EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Well today was my twins 3rd birthday, so we bought a cake and had a hog scraping.  We ended up scraping two gilts as a precursor to make sure everything worked out and the cutting equipment was in tip top shape, before we tackled the huge barrs in the pen.  Many people don't do this anymore and it's almost a lost art, but we invited some neighbors and had a great time. First time we've ever scraped Russian influenced hogs, and these hogs came straight out the woods, cuz when I started reading the Internet, I read where you couldn't scrape woods hogs, and we been doing it for years. Hope y'all enjoy.

Our setup, these pots have seen many a hog long before I was thought of, and my babies.

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The operation, and my three year old son.  He wears the fifth behind his last name, and hopefully quite a few more to come.  He really enjoyed it today.

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Hogs hanging in the smoke house.  They'll chill tonight and we'll cut em up tomorrow.  Brand new salt box we cut and built today for these hogs.

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This is over 100 years old.  My great grandfather made a living on this block butchering. 

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I hope y'all enjoy this. Lots of time and family involvement went into today.  I enjoyed writing and sharing these pictures as much as I did scraping the hogs. Now it's time to lay the hammer down on the big barrs!

Looks like good times Ben.

That's cool, always wanted to try that

Nvr done it on wild hogs but did a many ag hogs. Im assuming its the same procedure as domestic, right?

Speaking of them big cast iron brew pots. Does anybody know of any that are in usable condition? It aint gotta have the eyelets on the side or the feet pegs, just as long as it hold water at the halfway full point or more.

It's great that you are passing this family tradition down to your kids Ben. It's clear to see your proud of your heritage.

Awesome deal Ben....  Happy Birthday to the twins !!

looks like yall had a great day thanks for sharing the pictures. i bet your twins had a blast

Very cool. Thatks for sharing something so meaningful. Happy Birthday to the kids as well :)

i can almost smell the cracklins cooking. been a few years since i was in on a good hog scraping. most people are too lazy to scrape hogs these days good job passing on the tradition.

dude is that some kinda body preservation leaving that coffin in the smokehouse ;)

good deal , i beleive thats something our kids need to learn .

i wouldnt have guessed that them black wild hogs would have been white underneath . did they scald any different ?

also does it stay cold enough there to cure hams ?

They scald just the same, and white as snow underneath.  We are salt curing them hams and middlins and then smoking them. That coffin is the salt box we built, it ain't holding nobody over for the winter for the ground to soften, it ain't Lonesome Dove here yet  :laugh:

This is good stuff Ben! Glad to see you are still carrying on an old tradition

Man! Thanks for posting that story and pictures up. It's uplifting to see the culture being passed to a new generation

ben , how long do ya'll leave your hams in the salt ? we leave them 30 days but if we have a warm spell as is more common these days they'll take too much salt and be hard to eat ,i figure its warmer there than here . also how long on middlins ?

We don't have the temperature y'all do, it stays warm, so we salt cure and then smoke.  Small hogs is 7 days in salt, bigger hogs 9-11 days, and we do 3-5 days in smoke.  We have a traditional smoke house and just build a smoke underneath, it's not exact.

JDT, I'm assuming y'all are sugar curing yalls hams and middlins aren't you, or just salt curing then smoking?

great pics id realy like to see some pics of your smoke house and especially the fire box   

ben , we salt cure and smoke , we use about the same kind of box and smokehouse , just a cold smoke . then rub them hams down with blackpepper to keep the flies away , wrap in newspaper , put in hamsack and let hang at least through the next august . middlins are just kinda frosted with 7 part salt 3 parts sugar for 14 days and then just smoked a couple days . sausage is stuffed into cleaned casings and smoked overnight , it will keep well just hanging in the smokehouse . one year we ate the last of it in june .

This is why the Internet can be a great thing. I've heard stories of the old days of doing it similar to how y'all do it.  I love hearing how other people do things.

It is rough down here cuz our winters are mild so we have to scrape when it's cold to chill the meat when we hang it outside.  We need a cooler, but never got around to building one.  I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow if it ain't falling a flood.  Y'all have a special blend yal use for yalls sausage or a particular product y'all use?

i use lleggs old plantation seasoning and add sage . yeah winters here are milder than they used to be , everybody used to kill thanksgiving day . now days you can't depend on it staying cold enough till about now . even this time of year it can get up to 70 in the afternoon s for several days at a time .

 i'm surprised that hams can be cured that far south . we need to visit and swap info on the phone sometime .

That's funny cuz I just told the family I had heard good things on the Llegs seasoning and was gonna order some and do a batch of sausage in it and see how it turned out.

if you like it sagey , i add 3 handfulls for 25 # . for my customers that like it hot i add red pepper .

do them woods hogs say 2-300 # have enuff fat for good sausage ?

That's pretty awesome. Thank You!

Pretty neat! Put pics up of the rest of the process.

They won't cure this far south neither with the bone in, the marrow spoils the meat so we have to De-bone everything and salt cure it thatway.  Our smokehouse is designed for a cold smoke, but lately we have building a fire in the smokehouse. 

I've never heard of the black pepper trick neither.

yeah we build a fire in the smokehouse , like firing tobacco . i said cold smoke because i'm not trying to cook the meat just smoke it .

We have a hole built into our smoke house for a furnace to sit outside and hold the fire.  It's what I've always known as a cold smoke.

Do y'all do alot of business as far as selling cured hams and sausage? How many hogs do y'all do a year about?

Do y'all do alot of business as far as selling cured hams and sausage? How many hogs do y'all do a year about?
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yeah i sell the sausage before its made most times , i need a cooler to cure hams in so i can regulate temp . the last couple years with the wife being sick i hadn't killed that many , maybe 8 or 10 . i hope to expand soon .

you know selling meat thats not government inspected is illegal , however, if it is inspected they can fill it full of co2, antibiotics, steroids and hormones lol .

     i'd probably get in less trouble for making moonshine . :D