Some of the fun and interesting experiences of my life are ones that my children and grandchildren will likely never have. They involved the butchering of various animals for food for our family.
A common practice when I was growing up was for families to raise animals for slaughtering each year. Almost every family raised a beef, a pig or chickens for food. Many of the men also hunted deer or elk or wild turkey each year to supplement the family food supply. Our family was no different from other families in Heber. We raised a pig and had chickens as well. Dad was never a hunter but Ted did kill a deer a couple of times as I recall.
Each year we also killed a beef. Dad had made an agreement with Uncle Laurald for a beef each year. Our milk cows were always bred to a beef bull. The resulting calves were half dairy cow and half beef cow. Uncle Laurald would take our yearling calf each year and put it with his other calves on the range. He especially liked it if the calf was a heifer because it would grow up to be a cow that gave more milk and raised larger and heavier calves for sale than his other range cows. In exchange for our yearling calf, he would provide Dad with a yearling steer that we would butcher for meat.
Butchering took place in the fall of the year when the weather was cold. We had a place in our garage where the slaughtered beef carcass could be hung for skinning and gutting. The animal was shot between the eyes with a rifle to kill it. After shooting it, the animals throat was cut so that all the blood could drain out when the animal was hung up. The animal was then hung upside down (head down) and it was skinned and the guts taken out. Usually a large wash tub was placed right under the head on the floor and as the guts were removed, they fell into the tub. Only the heart and liver were saved from the enthrails. After the slaughter, the carcass was allowed to hang in the cold garage for a few days. The skin and the carcass had to be inspected by the sheriff or one of his deputies to be sure the animal was not “rustled”. If the brand on the hide was OK (matched the bill of sale) and the carcass was OK(free of disease or parasites) , the sheriff would stamp both the skin and the carcass in several places with a stamp using indelible purple ink. Once that was done, the carcass could be cut up and packaged for freezing or family use.
First the carcass was cut in half. We had a meat saw and Dad would use the saw to cut right down the middle of the spine to make two equal halves. This made it easier to handle them when processing the meat. Each half weighed about 100 lbs or more. Theses halves were then usually cut into a front quarter and a hind quarter and those were the pieces we took into the kitchen for further cutting up. In the kitchen the quarters were cut into steaks or roasts, wrapped in freezer paper and put in the deep freeze for later use. Some of the meat was ground up to make ground beef or hamburger and packaged and frozen. By the time we had a full beef in the deep freeze, it was pretty full. Often meat was shared with friends or relatives. The frozen beef was expected to last the family for a full year or until another beef could be slaughtered. One beef alone was not enough for a year so most families also had a pig.
Most families in town raised at least one pig each year. The piglets were purchases when they were very small (about 1 ft tall) for about $10 each. Dad seemed to know who had piglets for sale and we always got one. Most of them were probably Durock or a similar breed and most were red or brown in color. Later we had a few that were white.
Slaughtering a pig was very different from slaughtering a beef. Before killing the pig, a special form was constructed. It consisted of a slanted ramp about 3 ft. wide. At the high end of the ramp was a barrel full of hot water. The water was heated by putting the barrel about half full of water over a fire until the water was boiling hot. Once the water was hot, the pig was lured close to the slaughter site by putting feed there and then it was shot and killed. It’s throat was cut to drain out the blood for a few minutes. Then the pig was lifted up on the ramp and slid into the barrel full of boiling water then pulled back out onto the ramp. The water somehow released the hair and made it possible to scrape the pigs hair from the skin. Several men worked together to scrape off the hair. Every so often they would dip the pigs carcass back into the hot water then pull it out and continue scrapping off the hair. Once the pigs body was completely bald (white color) , the pig was hung upside down in the garage for gutting. Very few of the pig enthrails were ever saved as I recall. Once gutted, the pig was also allowed to hang in the cool garage. I think this was to cool the meat for easier processing. I don’t think there was any requirement for inspection of pig carcasses, but I am not sure of that. Once the carcass was cool, it was cut in half like the beef. The difference was that it was possible for a man to handle a full half carcass. These were taken into the kitchen for cutting up. Most of the time our pigs had about 1-2 inches of fat just under the skin. This fat was removed and” rendered” or cooked to get the grease for soap making (to be covered in another section) . The skins were made into “fried pig skins” that some people liked to eat. I wasn’t one of them. The meat was cut into pork chops, bacon, hams and roasts and some of it was made into sausage as well. Again it went into the freezer for future use.
Besides a beef and a pig, many families, including ours, also slaughtered chickens. At that time it was possible to order baby chicks through the Sears or Mongemery Ward catalogue and they came by U.S. Parcel Post. The chicks came in a box with lots of holes in it and with either 25 or 50 chicks per box. I don’t remember exactly which. I do remember picking up the boxes of chicks at the post office. The chicks were put into “brooders” which were like cages that had light bulbs for heat. They had watering and feed troughs around the sides. I don’t remember exactly how many chicks we got each year but I would guess it was at least 50. A few would die but most would survive. Once they got feathers on them, they could be taken out of the “brooders” and put in the chicken coop. They were fed wheat or other grains and food scraps. Within a few months, they grew to be full sized chickens. The slaughtering of chickens usually fell to Mom and us kids or Mom and Grandma and us kids. To slaughter chickens, we would cut off their heads using an axe and let them hop around like “chickens with their heads cut off” and when they quit jumping around, the carcasses were dunked in boiling hot water which allowed us to pull out the feathers. This is called “plucking chickens” and we got to be pretty good at it. Once the chickens were “plucked” naked, they were taken into the house where Mom or Mom and Grandma would cut them open and pull the enthrails out. This was called “cleaning” the chickens. Sometimes there were partially formed eggs inside the chickens and these were kept for making noodles. The chicken livers and gizzards were kept as well. The “cleaned” chickens were put in bags whole for freezing. It usually took several hours to slaughter all the chickens but it was an easier job that the butchering of the pigs or beef.
Mom and Dad were very thrifty. Whether by necessity or choice, they tried to be as self reliant as possible. Part of that was raising animals to provide food for the family. That is not possible in most places now but I remember well those times. The process may sound rather gory but it was very routine and familiar to us at the time and we did not view it as being “gory”. Often neighbors helped neighbors when they were slaughtering an animal and we kids would stand around and watch. It was quite an adventure. Through the year that I was growing up, we didn’t go to the store much for meat. We went to the freezer instead. I don’t think we ate more meat than others but we did usually have some type of meat to eat at least once a day and it was very good meat.
The butchering of animals by families is something that is in the past for the most part. Now the slaughtering is done in very sanitized slaughter houses. I don’t think the meat tastes any better now than it did when we did it ourselves. It’s an experience my family will probably never have. Maybe this description will be sufficient to give you some feel for the process. I hope it doesn’t result in my family becoming vegetarians overnight.