DRESSING AND CUTTING.
When the carcasses have lost the animal heat they are put away till the
morrow, by which time, if the weather is fairly cold, the meat is stiff
and firm and in a condition to cut out better than it does when taken in
its soft and pliant state. If the weather is very cold, however, and there
is danger that the meat will freeze hard before morning, haste is made to
cut it up the same day, or else it is put into a basement or other warm
room, or a large fire made near it to prevent it from freezing. Meat that
is frozen will not take salt, or keep from spoiling if salted. Salting is
one of the most important of the several processes in the art of curing
good bacon, and the pork should be in just the right condition for taking
or absorbing the salt. Moderately cold and damp weather is the best for
this.
AS THE CARCASS IS DRESSED
it is lifted by a hook at the end of a swivel lever mounted on a post and
swung around to a hanging bar, placed conveniently. This bar has sliding
hooks made to receive the gambrel sticks, which have a hook permanently
attached to each so that the carcass is quickly removed from the swivel
lever to the slide hook on the bar. The upper edge of the bar is rounded
and smoothed and greased to help the hooks to slide on it. This serves to
hang all the hogs on the bar until they are cooled. If four persons are
employed this work may be done very quickly, as they may divide the work
between them; one hog is being scalded and cleaned while another is being
dressed.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. EASY METHOD OF HANGING A CARCASS.]
Divested of its coat, the carcass is washed off nicely with clean water
before being disemboweled. For opening the hog, the operator needs a sharp
butcher's knife, and should know how to use it with dexterity, so as not
to cut the entrails. The entrails and paunch, or stomach, are first
removed, care being taken not to cut any; then the liver, the "dead ears"
removed from the heart, and the heart cut open to remove any clots of
blood that it may contain. The windpipe is then slit open, and the whole
together is hung upon the gambrel beside the hog or placed temporarily
into a tub of water. The "stretcher," a small stick some sixteen inches
long, is then placed across the bowels to hold the sides well open and
admit the air to cool the carcass, and a chip or other small object is
placed in the mouth to hold it open, and the interior parts of the hog
about the shoulders and gullet are nicely washed to free them from stains
of blood. The carcass is then left to hang upon the gallows in order to
cool thoroughly before it is cut into pieces or put away for the night.
Where ten or twelve hogs are dressed every year, it will pay to have a
suitable building arranged for the work. An excellent place may be made in
the driveway between a double corncrib, or in a wagon shed or an annex to
the barn where the feeding pen is placed. The building should have a
stationary boiler in it, and such apparatus as has been suggested, and a
windlass used to do the lifting.
HOG KILLING MADE EASY.
In the accompanying cut, Fig. 11, the hoister represents a homemade
apparatus that has been in use many years and it has been a grand success.
The frames, _a_, _a_, _a_, _a_, are of 2x4 inch scantling, 8 ft. in
length; _b_, _b_, are 2x6 inch and 2 ft. long with a round notch in the
center of the upper surface for a windlass, _d_, to turn in; _c_, _c_ are
2x4 and 8 ft. long, or as long as desired, and are bolted to _a_, _a_. Ten
inches beyond the windlass, _d_, is a 4x4 inch piece with arms bolted on
the end to turn the windlass and draw up the carcass, which should be
turned lengthwise of the hoister until it passes between _c_, _c_. The
gambrel should be long enough to catch on each side when turned crosswise,
thus relieving the windlass so that a second carcass may be hoisted. The
peg, _e_, is to place in a hole of upright, _a_, to hold the windlass.
Brace the frame in proportion to the load that is to be placed upon it.
The longer it is made, the more hogs can be hung at the same time.
THE SAWBUCK SCAFFOLD.
Figure 12 shows a very cheap and convenient device for hanging either hogs
or beeves. The device is in shape much like an old-fashioned "sawbuck,"
with the lower rounds between the legs omitted. The legs, of which there
are two pairs, should be about ten feet long and set bracing, in the
manner shown in the engraving. The two pairs of legs are held together by
an inch iron rod, five or six feet in length, provided with threads at
both ends. The whole is made secure by means of two pairs of nuts, which
fasten the legs to the connecting iron rod. A straight and smooth wooden
roller rests in the forks made by the crossing of the legs, and one end
projects about sixteen inches. In this two augur holes are bored, in which
levers may be inserted for turning the roller. The rope, by means of which
the carcass is raised, passes over the rollers in such a way that in
turning, by means of the levers, the animal is raised from the ground.
When sufficiently elevated, the roller is fastened by one of the levers to
the nearest leg.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. RAISING A CARCASS.]
PROPER SHAPE OF GAMBRELS.
Gambrels should be provided of different lengths, if the hogs vary much in
size. That shown in Fig. 13 is a convenient shape. These should be of
hickory or other tough wood for safety, and be so small as to require
little gashing of the legs to receive them.
[Illustration: FIG. 13. A CONVENIENT GAMBREL.]
GALLOWS FOR DRESSED HOGS.
The accompanying device, Fig. 14, for hanging dressed hogs, consists of a
stout, upright post, six or eight inches square and ten feet long, the
lower three feet being set into the ground. Near the upper end are two
mortises, each 2x4 inches, quite through the post, one above the other, as
shown in the engraving, for the reception of the horizontal arms. The
latter are six feet long and just large enough to fit closely into the
mortises. They should be of white oak or hickory. At butchering time the
dead hogs are hung on the scaffold by slipping the gambrels upon the
horizontal crosspieces.
ADDITIONAL HINTS ON DRESSING.
Little use of the knife is required to loosen the entrails. The fingers,
rightly used, will do most of the severing. Small, strong strings, cut in
proper lengths, should be always at hand to quickly tie the severed ends
of any small intestines cut or broken by chance. An expert will catch the
entire offal in a large tin pan or wooden vessel, which is held between
himself and the hog. Unskilled operators, and those opening very large
hogs, need an assistant to hold this. The entrails and then the liver,
heart, etc., being all removed, thoroughly rinse out any blood or filth
that may have escaped inside. Removing the lard from the long intestines
requires expertness that can be learned only by practice. The fingers do
most of this cleaner, safer and better than a knife. A light feed the
night before killing leaves the intestines less distended and less likely
to be broken.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. SIMPLE SUPPORT FOR DRESSED HOG.]
HOW TO CUT UP A HOG.
With a sharp ax and a sharp butcher's knife at hand, lay the hog on the
chopping bench, side down. With the knife make a cut near the ear clear
across the neck and down to the bone. With a dextrous stroke of the ax
sever the head from the body. Lay the carcass on the back, a boy holding
it upright and keeping the forelegs well apart. With the ax proceed to
take out the chine or backbone. If it is desired to put as much of the hog
into neat meat as possible, trim to the chine very close, taking out none
of the skin or outside fat with it. Otherwise, the cutter need not be
particular how much meat comes away with the bone. What does not go with
the neat meat will be in the offal or sausage, and nothing will be lost.
Lay the chine aside and with the knife finish separating the two
divisions of the hog. Next, strip off with the hands the leaves or flakes
of fat from the middle to the hams. Seize the hock of the ham with the
left hand and with the knife in the other, proceed to round out the ham,
giving it a neat, oval shape. Be very particular in shaping the ham. If it
is spoiled in the first cutting, no subsequent trimming will put it into a
form to exactly suit the fastidious public eye. Trim off the surplus lean
and fat and projecting pieces of bone. Cut off the foot just above the
hock joint. The piece when finished should have nearly the form of a
regular oval, with its projecting handle or hock.
With the ax cut the shoulder from the middling, making the cut straight
across near the elbow joint. Take off the end ribs or "spare bone" from
the shoulder, trim the piece and cut off the foot. For home use, trim the
shoulder, as well as the other pieces, very closely, taking off all of
both lean and fat that can be spared. If care is taken to cut away the
head near the ear, the shoulder will be at first about as wide as long,
having a good deal of the neck attached. If the meat is intended for sale
and the largest quantity of bacon is the primary object, let the piece
remain so. But if it is preferred to have plenty of lard and sausage, cut
a smart strip from off the neck side of the shoulder and make the piece
assume the form of a parallelogram, with the hock attached to one end.
Trim a slice of fat from the back for lard, take off the "short ribs,"
and, if preferred, remove the long ribs from the whole piece. The latter,
however, is not often done by the farmers. Put the middling in nice shape
by trimming it wherever needed, which, when finished, will be very much
like a square in form, perhaps a little longer than broad, with a small
circular piece cut out from the end next the ham.
The six pieces of neat meat are now ready for the salter. The head is next
cut open longitudinally from side to side, separating the jowl from the
top or "head," so-called. The jawbone of the jowl is cut at the angle or
tip and the "swallow," which is the larynx or upper part of the windpipe,
is taken out. The headpiece is next cut open vertically and the lobe of
the brain is taken out, and the ears and nose are removed.
The bone of the chine is cut at several places for the convenience of the
cook, and the task of the cutter is finished. Besides the six pieces of
neat meat, there are the chine, souse, jowl, head, fat, sausage, two spare
and two short ribs and various other small bits derived from each hog. A
good cutter, with an assistant to carry away the pieces and help
otherwise, can cut out from 50 to 60 hogs in a day.