All About Pocket Knives

QS, just a few comment on dispatching squealers. For a short time back in the 60's, I worked for my father-in-law in his "custom-kill" meat business. Part of my job was "killin' the critters". We used an old single shot .22 rifle and we shot the hogs behind the ear with effective results.
In later years, state inspection required them to slaughter the critters with a fiber bullet that contained no lead. A hog head or cow head shot with a lead bullet, was condemned by the inspector and had to be destroyed. Lots of folks wanted the hog's head and the butcher usually got the cow head. Some folks would be surprised at the amount of "cheek meat" on a big cattle head. Later on they went to a pneumatic gun that drove a rod/plunger into the skull of the cow, I don't know what they did about the hogs.
Bleeding the hog was a learned skill, that long slim knife had to be inserted in the lower neck and worked between the shoulders with out damaging the meat. Grandpa had a scalding vat and a dehairing machine that took a lot of the work out of preparing a hog for the frying pan. As I recall the water temperature had to be exact or there were big problems getting the hair off of a hog. I remember a few hogs that were so big, the decided to skin them as they wouldn't fit in the gas fired vat. Hogs don't skin like a deer or a cow!
I could go on and on with some interesting tales about the times I spent working with my Father-in-law at his meat business. You had to be a cowboy, a hog wrangler, a carpenter, a refrigeration mechanic, the list go on. Lots of the tales might cause folks to get a little bit queasy so I'll shut it off.
Thanks for stirrin' up some old memories! By the way, Grandpa is still butchering beef and venison on a small scale, special customers only. If the Lord allows him to live through August the 24th, he'll be 95 years young!
Treefarmer

Philip. Then you may or may not know what this is. I'm guessin' you do know.

Yes Sir, Jerry, I know what that is! With Grandpa's dehairing machine that wasn't needed. A final cleanup with a small knife usually finished the task.
Treefarmer

Hog scrapper, see them at farm auctions. My Brother in law produces over 5,000 hogs a year now. I think he has seven semis on the road hauling hogs to market for other producers.

treefarmer, thanks for sharing your memories. Killing and butchering farm animals is a whole sector of reality I missed.

Ice Ahead.

One of the most interesting things I witnessed on our farm was when a group of Middle Easterners bought a lamb from us and asked if they could butcher it on our property because they lived in the local migrant farm worker camp and could not do it there. So, we said sure and showed them the sand pit where we did such things. It was fascinating to see the differences in how they did the procedure from how we did it. The biggest difference was that they took nearly EVERYTHING except the hooves. They cleaned-out and kept the stomach, intestines, heart, and other innards. They skinned and kept the head. When they were done, there were the four hooves and a small pile of organs they would not eat and they took everything else. They wrapped the head and the organs they were keeping in the hide, placed the carcass and the hide bundle in the trunk of their car and drove away.

Quick Steel wrote:Ice Ahead.


deer.jpg

Is that your picture? That's cool. You can see the "oh $#%@" on its face

Not my photo. A copy.

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote: They cleaned-out and kept the stomach, intestines, heart, and other innards.

You can't even imagine how delicious these things are. We prepare from the lamb innards and rice special dish - drobsarma.
Here are some pictures from 5 years ago

Eustace - my quick google indicates drobsarma is a Bulgarian dish, is that correct? Were your pictures taken in Bulgaria? You are right - that looks delicious!

All interesting shots. Beautiful country side. Thanks.

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote:Eustace - my quick google indicates drobsarma is a Bulgarian dish, is that correct? Were your pictures taken in Bulgaria? You are right - that looks delicious!

Yes, I"m from Bulgaria

Taken on the road passing our house. We have to be very alert for these. They are quite abundant around here. Nighttime driving can be particularly challenging.

It seems most folks in our country are too sophisticated to dine on the innards of the critters we normally serve in our homes and restaurants.
When hog killin' time came about, there was a delicacy known as "Liver and Lights", the lights are pig lungs. Some folks consider a hog stomachs, also called hog maws, as table fair along with chitterlings aka chittlin's, pig intestines.
Hearts from all the critters are eaten, chicken, pig, cow, deer, lamb, goat as well as thier livers.
How about tongue? Beef tongue make a great sandwich meat, sliced thin.
Let's go to the other end of the cow and dine on oxtail. My Father-in-law (mentioned in an earlier post) has a specialty he cooks. He calls it Alpha and Omega stew. It is beef head meat/cheek meat and oxtail cooked with potatoes or rice.
All you sausage lovers surely know that a sausage in a natural casing is stuffed in the intestines of a hog, sheep or a cow, even the collagen casings are a by-product of beef hides.
Then there are folks who dine on the kidneys, sweetbreads (beef thymus gland), tripe, brains and lets not forget pig skin, the stuff from which footballs and/or fried pork skins are derived. (We used to buy strips of pork rind in a small jar that was made to hook on the old Johnson Spoon when we fished for bass. An old saying about the pig was, "You used everything but the squeal".
I've been told that a pig ear sandwich is mighty tasty and I know for a fact that pickled pigs feet are mighty fine.
To be honest, I haven't eaten all of the delicacies mentioned above but I've had many of them. In fact we had venison liver tonight for supper.
One cut of meat that I almost forgot to mention is the mountain oyster. Tried them one time, 'nuff said.
Treefarmer

Internal organs are far more nutritious than the mostly muscle meat which is usually consumed. It is virtually impossible to find a more complete food
than liver. This is why predatory animals such as cougars, wolves, lions, etc. always go for the internal organs first.

Awesome pictures Eustace!

As a kid growing up in rural Minnesota, I loved Grandma's head cheese made from a pigs head. I saved all in eatable innards from poultry back when we had a game farm along with chickens and geese, and ground them all up together as a substitute for hamburger. I made meatballs from them and my kids didn't have a clue they weren't beef until one of the boys actually remembered what I was doing before I made supper and couldn't remember seeing me thaw out actual hamburger. I was surprised how much it actually did taste like ground beef. ____Dave

When we all sat elbow to elbow at my Grandma's table for Sunday dinner, I would as thoroughly as possible check out the fried chicken platter and the position of select pieces there on. I would get my fork ready for action (you better not get caught using just your fingers) and as soon as the "amen" was uttered (timing is everything) I would go for the "pulley bone" and the gizzard, my two favorite parts of the chicken. Pulley bone first because there was some competition for that piece. Gizzard next, hardly any competition. The neck and the scratchers were for those with patience and perseverance.

I've had several dishes made from the parts mentioned above but my tastes have changed considerably.
I don't care for any of the "oddities" in the least anymore.
I'm thankful I can choose chicken thighs or rib eyes.

FRJ wrote:I've had several dishes made from the parts mentioned above but my tastes have changed considerably.
I don't care for any of the "oddities" in the least anymore.
I'm thankful I can choose chicken thighs or rib eyes.

I am pretty much with you in this. I have eaten most of those things mentioned and I still relish a gizzard or liver (beef or chicken) but I haven't had head cheese or chittlins in a long time.
There was previously some mention about the amount of meat on a cow's head. The cowboys back home used to bury a head in the coals early in the morning and then dig it out for supper. Seems like they would wrap it in the hide of the calf or cow. It was considered a great delicacy, a treat.

Ray

A few years back the local Mexican restaurant got shut down for a while when the Health Dept. inspector discovered a cows head in the refrigerator. The workers explained it was for their personal use (and I don't doubt that) but it was a big violation of the rules and got them in some serious trouble with the Health Department.

When I was younger I ran a feedlot in Colorado. The guys used to give me a burrito everyday. Till one day I went down to the barn and they had cut a head off of one of the dead cows and had it on there grill. No more burritos from them for me.

There is a little taqueria around the corner from my office that has the following types of tacos:

Cabeza - beef head
Cachete - beef cheek
Lingua - beef tongue
Labio - beef lip
Ojo - beef eye
Tripas - beef intestines

They also have plain old beef, chicken & pork. Of the ones above, I've only had the beef cheek - it was very good, and tasted just like any other beef.