It’s not as common today as it once was for family to have a hog or two for meat.

Anne Summers, 91, Willow Springs, recalls how her family butchered hogs.

Butchering time took place in late fall or early winter and typically required several hands.

“We had to wait until cool weather. You couldn’t butcher until late in the fall,” Summers explained. “Neighbors would get together to butcher.”

The process started by heating water. The hogs were killed and then dipped in the hot water, scraped and hung in a tree to be cut up.

“The hogs were cut into whatever pieces you desired,” said Summers.

Much of the larger cuts of meat were either cured and/or smoked. For curing the pork, the pieces were layered with salt.

“We had a wooden box. We put the meat in and covered it with salt,” said Summers. “The box had holes at the bottom for the liquid to drain out.”

According to Summers, certain pieces, such as the rib, tail, head, liver, feet and other trimmings were processed in other ways, including sausage, head cheese and the like. All the lard, or pork fat, was also cut off the hog for rendering.

The second day of butchering time would start with preparing the meat to make sausage.

“Dice the meat, put it in a tub, put seasoning on it and mix it,” recalled Summers. “Let it sit while you cut the lard, so you could render it.”

Then you were ready to render the lard.

“You put an iron kettle over a fire and cooked the lard, making sure it didn’t burn,” said Summers. “The fire had to be a continual slow fire.

“The brown and crispy pieces, the cracklings, would be fished out,” added Summers.

The lard would be put in jars and sealed.

Meanwhile, sausage preparation continued.

“The seasoning would take a hold and then you would need to grind it,” said Summers. “Usually, when we ground sausage, we set up the grinder to where one person would feed the sausage and the other would grind it.”

Once ground, the sausage would be cooked and canned.

“Whatever grease is leftover from frying the sausage, you put that grease on top in the jar to help keep it,” said Summers.

“Any time you can anything, make sure it is well-cooked, your utensils are clean and your containers are sterile,” cautioned Summers.

The hog skin that was removed was cut up to make soap, which could be made another day.

The curing pork had to be monitored.

“You turned the meat to make sure it still had salt on it,” said Summers. “Once it was cured, you would take it out, soak it overnight in fresh water and leave it out for two to three days to dry.

“We would then smoke bacon, hams, shoulders and fat backs,” added Summers.

Pork was often smoked for a fuller flavor. “You could use brown sugar and smoke flavoring and dry smoke it, or you could string it up in a smokehouse,” said Summers.

Smoking meats required a smoke house, where a small fire was kept going for days or weeks, depending on the meat being smoked.

“Bacon would get done first. Hams would take a few more weeks,” said Summers.

The type of wood used in the smokehouse determined the flavor.

“I recommend apple wood for a good flavor,” advised Summers.

Butchering days were busy for the entire family.

“On top of butchering, you had to feed everyone who was working,” said Summers. “After every one went home, you had to clean up the mess.”

For those who want to learn more about how pioneers worked and lived off the land, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books provide detailed, accurate descriptions.

For butchering a hog, read “The Little House in the Big Woods,” where Wilder shares how her family prepared for winter by putting up food, including butchering a hog. She even shared how her Ma made headcheese from the hog’s head.

“Ma scraped and cleaned the head carefully, and then she boiled it till all of the meat fell off the bones. She chopped the meat fine with her chopping knife in the wooden bowl, she seasoned it with pepper and salt and spices. Then she mixed the pot-liquor with it, and set it away in a pan to cool. When it was cool it would cut into slices, and that was headcheese.”

The original “Little House” book series is available at Yellow Brick Toy and Book Store, located at the Howell County News on Main Street in Willow Springs.

For specific directions for curing, smoking and butchering meats today, contact the University of Missouri Extension office or visit the Extension online at http://extension.missouri.edu/. Use the website’s search engine, using either brining, curing, smoking or butchering as keywords.