Just wondering if ya'll that make sausage are doing so from their own hog/pig and do ya'll utilize the hogs head? It's been many decades since I've had home raised pig butchered...but know I had to specifically ask the butcher for the head so I could make hogs head cheese or tamales. I figured that folks that make all the stuff ya'll do that perhaps it is not a lost art. I know for those who have never eaten this (to their knowledge) it might sound "gross" but it is a wonderful sandwich meat (in terms of the hogs head cheese) and not gross at all cause the butcher cleans out the stuff you really don't want. There is ALOT of meat for a fraction of the cost. Just takes time and a BIG pot...which I suspect ya'll have.
Just curious. ;D
If hogs head cheese and head cheese are the same thing. I grew up with it too but I don't care for it. We had some old Russian neighbors that would collect up all the heads every fall and boil them in this HUGE cast iron pot. You could have given half the kids in the neighborhood a bath in that thing at the same time! They hung it on this big tripod post and made a huge wood fire under it and stirred it for what seems like days with a small boat oar. It had this jellied slimy stuff around it I hated but the meat was awsome!
I do however love pig cheek bacon (some call it hog jouls) or pickled pigs snout! There is a lot of good meat is the head some of the tenderest pieces too.
Seemed like a good subject to bring up on a "Cheese Forum". ;D
DEB: do you make your sausage from your butchered hog vs meat from a store? I was just curious as to issue of utilizing as much as possible from a pig and if folks still practiced making the odd stuff like head cheese.
I do believe some folks call it head cheese. I certainly wouldn't like eating it the way your describing your Russian neighbors..."slimy" isn't an appealing thought. HAHA! I found that making the "cans" of differing amounts of the textural stuff like snouts made it more appealing to me. I put in coffee cans and then later just sliced off slabs to put on sandwiches.
Just curious since I saw all that sausage folks were talking about.
I make it here. In fact I am butchering two hogs tomorrow. We also call it souse. (sp?) Boil the head and jell the stuff that rises to the top. You have to acquire a taste for it.
FarmerJD: Do you add pickling type spices or go the cajun way with dried onion, celery, parsley and lots of pepper? I prefer the cajun "green" type cause it's spicy. My family added some vinegar to the one they made with pickling spices and I didn't like that as well as the "cajun" sort.
Good luck on your busy day tomorrow!
Nice to know that folks still make it...My kids wouldn't eat it if you told them what it was...BUT...when made the cajun way...I could actually pack the meat into bread pans, pour the hot reduced broth ontop...then froze it. If you refrigerate broth while working on the meat you can skim off the fat, refrig the meat also over night then next day boil the skimmed/defatted broth. Then when short on time for a dinner, thaw/reheated till the gelatin melts, add a little roux paste if you want a tad of thickening, then serve it as a chopped meat and gravy on toast or rice.
It's all in the name I think for the younger folks. I'm all for creatively RE-NAMING a dish so the kids will eat it. Once they like it...they will forget the deception. ;) Hogs head cheese, head cheese, souse, are names that make most kids cringe cause they have vivid imaginations.
We use the same seasoning as we do for sausage. Agreed about the gross factor being the problem. It really isn't any different meat. My kids are excited about tomorrow. We had our first snow in almost 20 years this week and now we are butchering hogs in the snow. Kind of a surreal experience here.
Teegr - no I buy from stores. I live in town these days and it stinks. Can't wait to retire and get outta dodge! I want to retire to West Virginia and start a small farm. Nothing big just a few cows, pigs, chickens and rabbits.
JD good luck tomorrow. Butchering in the snow can be pretty scarey for the little ones. All that blood and all. DO you make blood sausage? I love blood sausage .
I hope you aren't planning on a life of ease when you "retire" if are going to start a small farm! I work harder now than I ever have!
I figure when I retire I will work harder than I do now but I will enjoy it more. I will never feel like I am home again until I get back to the farm. I was not meant to live in town. Funny when I was 18 all I wanted to do is get off the farm and see something. BTDT I want to go home!
I remember always working with my grandma and she just couldn't wrap her mind around the fact I WANTED to make stuff like hogs head cheese, sausage, etc for my young family, even though I could go buy it. To her it was simply a chore that had to be done for she wasn't a big meat eater. As a result I had to try and figure it out by asking a few old ladies.
I sure would NOT want to skin out a hogs head to make sausage..I'd rather put it in pot and make head cheese if anyone would eat it. I can't imagine the amounts your russian neighbor made. Many hands make light work I guess...it just seems I'd probably have had to do most of the picking by myself.
I'd like to live on some property rather than in town now...but the trade off is I'm now right along the route from where the sons catch fish to drop by on their way home. We used to raise meat on my folks property in Wa state but they went and bought a 40 acre farm in the boonies 10 years ago and spend half the year down there. So now it's kinda hard to raise anything over there unless I want to be away from my home. At least I get good pecans if it's a good year for the weather.
Yeah there's always pros and cons. I figure if I stay here I will barely make ends meet just trying to pay the taxes. AT least in WV I will be able to live farly comfortable.
Hopefully soon you can retire and get to a place you can live cheaper on a lessor income. I have same problem where I am...fixed income and everything, especially medicines are lowering my free budget every year.
Until my daughter in law gets cure (unlikely to happen) I have to stay put for my granddaughter. The further you get from the main corridor from Seattle to Vancouver BC the cheaper it is to live and I live 3 mins from the mouth of a river and 3 mins from I-5. Expensive place to live. But it is beautiful. I moved here because I was required to be on call at the hospital and you have to be within 15 mins. Not and issue for me now...but not I have a granddaughter and I am 5 mins from where she is staying now. (the grandmas are sharing her)
Someday maybe I will have grandbabies. At least boys don't have biological clocks to worry about. My sister had grandbabies at 32 I am 55 and still nada!
God has blessed me with the most girly girl granddaughter. She grew up under my quilt frame...or standing on chair kneading dough while in her diaper!!
Hopefully your boys will get busy so you can enjoy and teach your babies before your too tired to pass on all that knowledge.
Amen!