Scalding hogs

[waylon-N.E. OK]

Who does it? Tell me the steps cause I wanna learn

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[SwampHunter]

we boiled water in turkey fryer poured a lil on at a time an scraped the hair off , takes some work an time but came out good

[crackae11]

55gal metal drum under a good strong branch build fire around it let it boil up and dip the hog down in it hair falls right out

[sanman]

We use a 55 gallon drum. Cut the dirt at the back of it where it the front sits up at a slight angle. We have a piece of flat metal as wide as the barrel, and about 5' long we lay in front of it. We heat the water to boiling in a crawfish pot, I think it's a 60 qt. Put the hog in the barrel. Pour about a quarter of the water in the barrel with the hog. Let it sit about 30 seconds on one side, and flip the hog over and let it sit for about the same time. Drag it out onto the metal sheet, and scrape away. We use the barbell type scrapers with a big end and a small end. Gotta be kinda fast, so with my crew, knives are kinda out the question, lol. When the hair won't scrape off easily anymore, push it back in the barrel and repeat until you get all the hair off. We usually pour the water just behind the ears, and scrape it from there back, unless we making hog head cheese. Paw n law makes us scrape the whole head if he making it.  We only do it for the hogs that we feed out that actually have some fat to make cracklings. Skin the rest! Hope it makes sense.

[waylon-N.E. OK]

Thank ya fellers,  do any of ya cure your own with salt? I'm trying to get where I can kill & keep pork with out a fridge, just in case that day ever comes.

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[Reuben]

Thank ya fellers,  do any of ya cure your own with salt? I'm trying to get where I can kill & keep pork with out a fridge, just in case that day ever comes.

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the way I remember it...my dad used 2 big metal containers...put a good coat of salt on the bacon slabs and stored them in these large metal containers..never sallted the meat just the large bacon slabs...

[magnuml]

We use a 55 gallon drum. Cut the dirt at the back of it where it the front sits up at a slight angle. We have a piece of flat metal as wide as the barrel, and about 5' long we lay in front of it. We heat the water to boiling in a crawfish pot, I think it's a 60 qt. Put the hog in the barrel. Pour about a quarter of the water in the barrel with the hog. Let it sit about 30 seconds on one side, and flip the hog over and let it sit for about the same time. Drag it out onto the metal sheet, and scrape away. We use the barbell type scrapers with a big end and a small end. Gotta be kinda fast, so with my crew, knives are kinda out the question, lol. When the hair won't scrape off easily anymore, push it back in the barrel and repeat until you get all the hair off. We usually pour the water just behind the ears, and scrape it from there back, unless we making hog head cheese. Paw n law makes us scrape the whole head if he making it.  We only do it for the hogs that we feed out that actually have some fat to make cracklings. Skin the rest! Hope it makes sense.

Watched i done once, very cool, ALOT of work. Good info.

[Reuben]

We use a 55 gallon drum. Cut the dirt at the back of it where it the front sits up at a slight angle. We have a piece of flat metal as wide as the barrel, and about 5' long we lay in front of it. We heat the water to boiling in a crawfish pot, I think it's a 60 qt. Put the hog in the barrel. Pour about a quarter of the water in the barrel with the hog. Let it sit about 30 seconds on one side, and flip the hog over and let it sit for about the same time. Drag it out onto the metal sheet, and scrape away. We use the barbell type scrapers with a big end and a small end. Gotta be kinda fast, so with my crew, knives are kinda out the question, lol. When the hair won't scrape off easily anymore, push it back in the barrel and repeat until you get all the hair off. We usually pour the water just behind the ears, and scrape it from there back, unless we making hog head cheese. Paw n law makes us scrape the whole head if he making it.  We only do it for the hogs that we feed out that actually have some fat to make cracklings. Skin the rest! Hope it makes sense.

we did it similarly to this...the hole in the ground is about a 45 degree angle... we used the old style cast iron pots...boiled the water in it for scalding the pig. then used the same pot for making lard and pork rinds etc. etc...always did this on a cold day every year.  some would be scraping hair with a knife others with their bare hands pulling hair...has to be done quickly or the hair gets hard to pull and scrape as it cools down. We also uses a tote sack and laid it over the hog and poured boiling hot water over it and let the pig steam for a little while and then we continued until the pig was totally scraped...hard work but lots of fun...

[Hog Dog Mike]

We killed alot of hogs when I was a kid. The water was heated in a cast Iron washpot. We used a 55 gallon barrel burried in the ground at about a 45 degee angle. The hog was put in the barrel turned over and then we swapped ends and did the same thing. We put the hog on the sideboards of a hay truck and all us kids scraped it. If the water is too hot it will set the hair and it is nearly impossible to come off.

The guts was dumped on some more sideboards and we had to pick out the gut lard so it could be melted and put in cans.

The hams were rubbed down in Morton's Sugar Cure. My cousin always took a boning knife and went into the knee and made sure some sugar cure got in there. I was always told the liquid on the knee would poison you if it was not drained.

In the old days everybody hung their hams with bear grass loops ran through the meat.

[BA-IV]

The hams were rubbed down in Morton's Sugar Cure. My cousin always took a boning knife and went into the knee and made sure some sugar cure got in there. I was always told the liquid on the knee would poison you if it was not drained.

In the old days everybody hung their hams with bear grass loops ran through the meat.

Ive never heard the about the knee thing.  I'll have to do some digging into that.  We still scald hogs using a big wash pot and smaller ones to boil the water.  The bear grass we still use to hang out meat up and we still salt the hams and middlings.

[Hog Dog Mike]

We bought some extra hogs from this black guy named Sid. His hogs were always fat which produced more lard which was good in them days.

Sid charged .10 cents a pound for hogs on the hoof. Nobody had a scale that would way a hog because these went about 350 pounds. We cut the head off and weighed it on a cotton scale and multiplied by 10. The 350 pound hog's head weighed 35 pounds and my cousin paid him 35.00 dollars for that hog. Lots of money back in them days. I chopped cotton 10 hours @ .50 cents an hour to earn 5.00. Soooooooooo I would have to chop cotton 10 hours a day for 7 days to pay for that hog. Trust me--the cotton patch is a character builder.

[aussie black mouth curs]

Grew up doing it.  We scalded them in an old emanel bathtub.  Boil the water on a fire and add two buckets of boiling to one of cold (aim for water 70deg celcius).  The advantage of the bath is that you can do one entire side at a time.  Work fast as the water goes cold quickly.  We use a small spade to rub off the hair.  Hope this helps.

Troy

[sanman]

We put ours up on an 8' table after they leave the barrel. We also use rags or burlap sacks. We soak them in the hot water and let them lay on areas we didn't get the hair off of, once we got it up on the table. Save all the insides into a wash tub, and then PIL goes back and cleans all that when we got the pig cut up. 
He also uses the Morton's sugar cure, but he insists on using the old style crock bowls. He normally just cubes up a bunch of the meat and cures that in the fridge for a week or so. He did say his mom would just put the curing salt on the meat in the bowls, and just leave it on the counter the whole time. He hasn't ever cured any of the bigger parts, we just cut it up into steaks or chops or smaller roasts.
First thing he does when we are done the first day is cook a pot of kidney and sweetbread. He did say he wanted to try and cure some bacon next go round.

[Reuben]

The left over coals from the fire that were used for boiling the water were used to grille the liver and a few steaks...my mother would make fresh totillas to make tacos...it was work but lots of fun...

[waylon-N.E. OK]

Good info guys, gonna have to try it on a little hog next time i have a chance. I'm looking for a good book that is full of these types of things. Bought " The Big Thicket Legacy " Been reading it and came to the notion of just how much info we have allowed to slip away from us. Now I'm wanting to try and sharpen up on those types of skills cause the direction the world is going it may be vital to know.

[pigrig]

[BA-IV]

This ain't the best pictures but I didn't have time to scan them.  This is how we still do it.


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[preacher1]

Morton has a good book on curing hams and bacons. Gives all the info you need on curing, time required, amount of cure to apply,etc. If you put a full cure on they will keep in temps up to 100. Salt curing meat is an ancient form of food preservation and there is a bunch of info out there. The curing comes before the meat is put in the smokehouse and then can be cold smoked for up to 6 wks. Before refrigerators, the hams and all would be left in the smokehouse hanging until needed.Do your homework cuz them knuckles they are talkin abou can sour on you and ruin the whole deal. Most of mine I've done w/o the bone in. It's a fun deal to learn.

[magnuml]

BA-IV, Very cool pictures. How long did that take ? 

[BA-IV]

It don't take to long from the time we stick em to the time we gut em.  Maybe 45 minutes, then they hang overnight in a tree and we cut em up in the morning.  I am nowhere as good as my uncle and dad, they use to back trailer loads of hogs up to the scalding pot and spend from way before daylight to way after dark doing it, now we don't do three or four a year at most.