I got to participate in my first pig slaughter on Saturday. A friend of mine’s parents slaughter a pig every December after buying it 13 months earlier. They just got a baby pig weighing 20 kilograms and the one that was slaughtered was 250 kilos, which multiply by 2.2 is a lot of pounds.
I arrived at 7am via a local train, having missed the killing of the pig by a half hour. The pig was lying on a raised stretcher and was being scrubbed clean when I got there. The blood had been drained (and saved for the Bloodwurst to be made later on) so when the pig was stood up and then cut open, it wasn’t as blody as the last couple of weeks in cooking school seminars on wild game and meat.
After having the local Veteranarian come to make sure the meat was healthy, the local butcher started cutting up the pig into different parts. The bones, head and legs were boiled, making a stock, while the meat was separted into different parts, for bacon, schnitzels, cutlets, and the rest for sausages. We made Leberwurst from the liver, Blutwurst from the lungs and miscilanous meat and then bratwursts from the good meat. Used the intestines and bladder to stuff the sausages, making 115 bratwursts which was a hell of a lot.
The whole day we ate fresh meat off and on, both cooked and uncooked. Being with people from a small town who do this every year, they made sure I tried everything. To offset the amount of meat, we drank schnapps on and off the whole day, part of the slaughtering tradition. At one point when mixing the Hackfleisch (ground pork with spices that can be eaten raw) myself and Marcus, a cousin of my friend, had to take several shots of schnapps after each time of mixing the meat from one side to another. Got to love the traditions.
We finished off the day eating fresh liver, Hackfleisch and other types of meat such as wild boar and deer that they also had, along with more schnapps. Quite an adventure from very early on until late. And I got to take home some stock, sausages and ground pork, not too shabby eh?
I arrived at 7am via a local train, having missed the killing of the pig by a half hour. The pig was lying on a raised stretcher and was being scrubbed clean when I got there. The blood had been drained (and saved for the Bloodwurst to be made later on) so when the pig was stood up and then cut open, it wasn’t as blody as the last couple of weeks in cooking school seminars on wild game and meat.
After having the local Veteranarian come to make sure the meat was healthy, the local butcher started cutting up the pig into different parts. The bones, head and legs were boiled, making a stock, while the meat was separted into different parts, for bacon, schnitzels, cutlets, and the rest for sausages. We made Leberwurst from the liver, Blutwurst from the lungs and miscilanous meat and then bratwursts from the good meat. Used the intestines and bladder to stuff the sausages, making 115 bratwursts which was a hell of a lot.
The whole day we ate fresh meat off and on, both cooked and uncooked. Being with people from a small town who do this every year, they made sure I tried everything. To offset the amount of meat, we drank schnapps on and off the whole day, part of the slaughtering tradition. At one point when mixing the Hackfleisch (ground pork with spices that can be eaten raw) myself and Marcus, a cousin of my friend, had to take several shots of schnapps after each time of mixing the meat from one side to another. Got to love the traditions.
We finished off the day eating fresh liver, Hackfleisch and other types of meat such as wild boar and deer that they also had, along with more schnapps. Quite an adventure from very early on until late. And I got to take home some stock, sausages and ground pork, not too shabby eh?
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