Butchering 2009

	We paid a real butcher to slaughter, skin & gut the hogs so when we began they were halved and ready to cut up.  Here Uncle Lee Rhodes and Paul Zimmerman are beginning to cut out the ribs and the bacon.  The bacons will be cured and smoked in the smokehouse later by Paul.
	Everybody jumps in to get the pig cut up and the bones removed.  The critical first step is to get the bones all out of the meat and in the puddin pot so they can begin cooking.  You also need to separate the fat for lard from the meat for sausage.  You want to make sure that almost no lean meat gets put in with the fat pot.
	Cutting up the ribs
	Paul cuts up the shoulder into manageable chunks and roasts.  Most of us really like canned pork so we cut up most of our roasts into lean 1" chunks to be canned later.  We even like to cut up the pork loin and the hams in the same way to can.
	Here the girls are watching Andrew cut up the fat.  We cut it up into about 1" chunks so that it cooks up quicker in the lard pot.
	Here we are just beginning to put the heat to the chunks of fat in the lard pot.  There is a gas burner underneath of this big cast iron pot.
	This is the puddin pot.  All the bones with chunks of meat get put in here to cook down.  It will be gone through later to separate the bones and gristle from the remaining meat for puddins.
	Paul has a really nice setup with the big puddin' pot and the lard pot both inside with hoods and exhaust to remove the fumes.  We did have a bit of an accident later in the afternoon when the fire went out under the puddin pot and a misunderstanding caused gas to build up under the pot before Paul ignited it.  He didn't realize that the gas was already on when he hit the lighter.  It made quite a boom and burned his wrist and arm pretty badly.  I'm afraid it took the enjoyment out of the rest of the day for him....
	Here is the sausage meat all cut up and ready to be seasoned.  Mother and Jeanne are measuring out the spices to put on it.
	After the seasoning is worked by hand through the meat it is run through the sausage grinder.  Here Uncle Lee and Andrew are putting it through.  We ended up with about 260 lbs. of sausage out of the two hogs.
	After all the sausage has been ground, you take the knife out of the grinder and run the meat through the same machine again to stuff it.  Some people use sausage casings to stuff and make sausage links.  We like our sausage more in bulk so the women make up long sausage bags out of unbleached muslin.  Here Uncle Lee and Uncle Nub are stuffing the bags while the girls line up with new bags to give to Uncle Nub.
	Aunt Reba and Andrew tie off the bags with a different color of tie for each family to keep track of whose sausage it is.
	The sausage is then hung in a small smoke house with a small fire of hickory wood for several hours to give it the smoked flavor.
	Here Aunt Marsha is running some pork loin through the tenderizer.
	Meanwhile, the puddin pot has finished cooking so the bones and other solids are dipped out and put into vats outside to cool.  The broth that is left in the pot is also dipped out and put in separate buckets outside to cool down.  It will be used later for the ponhaus.
	When the pieces of fat in the lard pot turn brown and curl up the lard is finished rendering and is dipped off and run through a sausage stuffer and filtered into buckets.
	The sausage stuffer is used to crush the last of the lard out of the cracklins (The pieces of fat that are left after the lard has been rendered)
	Here are 6 1/2 pails of rendered lard and the two bigger buckets of broth cooling outside.
	After the bones have cooled from the puddin pot, the vats are brought in and dumped out on the table.  After cooking in the pot for several hours the meat is falling easily off of the bones and it is easy to separate bones, gristle and other unwanted items from the remaining delicious meat.
	The meat from the puddin pot is then put through the sausage grinder....
	... then back into the pot for added seasoning and to be fried a bit.
	The resulting puddins can be used in a variety of delicious ways.  First we will need some of the puddins to add to the ponhaus.  What is left we package into small packages and freeze.  I love puddins over grits with apple butter and horseradish sauce.  We also like to eat puddins over cornmeal pancakes.
	Next, the broth from the puddin pot is brought back in and put in the kettle.  Corn meal and flour is mixed with the broth and cooked.  We also add some of the puddins back in to give it a more meaty flavor.  Salt and pepper are also added.
	Paul had a nice paddle that he attached to a drill to be used to mix and stir the ponhaus as it is cooking.  It needs to be stirred constantly to prevent it from sticking and or scorching.  After cooking for about an hour the mixture begins to separate from the grease and comes from the side of the pot easily.  It is then done.
	The mixture is then scooped out and put in bread pans to cool.  After it cools, it is ready to be sliced and fried as ponhaus.  As soon as it cools sufficiently to set up firm we like to go ahead and slice it all then quick freeze it on cookie sheets.  After it is quick frozen we can put the slices in bags for the freezer.  Then whenever we want some for breakfast we can easily remove however many slices we need without thawing the whole bag or pan.
	Later in the evening after the sausage has finished smoking we brought it back to the house to cut into 1lb. sections.  We then wrap the sections individually in plastic wrap and store them in gallon ziploc bags for the freezer.  It was quite a job doing up all 165 lbs of sausage.  After we got all the sausage put up, I got our ponhaus pans out and started slicing it up and laying out on sheets to be quick froze.  It was -5 degrees outside in the morning so I just put the pans on the back porch to freeze instead of in the freezer.  It was after 12:00 before I got done cutting our 5 bread pans of ponhaus...