大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Margaret Woolley. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

During the war when food rationing was the norm a lot of Countesthorpe families kept chickens to supply eggs, and a pig in a sty at the bottom of the garden. The pig was slaughtered in the autumn to supply bacon, lard, ham etc.. These were used to supplement the meagre rations.

My mother was the one person in the village with the skills to 鈥減ut the pig away鈥�, as the expression goes, meaning, turning the slaughtered animal into so many wonderful things to eat. As the youngest member of the family I was taken with her to people鈥檚 homes whilst she did the job, and slowly the memory of what she did was etched in my mind.

First she would salt the flitches. Saltpetre and block salt were used. The saltpetre was bought from the chemist and the block salt, in 7lb lumps, was obtained from the bakery. The salt was chiselled off and then rolled to get fine grains. The saltpetre was pushed into all the folds and holes where the bones had been removed, then the whole sides of meat were laid on and covered with more salt in long shallow trays: they would then lie for about six weeks. The hams (top of legs or shoulders) could also be salted or boiled fresh.

The rest of the meat was then sorted out. The light meat would be minced and mixed with herbs and breadcrumbs and made into sausage meat ready for filling the skins once they had been cleaned. Sausage skins were the outer sheath of the small intestines, first washed in salt-water then boiled and finally scraped clean on a flat board with the back of a wooden spoon. Once completely clean, the skin would be threaded onto a funnel that fastened onto the front of the mixing machine and filled into one long length. Mum would then, with amazing skill, kink and knot this rope into links in sets of four. This always seemed like magic to me.

The red meat was minced coarsely, then seasoned and left to stand whilst she made hot-water pastry consisting of flour, salt, melted lard and hot water, well mixed, then kneaded and finally moulded around a 鈥渄olly鈥� (a wooden block) to make the cases for pork pies. These were filled and lidded, then baked slowly until golden brown. Jelly for the pies was made by boiling some bones. Once the pies were cold the stock was introduced via a small funnel through holes in the pie lids.

The offal (liver, kidneys, heart) was used within days, usually fried with onions. The 鈥渓ights鈥� (lungs, stomach) were cooked and fed to the cats and dogs.

The head and tail were boiled in a big pan for ages, then the bones were fished out and the meat 鈥渕ushed up鈥� and finally seasoned. The mixture was ladled into basins and allowed to set. This was the 鈥渃ollared meat鈥� or brawn and could be sliced for sandwiches etc..

Any other left-over bits of meat were minced again, seasoned and mixed with breadcrumbs. Handfuls of the mixture were wrapped in pieces of the 鈥渟kirts鈥� 鈥� a skin membrane laced with fatty streaks that supports the bowel 鈥� then they were cooked in the oven until golden brown. These were known as haslets.

Another job was to cut the large piece of fat that ran the length of the pig into small cubes which were then rendered down in a large pan. As the fat melted, the liquid fat was drained off until all that was left in the pan were small 鈥渟cratchings鈥� that were delicious sprinkled with salt when cold. The liquid fat would solidify to become lard that could be stored in the pantry ready for making pastry or cooking with throughout the months ahead.

The feet trotters and hocks (ankles) were boiled and picked over when cold to be eaten with bread and butter.

The bladder appeared to be one of the few bits of the pig that were useless. My dad would wash it out, tie off the orifices, then blow it up and seal it so that we could use it for playing ball.

It was always said that the only bit of a pig that wasn鈥檛 used was its squeal!

We were very lucky to have such good food.

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