Y'all Hungary?the Budapest Belle's culinary adventures through her family tree, from gulyás to grits

So, here’s the thing: editing pictures takes a really long time! I tried to start editing all my photos from Pigstock 2010, but then I realized that I’d never get them up on the blog before… 2012. So, instead, I’ve decided to present them to you in all their unedited glory.

This group of photos comes from our first day at PigStock. We all arrived at the farm early on a chilly morning in mid-November. As we waited for everyone to arrive, we sipped on hot coffee and got acquainted with the Mangalitsa pigs.

Once everyone had arrived, it was time for introductions (incidentally, I can tell you that this was a fantastic group of folks – and I’m happy to call them my friends after sharing a truly unique weekend with them). Pig slaughter would be next– but first, we drank a toast to the soul of the pig, as is the tradition in Austria. Never mind that it wasn’t even 8 A.M. yet – tradition is tradition, after all.

Below are the cartridges you use to kill the pig. I don’t want to get too graphic here, but I’ll say that after Christoph demonstrated the technique on the first pig, pretty much everyone was like “Oh, like in No Country For Old Men.” (I haven’t seen it yet myself, for what it’s worth.)

If you shoot the pig properly, it’s pretty much dead instantly. The next step is for someone to “stick” the pig quickly in the neck with a knife, while someone else catches the blood as it drains from the animal’s body. During this process the pig “sticker” kneels on the pig’s body and pumps its leg to help extract the blood (the blood will be used in blood sausage, head cheese, etc.).

The next step is to remove the toenails and bathe the pig in a tub of hot water so you can remove all of its wooly hair – and let me tell you, the hair on the Mangalitsa is incredibly thick and coarse. This is really quite a process. A chemical is used to soften the hair, and then these scrapers are used to remove it from the body.

After a fair amount of hair (and mud) has been removed, the pig is transferred to a large table, where it’s further cleaned by scraping off hair (using the metal scrapers and thick-bristled brushes) and the dead outer layer of its skin (like exfoliation, in a way). Wherever the hair is especially tough, a blow torch is used to burn it off. Steaming hot water is also washed over the pig periodically to aid in the cleaning process.

Once the pig is clean enough, rope is tied around its back legs (around the ankles) and it’s carefully hoisted up (by a tractor, in this case) so it can be slaughtered. The rest of the process is pretty graphic – the removal of the organs, etc – so instead of posting all those photos here, I’ll let any interested parties click on over to my Flickr, where you can see the entire process in detail.

There’s certainly nothing glamorous about pig slaughter. It is what it is, I guess– but that’s how it’s done. I myself removed the organs from one of the pigs and I’ve got to say, it was pretty incredible. First of all, I was struck by how ENORMOUS the lungs are (they’re HUGE) and of course by how surreal it was to be elbow deep (literally) inside a creature that was just alive not long before. Of course, all of us omnivores have blood on our hands, whether we’ve actually participated in the slaughtering process or not.

After a long day of hard work, we were all exhausted. It was high time for wine.

And, of course a tour of the cellar (look at those beautiful hams!)…

Then we went to feed the piggies who needed special attention (the ones who get bullied by the other pigs, or just need some extra acorns).

Finally, it was time to feast (on Mangalitsa, of course. Delicious.)…

… and reflect on what was truly a unique day.

Still to come:

- I’m Big on the Pig: Part IV (butchery and offal)
- I’m Big on the Pig: Part V (sausages, headcheese, leaf lard, etc.)

Tags: bacon, branchville, butchery, hog, Hungarian, Mangalitsa, Mosefund Farm, New Amsterdam market, new jersey, new york city, nj, pig, Pigstock, Pigstock 2010, pork, slaughter

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Events, Food Culture, Hungarian Food. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.