Workers Of Wood

I found these in my dads shop anyone know or want to guess what these are ? We used to use them a couple times a year here on the farm.

A hand made 'plumber's helper'?

DaninVan wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 9:56 am A hand made 'plumber's helper'?

Nope!! The bell part is metal and has a sharp edge

Does it have to be used on the farm?
Herb

Herb Stoops wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 11:14 am Does it have to be used on the farm?
Herb

No!! They could be used at a Slaughter house 2nd clue

Cookie cutters for moon pies.

I was thinking of butchering or scraping the fatty tissue off the hides,or carcasses.I think Dan has it for shaving hogs.

HErb

Yep we used them when we butchered hogs. Had to scold them in boiling water so the hair would come off easier. We boiled the water in a big cast iron pot. We put the dead hog in a big wood trough my dad made. Then he would pour the boiling water over the dead hog Then my brothers and I would scrape off the hair with what my dad called hog bells. Not a fun job but the home rendered lard was amazing for pie crusts.

We had a 55 gal drum with the head cut off and a fire underneath and hung the hog off a tripod with a block and tackle
, Let it down into the scalding water then pulled it out to scrape the hog.
The trough we used to neuter the smaller pigs.
My mom used a big cast iron skillet to render the lard. your right made good pie crusts . Kids loved the cracklings too. I bet the kids now don't know where those crackling they munch on while watching TV came from...
Herb

Some folks just use a Tiger torch...

Good idea, they didn't have propane torches then we had a blowtorch, and acetylene torch though. They might have worked.
HErb

Just to gross you out, they singe them, then cut the crackling off to sell to commuters driving by on their way to work...the pig isn't even gutted or cooked at this point. Our driver suggested we pass on the crackling...

it is what they used to call "Chewing the Fat". I did notice that the hog in the picture didn't seem to be bled or gutted. They were stripping off the lard first. But to make cracklings they have to remove the hide and fry out the lard, the crackling is the tissue that holds the grease,once the grease is removed then the tissue that is left is edible, but the skin is not.
Herb

Mom always said we used everything from the hog except the squeal LOL pretty true. Dad would say the kidneys aren't bad if you boil the pee out of them. LOL they got ground into sausage. I remember catching the blood to make blood sausage had to keep stirring it and then add fresh milk so it didn't clot. We always trimmed out the heads to make head cheese too. Yes those cracklins are good after you render the lard Herb. I don't think I want it the way you do it Dan LOL I found those bells in his shop the other day and they brought back allot of memory's thought I would share.

She even rendered out the tails and give them to us kids to chew on. Yes Roxanne, good memories,thanks.
HErb

No idea ,Herb; I just report the news...
Those pics were taken on the main hwy. out of the old Colonial city of Cuenca, Ecuador. Not the only 'hot dog' stand by a long shot.

LOL,that is funny...
Herb

In the little Italian village where I was born, up to WW II, every family except the completely destitute used to raise a hog each year. The stall was often under the main storey of the house - when we visited with my wife in 1981, one of the neighbours still kept a hog under the house. Acted like a big dog, sniffing visitors.
The tradition gradually died out after the war, partly because in the last year or so, German troops retreating northwards tended to requisition all the hogs for rations, leaving a large gap in the diet.
As with Roxanne's family, every part of the hog was used. The lard was used for cooking throughout the winter months, and was also used for storing sausage (no refrigeration, but cold cellars in winter). Added to the taste. Hams were cured in the fireplace hearth (prosciutto) or sometimes boiled (prosciutto cotto), the guts were used for sausage and salami casings, the belly was used for pancetta, the cheeks for guanciale (has made a recent comeback with trendy foodies), the blood for blood pudding and blood sausage, the trotters were boiled for broth and gelatine, and sometimes stuffed, and the ears were something of a delicacy - certain more edible than silk purses. Different types of sausage (fresh, semi-cured, cured, like salami), processed meat (mortadella, a type of baloney), not to mention the offal. Bones were fed to the dogs.
These days they talk of the circular economy. In those days, the hog was fed bran from wheat (not a breakfast cereal, which in any case is not an Italian tradition), and all sorts of kitchen scraps were recycled through the hog. My late mother always used to snigger at Kellogs All-Bran flakes, claiming that even her hogs ate better bran.
I once read that American spies were trained to vomit at will, as a way of deterring rough interrogators in case of capture. I could have been such a spy - I learnt the art of purposeful vomiting by being fed blood pudding. Just a thought of the smell, and I could still do it - have not had blood pudding since I was five.
Interesting that with so much use of lard, there was not much arterial disease. Partly because life expectancy was lower, but I think mainly because in a rural setting, everybody did hard manual labour. Next generation (i.e. me) sit for 8+ hours a day, and have to pass on all the good stuff. Rats!.

I saw this on FB today and thought it fit here LOL "MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB, LITTLE LAMB, UNTIL HER FATHER SHOT IT DEAD: NOW MARY TAKES HER LAMB TO SCHOOL BETWEEN TWO HUNK'S OF BREAD. ( NOW GO BACK AND SING IT )" LMAOROF