pig killing season was the only time he ever got to draw his service revolver. We nicknamed him Barney Fife, which he really didn't care for. In fact, my father would hand him the ceremonial first bullet out of his shirt pocket.

[piazzola]

Interesting so far because I have never seen or heard anyone using bullets.

We used knives may be because we could never afford bullets.

[Magictofu]

The only techniques I saw in books on th issue were:

1. Electric shock with specialized equipment + bleeding

2. Bullet in the head + bleeding

I believe a simple bleeding can cause avoidable pain to the animal.

[suzilightning]

growing up i remember the local farmers butchering the fall hog by hoisting it aloft by it's hind feet then slitting it's throat. i can't totally remember what they did with the front feet but then they would slit down and remove the guts.

This website could be useful.

[Peter the eater]

growing up i remember the local farmers butchering the fall hog by hoisting it aloft by it's hind feet then slitting it's throat.  i can't totally remember what they did with the front feet but then they would slit down and remove the guts.

This website could be useful.

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That's a great document, suzilightning.

I've also seen a homemade platform for hog slaughtering on a small family farm. It was a dedicated structure made of 2X4's and plywood. I didn't see it in action but instead of hanging or hoisting, it had a trough for containing the vic while being stuck. Everything was elevated off the ground with various large plastic containers around.

[suzilightning]

I've also seen a homemade platform for hog slaughtering on a small family farm. It was a dedicated structure made of 2X4's and plywood. I didn't see it in action but instead of hanging or hoisting, it had a trough for containing the vic while being stuck. Everything was elevated off the ground with various large plastic containers around.

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believe it or not, peter, but a visit to the farm for fall slaughter was one of the field trips for our all-day kindergarten.

[Magictofu]

believe it or not, peter, but a visit to the farm for fall slaughter was one of the field trips for our all-day kindergarten.

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And how did the kids react? What about the parents?

I find this very interesting considering the reaction I tend to get around here when talking about similar issues.

[Shoom]

Wait, you tried to slaughter piglets by severing the jugular without (sorry for the pun) hog-tying them first? Why?

In the U.S., I've only witnessed pig slaughter with a .22 at close range. In ye olde country, when I was a kid, hogs were hog-tied, slit, and hung up for bleeding from the rafters.

[piazzola]

Don't know about kids and cruelty to animals caper. That is a different subjects to the topic of traditions.

BTW is was ten when we slaughtered our first pig.

I forgot about Tongan islanders they love their pork.

They love their food and they are big people pork is a big part of their staple diet so they do not buy pork at butchers they prepare them themselves mostly men and their sons dispatch the beasts before the feasts.

[suzilightning]

believe it or not, peter, but a visit to the farm for fall slaughter was one of the field trips for our all-day kindergarten.

←

And how did the kids react? What about the parents?

I find this very interesting considering the reaction I tend to get around here when talking about similar issues.

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this was back in the 60's and 70's and most of us grew up hunting and fishing so it was no big deal for us or our parents. it was just part of the "visit to the farm" that ended when the farmer died and it stopped being a working farm.