Share a Memory

[Hoot Crawford]

@Hoot Crawford your grandmother and her sisters were a beautiful bunch of ladies

Thank you! Rose was born in 1900, and was in the middle of the 5 sisters. There was also 3 brothers. Malinda was the youngest, born in 1911. Rose lived to be 95, so I remember her well. I don't think I ever met any of her siblings.

 

[Shirley Martin]

October brings memories of hog killin' time to me.

My brother has a friend who is an artist. He asked him to paint a picture of hog killin' time from his verbal description. This is the picture.



It is not tonally accurate, but it is close. I remember Mama's big ol' white coffee cup. Daddy had a vat dug in the ground with fire under it for scalding the hogs, not one on a stand. I remember the crisp cold air with the smell of wood smoke drifting in it.

My job when I was 8 or 9 years old was pouring boiling water through the chittlins. The women would cut one end of the chittlins and squeeze the contents out. They would open the top end, and I would pour the water into it. Repeat until they were clean. That smell was not as pleasant as the wood smoke.

Later, when I was older, my job was cooking. We would have collards, baked sweet potatoes, some kind of dry beans, fresh tenderloin, liver. hashlet, and cornbread. It was a feast fit for a king or hard-working people.

 

[John Brunner]

October brings memories of hog killin' time to me.

My brother has a friend who is an artist. He asked him to paint a picture of hog killin' time from his verbal description. This is the picture.

View attachment 6346

It is not tonally accurate, but it is close. I remember Mama's big ol' white coffee cup. Daddy had a vat dug in the ground with fire under it for scalding the hogs, not one on a stand. I remember the crisp cold air with the smell of wood smoke drifting in it.

My job when I was 8 or 9 years old was pouring boiling water through the chittlins. The women would cut one end of the chittlins and squeeze the contents out. They would open the top end, and I would pour the water into it. Repeat until they were clean. That smell was not as pleasant as the wood smoke.

Later, when I was older, my job was cooking. We would have collards, baked sweet potatoes, some kind of dry beans, fresh tenderloin, liver. hashlet, and cornbread. It was a feast fit for a king or hard-working people.

What is "hashlet"?

My neighbor bought me some chittlins to try, so that's checked off of my bucket list. (Glad it's in my rearview mirror.)

Did you all make head cheese? I roasted a pig once and my British mother was angry I did not save the head so she could make it.

 

[Krystal Shay]

October brings memories of hog killin' time to me.

My brother has a friend who is an artist. He asked him to paint a picture of hog killin' time from his verbal description. This is the picture.

View attachment 6346

It is not tonally accurate, but it is close. I remember Mama's big ol' white coffee cup. Daddy had a vat dug in the ground with fire under it for scalding the hogs, not one on a stand. I remember the crisp cold air with the smell of wood smoke drifting in it.

My job when I was 8 or 9 years old was pouring boiling water through the chittlins. The women would cut one end of the chittlins and squeeze the contents out. They would open the top end, and I would pour the water into it. Repeat until they were clean. That smell was not as pleasant as the wood smoke.

Later, when I was older, my job was cooking. We would have collards, baked sweet potatoes, some kind of dry beans, fresh tenderloin, liver. hashlet, and cornbread. It was a feast fit for a king or hard-working people.

Ahhh, I remember hog butchering days too. There was always a bucket of Lard from hog butchering for frying and making pie crusts too. The lard from the store is awful and does not come close to fresh lard.

 

[Krystal Shay]

What is "hashlet"?

My neighbor bought me some chittlins to try, so that's checked off of my bucket list. (Glad it's in my rearview mirror.)

Did you all make head cheese? I roasted a pig once and my British mother was angry I did not save the head so she could make it.

My grandparents made head cheese.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

@Shirley Martin -- you forgot the cracklins!! That was the best part of the whole process.

My grandma made head cheese, too. She also used the intestines for sausage casings and pickled the pig feet. She occasionally pickled the chitlins, too! Nothing went to waste.

 

[John Brunner]

@Shirley Martin -- you forgot the cracklins!! That was the best part of the whole process.

My grandma made head cheese, too. She also used the intestines for sausage casings and pickled the pig feet. She occasionally pickled the chitlins, too! Nothing went to waste.

My father liked pickled pigs feet. I've known folks who like chicken feet. I will never understand.

 

[Marie Miller]

My father liked pickled pigs feet. I've known folks who like chicken feet. I will never understand.

Often an option at dim sum.

 

[John Brunner]

Often an option at dim sum.

It's been years since I've had dim sum. Always during Chinese New Year. It's good stuff.

 

[Tony Page]

My father used to eat pigs feet, if my memory holds right they were in some kind of a brine. He was the only one in my entire family that would eat them. The oddist thing I ever ate was a chocolate covered bee, I didn't know what it was at the time it was more of a dare.

 

[John Brunner]

My father used to eat pigs feet, if my memory holds right they were in some kind of a brine. He was the only one in my entire family that would eat them. The oddist thing I ever ate was a chocolate covered bee, I didn't know what it was at the time it was more of a dare.

Yeh, pigs feet are kept in brine. You could go into any American Legion Hall and there would be a gallon jar of them on the bar, probably dating back to the Civil War.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

Yeh, pigs feet are kept in brine. You could go into any American Legion Hall and there would be a gallon jar of them on the bar, probably dating back to the Civil War.

I remember the huge jars of them on the counter in the gas station when I was a kid, right next to the giant jar of massive dill pickles and packages of Lance cheese crackers.