Saga of the Sanpitch Volume 13, 1981 - Sanpete County

First the meat must be saturated with strong salt brine. The brine was made by heating a tub of water
over an outside sagebrush fire. Several pounds of rock salt were added as the solution boiled vigorously.
When a potato would float on the salty brine, the solution was ready. The wooden barrel (so important in our
life) was thoroughly cleaned and brought to the cellar. The six pieces of meat were packed into it. We used
buckets to transfer the brine from the tub to the barrel. The meat was completely covered and must remain
so for days until each piece was thoroughly saturated.
Now to make the sausage. The meat scraps from the trimming process were put through a meat
grinder. Mother let me turn the grinder while she inserted the meat, always careful that her fingers did not
mingle with the scraps. The ground product was mixed with salt, pepper and sage, ready now for the stuffing
process. The end of a cleaned intestinal casing about an inch in diameter was stretched over a little hornlike
fixture. The meat was pressed through the horn into the casing. As it began to fill, the meat was pressed
still more firmly into it. Yards of one-inch diameter tubes appeared. About every twelve inches, the long tube
was twisted in such a way that links were formed.
While the sausage was being made, the pig's head had been boiling in our large copper boiler on top of
the kitchen stove. When it was thoroughly cooked, the head was removed. The meat was separated from the
bone and put through the meat grinder. It was mixed with salt and pepper and placed in round twelve-inch
pans. A dinner plate was pressed on top of each pan and a heavy flat iron put on top to press the meat into
"headcheese."
The pleasant task of sharing some of our "goodies" with relatives and friends began. In each of several
gift packages, we enclosed some sausage links, a piece of liver, some headcheese and a portion of fresh spare
ribs.
I don't know how my parents knew when it was time to remove the pork from the brine barrel. It was
lifted from the brine, loaded in the wagon and transported to grandma's "smokehouse." Grandma did what
she called "custom smoking" of meat for the community, earning extra money for this service. The
smokehouse was a tower like structure about twelve feet high and six feet square. It was built on a rock
foundation and was constructed to hold fire to produce smoke. The meat was hung carefully on hooks inside
the smokehouse and the top was closed. A fire made of dry apple tree limbs was used to produce smoke that
saturated the meat.
While the smoking process was going on, we returned home to "render the lard." The copper kettle
was filled with fat scraps that had been trimmed earlier from the larger sections of pork. The contents were
cooked until they were rendered. The crystal clear grease was then poured into half-gallon cans, and when
cooled, it became snow white lard. This was used in recipes calling for shortening. Sometimes we used it on
bread instead of butter. When it was fresh and properly salted, it really was quite a tasty spread. Townspeople
often came to our house to buy cans of this lard for their use.
When the smoking process was complete, we removed the pork from the smokehouse. It was light
brown and had a tangy inviting odor.
We were conservative in our use of pork. It was not healthy to eat too much. The fatter portions of the
side meat (bacon) were used first, as were the fat sections of the large pieces called "shoulder." When these
were gone and winter came, we began to use the choice lean meat from the hams. I guess this is what was
meant by eating "high on the hog."
Our family found that this "porker" and a second one, produced adequate meat for the entire year. It
lasted through the next summer and into fall. During the summer, we would be fattening other pigs for the
next year. We were now more keenly aware of what it meant to go from "porker to pork."
Source: Personal recollection of the author.
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