FROM PIG TO PORK CHOP

tmh10

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Pipestem,WV
he Cleveland boyshave arranged their quarters in such a way that they are both comfortable and healthy. Sixteen compose a mess. Each mess appoints a mess Captain, mess cook, and mess dishwasher. The camp-fires are built in the rear of the barracks, each mess having the privilege of a fire. Our rations have been improved, fresh beef having been added to-day. The cooking utensils are--one metal kettle, two sheet iron buckets, two frying pans, a tin plate, cup, spoon, knife and fork. These constitute the soldier's "cooking kit." Barracks are rapidly going up, and the sound of hammers are heard from early morn until late in the evening all along the line of the camp, which extends a distance of about one mile and a half.

Strolling parties can be seen winding their way over the hills every day, and I am sorry to say that they show a disposition to rob hen coops, &c. Yesterday a Dutchman came into camp with a sorry face, complaining that the soldiers had shot his choice "pigs." He said they had taken all his chickens, but when it come to taking other property he could not stand it. He was paid for his "pig" and assured that all trespassers on his property, when found guilty would be punished.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer May 10, 1861
Camp Dennison--Officers of the 7th and 8th--Quarters and Fare--Incidents of Camp Life.
(courtesy
CWReenactors.com)

As you can tell from the date on the above piece, the writer describes the very earliest days of the Civil War. Men, having rushed in the first burst of patriotic enthusiasm to enlist, now find themselves soldiers. They also find themselves in the unfamiliar position of having neither wife, mother, sister, maiden aunt or any other female to do that most essential of "women's work"--cooking.

What's the first thing they seek out, besides chickens? A pig. They may not know how to tend a stove, or make yeast, or bake bread, but give them a dead pig and they can make out well enough to get by. Years later and well into the war, a stray swine could be a lifesaver to desperate men on the run from near-certain death in Andersonville:
We had now again been without food nearly two days and a night, and having, by activity and freedom with plenty of pure air, largely thrown off our prison contracted ailments, our appetites had returned. Here was a chance. We were in sight of a farm house and between us and it was a large apple orchard in which we discovered a pile of hogs. Thorp still carried the butcher knife in his boot leg; we reconnoitered the premises and waited until midnight, when a jump, a scramble of pigs, a single squeal and the law of confiscation of the enemy's supplies is obeyed. The two hams are all we can take. With these we again start northward eating warm fresh pork as we go, raw and without salt, but it was good.

Morning dawned very cold, but clear. We secret ourselves and rest until noon, then start through another pinery and thicket. Toward evening we reach a "logging" where a fire, (log burning) the first to which we dared approach during our trip of eight days. Here we roast our pork, after which our journey is resumed.

(account of Harvey Hogue of the 115th Ohio Volunteers, who published this Civil War memoir in 1900. This section describes an attempt to return to Union lines after being captured by Confederate troops. Details can be found
here.)

Pigs are not native to North America, and the first recorded swine came to mainland North America with Hernando De Soto in 1539. Upon arriving in what would one day be known as Tampa Bay, Florida, the first thing several of them did was run away. While many no doubt promptly became lunch for alligators, the others went feral, resulting in the wild boars that delight hunters today.

The human settlers were entirely busy building their own habitations, clearing land for planting, digging wells, and generally settling in. This set the pattern which would continue for the next several centuries over the east coast of what is today America. Fences were built in great numbers, but they aimed in the opposite direction, if you will, from fences built today. They surrounded the crops to keep out animals rather than the other way around.

The most common practice was to keep cows, horses and chickens close to hand as they were used on a daily basis, but to let pigs run loose in the woods to forage for their own food. (As villages grew into cities the occupationally-named "garbage pig" and even more unfortunately termed "privy pig" became common, but that discussion is best left for another time.)

The types of pigs brought over by the early settlers were leaner, meaner and way faster moving than modern swine, and they could hold their own against most predators. In addition, the hog is not a grass-eater. While able to survive nicely on roots, tubers, worms, fruit, lizards, frogs, and clams (hey, they don't call 'em omnivores for nothing!), their preferred food was nuts. North America came equipped with endless acres of beech, oak, hickory, walnut, pecan and other nut-bearing trees. Voila.

The pig thus raised has a predictable life cycle. As the nuts rain down from the sky in the autumn, happy hogs fill up with the food they love best, which conveniently enough transforms into the tastiest pork there is. S
ome of the most expensive hams in the world today are the Spanish varieties from pigs still raised in exactly this fashion, then smoked and dried for a year. And just as the nut supply has been pretty much devoured and the swine are at their fattest, the weather turns very cold.

The first hard freeze of the year, usually in late November or early December, marked the season of the slaughter of the swine. First the hogs would be rounded up from the woods, a job often undertaken by young men and teenaged boys accompanied by their family dogs. Some portion of the resulting herd might be transported to town for sale, a project which often provided a substantial portion of the family's cash income for the year. No matter how self-sufficient a farm might be in other matters, the county tax assessor still demanded cash money and would take neither pig nor potato in barter.

Those pigs chosen to stock the family larder were confined. Some felt that feeding them on corn for the last few days improved the meat; others fed them on surplus milk, either whole or the skimmed milk left over from butter or cheese production. Still others just didn't feed them at all, making the upcoming job of cleaning out the intestines for later sausage production somewhat easier.

At last the big day arrived. Neighbors often gathered together for the job of pig-slaughtering, which allowed the sharing of heavy work and heavy utensils like large cast-iron pots for lard-rendering. In a time before telephones and TV, any opportunity to get together and socialize was a welcome break from the grueling grind that made up 19th century farm life, particularly for women.

Details on the butchering process varied (we recommend reading some of the links listed below before trying any on an actual pig) but one constant throughout history is the usability of "everything but the oink." Pigs were covered with considerably more hair in those days than is usual now, and their snouts surrounded by long thick bristles useful to a creature that roots in the soil for its food. The bristles now were cut off and stored away, to later serve in brushes for applying everything from paint to toothpaste.

The internal organs were removed and cleaned for cooking over the next few days. Pork liver and kidney were considered delicacies. Even glands like the pancreas and thyroid, known as "sweetbreads" were often fried for dinner. Items not eaten directly like lungs ("lights") and even the animals' blood were saved and incorporated into souses, sausages and meat puddings. Hooves were boiled to make glue.

Intestines were cleaned, turned inside out, scraped and put in brine (salt water) for preservation until it was time to make sausage. The carcass was then dunked into a pot of hot water and the hide scraped to remove the rest of the hairs. (The hide of the pig is relatively thin and delicate compared to that of cows, sheep, goats or deer, so it is rarely made into leather. Instead it was--you guessed it!--eaten. What, you never heard of fried pork rinds?)

Some cuts of meat had the hide left attached (hams in particular) and in others it was peeled off before the cut went to the next step in the preservation process, the brining barrel. Here we come to our first major choice: wet versus dry.

Both of these procedures require the presence of vast quantities of salt. Anyone near an ocean can get this without major fuss, although the use of some shallow pans in which the seawater can be placed is handy. Fill with water, let evaporate, scrape out salty residue, rinse, repeat. Those in a greater hurry can use pots with fires burning underneath to speed the evaporation process.

Further inland, salt was most commonly mined. While very large deposits either made their owners wealthy or even led to the establishment of whole towns like Saltville, VA, hunters could follow the tracks of animals to naturally occurring salt licks where sufficient quantities could be obtained for household use.

The mineral was so important that when an emergency--such as the Civil War-- cut off of usual sources of supply, the land under old smokehouses would be dug up and the salt which had dripped into the soil over the course of years recovered for reuse.

The other chemical normally used in pork preservation is saltpeter. This is potassium nitrate, a material whose history as a food preservative is inexorably tied in recent centuries to the fact that it is, along with charcoal and sulfur, one of the three essential components of gunpowder. (A fascinating, and Civil War-relevant, description of the process from the farm to the industrial level can be found in
Instructures for the Manufacture of Saltpeter from the University of North Carolina document collection.)

The use of saltpeter and other nitrates/nitrites in processed meat is controversial to this day. Even organic meat producers have returned to using it though, since nothing else does the job of preservation from poisonous bacteria, particularly botulism, and keeping the meat an attractive red color, quite as well.

Once the preservative chemicals have been chosen, the last decision is whether to employ them in a wet or dry process. Historically the wet type seems to have been vastly more common. A quantity of salt and other additives--besides saltpeter, sugar and a variety of spices were often used--is dissolved in water. The meat is packed into a barrel and the salt water is poured over it, with stirring to assure that it comes into contact with all portions of all cuts of meat. A round flat rock may be used on top to make sure all the meat stays under the surface of the water. Or as Mrs. Lettice Bryan put it in her 1839 Kentucky Housewife
:

Get a tight tub, that will not leak one drop, put into it eight gallons of water, eight pounds of salt, eight ounces of saltpetre, six pints of molasses, and two spoonfuls of capsicum [hot red pepper]; cover the cut, and let it stand for four days, then boil it for a short time, skim it well, and when it gets perfectly cold, put it in the tub again; this brine will be sufficient for one hundred weight of pork; having it cut up in the usual manner, place it in the brine in such a way as for it to rise over the top of the meat, and sprinkling between each layer a small portion of salt. Cover the tub securely with a piece of carpet and boards, so as to keep out every particle of dirt, and set it in a cool, dry place. Pickled pork should be soaked in fresh water for at least twelve hours before it is cooked, to draw out a part of the salt; otherwise it would be uneatable, and should always be boiled in plenty of water, with some suitable vegetable, such as cabbage, green beans, dried beans,peas.

The dry process is more or less the same minus the water. The salt(s) are mixed dry and rubbed on the outside of the meat in as thick a layer as will stick to the surface. The meat is then set aside to dry, either on shelves in a storehouse of some sort or in barrels, the object being to protect it from attack by insects or other vermin. The meat is turned every few days and additional rub applied as needed. Some of the salt will be absorbed into the meat, and some of it will run off as liquid from the inside is sucked out by the action of the chemicals. The natural liquid inside the meat is the place where bacteria lives, so the more of it that can be removed, the longer the meat will last without rotting.

For more and some recipes click on the link.

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ThisLittlePiggie.htm
 
Sailors put them on islands too, because hogs could survive most anywhere and provide food for hungry or stranded sailors. The polynesians brought pigs with them to Hawaii--I'm fond of pigs...but that must have been one long unpleasant trip...
 
Sailors put them on islands too, because hogs could survive most anywhere and provide food for hungry or stranded sailors. The polynesians brought pigs with them to Hawaii--I'm fond of pigs...but that must have been one long unpleasant trip...
I can see your point. Years ago I had a neighbor down the road that kept pigs. When the wind was right in the summer it was not a pleasant smell. The people there now keep horses and it is not a problem.
 
Related to the pig/salt/sailors aspect: my understanding is that folks living along the West coast of Florida were formerly known as "gophers" because they traded gopher tortoises to sailors. The West Florida coast provided salt during the ACW for curing/preserving meat and a regular part of coastal warfare was demolishing their salt kettles.
 
To all of the above posters: Some of the best accounts about how things were "back then." Makes it come alive. When the weather turned cold was the time to slaughter and butcher. Fresh meat was a rarity.

Even with refrigeration, how long can you keep a sirloin tip?

That's what they had to look at. Keeping the meat through the winter. That meant salt and smoking and other forms or preserving.

Cabbages and turnips, potatoes and carrots and some fruits could stand extended storage, but meat couldn't, unless cured. Butter and cheese are a way to preserve milk.

Never mind. Ancient and not so ancient people learned how to preserve food. End of story. The rest of it is quite interesting.
 
To all of the above posters: Some of the best accounts about how things were "back then." Makes it come alive. When the weather turned cold was the time to slaughter and butcher. Fresh meat was a rarity.

Even with refrigeration, how long can you keep a sirloin tip?

That's what they had to look at. Keeping the meat through the winter. That meant salt and smoking and other forms or preserving.

Cabbages and turnips, potatoes and carrots and some fruits could stand extended storage, but meat couldn't, unless cured. Butter and cheese are a way to preserve milk.

Never mind. Ancient and not so ancient people learned how to preserve food. End of story. The rest of it is quite interesting.
One thing I could add Ole was the canning of meat. Some people around here do it. Im not so sure they could do that at that time. If you know please share. Ted.
 
One thing I could add Ole was the canning of meat. Some people around here do it. Im not so sure they could do that at that time. If you know please share. Ted.
Yes. Canning was known. I don't know if it was done much, but the jars were available and the technology was available. (Notice I didn't say universally known.)

Mother did try to "preserve" meat. We didn't like the results, so she gave up on it, but it is possible. Hey, when there are a hundred chickens out there, who needs to "can" them?

To this day, chicken is one of my least favorite foods.
 
Yes. Canning was known. I don't know if it was done much, but the jars were available and the technology was available. (Notice I didn't say universally known.)
Thanks, I never thought of canning back then but I may look into it. I remember from a very young age my family canning a lot of things including meat. They put the cans in a root celler or basement and we would eat off it all year.
 
Early canned goods lacked an essential element: a can opener. Effective can and can opener systems weren't invented until years later (I read an article about this in Science and Technology at least a decade ago.) So getting food out of a can often involved a bayonet and/or live rounds. It was anything but easy.

Canned/packaged meats were becoming more common, but I would have to hunt around for more info.
 
Thanks, I never thought of canning back then but I may look into it. I remember from a very young age my family canning a lot of things including meat. They put the cans in a root celler or basement and we would eat off it all year.
Exactly. In the cellar. There were shelves and shelves of applesauce and rhubard sauce and green beans and peas. The carrots and potatoes were kept in bins of sand. As we were northern people, we didn't preserve okra of turnips.

Should I have said upper midwest?

Matters little. In the country, one survived according to what one could be accustomed to.

When I grew up, and where, the husbands gift to the new wife was chickens. She was to take care of them, sell the eggs and put dinner on the table. It sometimes worked out. He might get benevolent and make a cart for carrying the loads. Unfortunatly, my mother had children who had to do that.
 
We ate a lot of canned goods from the garden growing up. We had a root cellar out in the backyard. My wife and I still can, but mostly fruit products. Under the bed is the most common storage...

During the ACW there were also dessicated vegetables (dried) that could be rehydrated to eat. Surprised Southerners sometimes didn't know what to do with them--there are funny stories of putting water into a pot of them, and having the volume expand several times over. They were also known as "desecrated" vegetables.
 
Exactly. In the cellar. There were shelves and shelves of applesauce and rhubard sauce and green beans and peas. The carrots and potatoes were kept in bins of sand. As we were northern people, we didn't preserve okra of turnips.

Should I have said upper midwest?

Matters little. In the country, one survived according to what one could be accustomed to.

When I grew up, and where, the husbands gift to the new wife was chickens. She was to take care of them, sell the eggs and put dinner on the table. It sometimes worked out. He might get benevolent and make a cart for carrying the loads. Unfortunatly, my mother had children who had to do that.
My family kept potatoes in saw dust. Kept good and you always made sure you had some for seed to plant in the spring. also pickle things in the crock cucumbers, beets, and other vegies. I hated the Chicken harvest. A most disagreeable smell.
 
My family kept potatoes in saw dust. Kept good and you always made sure you had some for seed to plant in the spring. also pickle things in the crock cucumbers, beets, and other vegies. I hated the Chicken harvest. A most disagreeable smell.

I also remember keeping seed potatoes for spring, plus using a potato fork to harvest potatoes.

I liked the chicken harvest for some reason. Perhaps it was because we only had about two dozen at a time. I liked playing with the gizzards and such...plus watching the cats chase decapitated birds around the pasture was hilarious.
 
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One might take note that I was the only one of seven kids who could be counted on to chop off the chicken's heads.

Before Ole, The Dad Had to do it. I'll suppose that The Mom did it before I became of age. Once I was given the assignment, that was it.
 
I also remember keeping seed potatoes for spring, plus using a potato fork to harvest potatoes.

I liked the chicken harvest for some reason. Perhaps it was because we only had about two dozen at a time. I liked playing with the gizzards and such...plus watching the cats chase decapitated birds around the pasture was hilarious.
Reminds me of a story from my childhood. My mother got me a blue painted chick for Easter when I was 3 or 4. Anyway the thing grew up to be a rooster. Mean as the dickens, chased and pecked everybody out in the yard. My Grandfather had enough and chopped his head off and turned him loose and he still chased me. We had him for dinner. I remember that as if it happened yesterday. Ha Ted
 
I also remember keeping seed potatoes for spring, plus using a potato fork to harvest potatoes.

I liked the chicken harvest for some reason. Perhaps it was because we only had about two dozen at a time. I liked playing with the gizzards and such...plus watching the cats chase decapitated birds around the pasture was hilarious.
Seed potatoes. Always had to keep a few aside for next year.
 
Reminds me of a story from my childhood. My mother got me a blue painted chick for Easter when I was 3 or 4. Anyway the thing grew up to be a rooster. Mean as the dickens, chased and pecked everybody out in the yard. My Grandfather had enough and chopped his head off and turned him loose and he still chased me. We had him for dinner. I remember that as if it happened yesterday. Ha Ted
The major problem for our roosters was that I got to choose who was dinner tonight. They never learned to be nice.
 
I got in trouble as a kid for commenting how good the beef roast was from a favorite calf...my little sister didn't realize it was a pet until I said how good "Red" was. The look in her eyes was one of horror...and I was in deep doo-doo. I was accustomed to the reality of it, she didn't yet realize that all of our meat came from former "pets." Being the oldest means you get in trouble for everything the younger kids do, whether or not you contribute to it.
 
The major problem for our roosters was that I got to choose who was dinner tonight. They never learned to be nice.
Take into account they have the brain the size of a pea. I remember looking at my Grandfather, and he said eat him or not but remember how he chased you even without a head. I ate him.
 
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