In the winter, when it was cold enough to freeze meat, neighbors used to get together to help each other butcher the pigs for the year’s supply of pork.
Often, it might be a dozen or more butchered in a day. The kitchen became a madhouse of cooking and dealing with innards as they came into the house in overflowing pans. The intestines were cleaned outside, then brought inside for final rinsing, turned inside out, and scraped and cleaned using fresh water hauled in from the outside water pump. It was tough work and required a strong body. Nothing was ever wasted back then.
I can almost picture the men killing and scalding the pigs, standing around the fire passing around the home-made “hooch,” joking, laughing and comparing whose hogs were bigger and better. Inside, i’m sure the women were cooking, cleaning and preparing the meat for storage. And making big lunches…
When these large gatherings took place, the women of course needed to feed everyone, and big helpings were needed to keep everyone going on a cold day. How about a big bowl of German noodles, and some pie for dessert?
Because no one wanted to eat pork after a hard day of butchering. Right?
I’m dying to try this noodle recipe. But I’m going to cut it by half, because I have no hog-butchering army to feed anytime soon… ~A
