Ok, I am giving fair warning now….this post is about butchering hogs. If you think this may offend you, look away or come back another day. This is about the Hog to Ham Event that we participated in when we visited Colonial Williamsburg in December. I tried to make sure the pictures are not very graphic, yet I am sure some of you may still find them gross. And normally, I probably would have, too, but this was done very tastefully by the re-enactors and was very educational.
With that said, I do want to tell you, the folks in Williamsburg are top notch. We had such a good time in the spring when we visited that we went back at Christmas and had another wonderful time. There are so many activities planned that tell you not only the history that was happening at the time but also what happened every day as part of normal living in the Revolutionary City. And much of what was normal to them is unusual to us in this modern day and time or taken for granted.
The Saturday that we visited listed one of the events at the Palace as the From Hog to Ham Event. It was described as the butchering of hogs and curing of the pork in the process of the time. It wasn’t really something that we had planned on seeing, but as it happened, we were at the Palace when they were having the event and for me, someone that cannot stand the site of blood and guts, I actually found it interesting enough to take pictures.
From what we were told by the re-enactors and what I read here, hog butchering, curing and smoking was done in December in Virginia. You did this in a “frosty” month because you could not let that amount of meat go to waste. Remember, no refrigeration back then. Just like planting started in March, harvesting in August, butchering was for December. It was part of normal agricultural life. Lucky for us, the hogs used were already dead and frozen, so they were not really bloody and gross. There were quite a few re-enactors that participated in this event: the ones that actually did the butchering, the ladies in the kitchen cooking up cracklings and other parts for those working, the men in the other kitchen rendering the fat (smelly process) and the ones curing and smoking. It was a huge undertaking and they had about a half dozen hogs to process that day.
When we got there, there was a small group butchering with a large crowd gathered around them watching. We went inside the kitchen where they were cooking slices of pork and potatoes to feed those that were working that day. It smelled heavenly. All of a sudden, there was a loud exclamation outside from the crowd watching the butchering. Evidently they had just chopped off the hog’s head and that was a reason to celebrate. I went outside and was able to capture this proud young fella carting off the head to the smokehouse.
He was very proud of himself. And apparently, this was his first time wielding the axe. Yes, an axe. That is all that they used to chop up the hog. They did have a few large knives, but the butchering was done by several people holding the hog in place and one person chopping with an axe. And after he returned from delivering the head, he came back and finished cutting up the rest of the hog.
Here you can see the group holding down the hog while he chops away.
And here you see him receiving instructions on where to make the next cut. The way the hogs were cut were based on charts from the period. And the methods for curing and rendering the lard were also from the period.
And I think even the re-enactors enjoyed it. There was a lot of laughing and smiling going on. Or maybe it was just that they knew soon they would be getting a wonderful hot meal from the kitchen.
And here was a fellow curing pieces with salt. They used a lot of salt and then wrapped the pieces securely before taking them to the smokehouse to cure for the next couple of years. And one thing that we learned, every part of the hog was used. Literally, nothing went to waste. Of course, many of the items I would never want to try, but again, during that time, you were very resourceful and made use of every single part.
Again, it was not an event I had planned on taking part in, but it turned out to be fun and I learned quite a bit. If you are ever in Williamsburg in December when they have this event, I highly recommend it.
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