yesterday in PA, no tractors,but an old time farm tradition

4 neighbor familys have been doing butchering last week,I arrived there Sunday,and was able to help in the making of what the PA dutch call Liver Pudding,,,and Scrapple, All the bones from one beef and 3 hogs ,and the livers and hearts get boiled in a big kettle, Then all the meat is removed from the bones,ground in the meat grinder with some green peppers and onions ground in too, The ground mixture goes back into the kettle with some of the cooking broth ,Pepper ,salt,and corriander go in as spices. The whole thing heats up .stirring with an old antinque stick,(that SweetFeet would like to see). Next flour ,cornmeal, and buckweatflour get mixed in. When it was so thick you can hardly stir it(ask me how I Know that),,Its Time to take it out and put it in the square tubs and let it cool. I forgot to mention, The mixture before any flour is added ,if you take some of that and put it in cloth casings,is liver pudding,We did some of that too.I Took what pictures I could,but I was busy,and also didnt want to mess up my camera,,,,, The bones,scraps,liver and heart are cooking in this big kettle that is the meat grinder,the butchering was done at a different neighbor than I Usually post about,this fellow is what I like to describe as a very cleaver farmer,he is like most of the farmers here on t talk,he can fix anything,he bought the butchering equiptment at auctions over the years,most of it in need of repair,and fixed it all up and made a family butcher room. That tub of meat was stuffed into casings to make link sausage,,,salt ,,pepperand they like lots of corriander in it thats the sausage stuffer,I Got to turn the crank the stirring stick is three generations old
(,no you cant have it SweetFeet) the mixture is bubling and steaming It gets too busy to show all the process I took what pictures I could,,,,here is authentic PA Dutch,,,,,Scrapple ,cooling down on the table. Another day that I was honerd to be part of their tradition, Got to leave now see you all later,,,,Larry

nice pics Larry but as far as the liver pudding "YUCK"

Thanks Larry, greate story and pictures. It's good to see the old ways where nothing was wasted.

I remember as a small kid going to the neighbors farm when they were butchering hogs. We always had some and Dad would take a ripe one over there. Iremember old Grampa Franzen catching the blood out of the slashed neck of a hog to be made into blood sausage, in our German and Polish area it was called chanina (sp?)

If nothing else that gunk must be a good wood preservative ! That stirring stick looks in great shape.

Went to a Clemson Extension class last week on hog killing and processing. They had us cut it up for freezing and some for canning. We got to bring home the meat that we worked on.
Totally different process than I was used to doing growing up. We butchered and scraped back in the old days, sugar curing, grinding sausage. and rendering the lard and cracklings.
Richard in NW SC

Great pictures and I love liver pudding

LOL

I'm with you, no live pudding for me. But love the picks. Interesting to see the way other folks do things.

Had scrapple for breakfast with my grandsons yesterday,our favorite.

great pics and tradition; however for me that
would be "desperation" eating. thanks.

Larry,

I admire virtually all of the work that you do, but this post set off my gag-reflex in a huge way! I wouldn't want that stuff on the bottom of my boots, let alone in my mouth.

Ugh.

Tom in TN

Thanks for the pictures though. Very interesting.

We ate a lot of scrapple when I was a kid. Dad loved it. Mother was of German decent so we came by it naturally (she called it "Ponhoss"). I buy some once in a while, but my wife won"t touch it.
BTW, I wonder how many on this thread showing their displeasure for scrapple have actually tried it with their morning eggs?

Almost gagged when I read the words liver pudding... those are just two words that do NOT belong together. LOL.

But great photos, Larry! And the stirring stick is really cool. Why the angled black marks along the handle? Or are the marks just from resting it on the rim of the hot pot?

In my rust garden, I have a huge pot that one could hang over a fire (but now filled with dirt and flowers). I assume that it was also used for butchering/scalding once upon a time.

You know Larry, you and your PA neighbors live life the way it out to be... working together, friendship, sharing the fruits of your labor. Shoot, we don't even know our neighbors around here. Everybody works full-time off the farm because farms have all been broken apart - most locals only own the building sites... and some big farmer owns the land.

Pudding on top of pancakes,with 2 eggs is about as good as it gets

jimmy

I love liver sausage and braun schweiger but cannot stand liver by itself. so bad that if it was cooking in the house I would leave and eat out. Mom used to burn it.

love cracklins when added to biscuit dough. makes the BEST biscuits

Lots of scrapple eaten here in central Pennsylvania (served in some restaurants) and the liver pudding is eaten but not quite as popular.
One thing missing in the ingredients in this area would be the green peppers and I'm not real sure about the onions either.

Thanks for posting this, I have never eaten it but it looks good from
here. Nothing wrong with liver as far as I am concerned.
Zach

We always called it "punhaus" (not sure if the spelling is correct) I like it fried in pan, then topped with syrup. Good stuff.

Good scrapple is hard to find.

I like liver sausage also. I'm assuming they rendered lard? Did they make head cheese? That's something I really like it but none of the rest of my family will eat it. Do they cure and smoke their own bacon and hams, too? Never had liver pudding but my grandparents used to make blood sausgae. I don't think they really cared for it that much. They just couldn't stand to waste anything. The Depression left it's mark on them.

I'm actually open minded and would try any food at least once... have had squid, bear, squirrel, pigeon, snapping-turtle, cow heart, cow tongue, etc.

I also like thin fried liver with onion or a Braunschweiger sandwich. But just reading the words liver & pudding together at 7 am caused a revolt in my mind. LOL!

Anybody that says they can"t stand the idea of eating liver pudding, blood sausage, HartKase, glickwurst, scrapple-- wait until mid February with snowed in roads, no refrigerator but a snow bank, nothing left but those items since the store bought and fancy cuts ran out last week--but still have some wood for the stove. You can change your mind about eating it or starve. Menudo is sort of in same class- gut soup doesn"t sound apetizing so use the fancy foreign word. Some French and Chinese dish"s shouldn"t be translated for the weak stomached people. New Orlean"s cooking can have the same dish in a fancy Freench restaurant or 1/3 the price at a Cajun bar and grill- you want crawdads and swamp rat(Nutria)? or the Ettofe" and something Lupin? Hint: some Ethanol of various kinds often recommended for some dish"s to improve percieved flavor by tourists. Beer and Rhine wine for featured ground up rest of hog- Cervasa and Pulque for some Mexican dish"s and Rice wines for some undisclosed sea food- Beche D"Mer. A couple generations of survival with "Offal" food and it get"s accepted by survivors. Phlaum on Rye bread a good snack/lunch feature- tell Sweetfeet it is going to be a spiced Goose Grease sandwich for lunch and maybe a beer, beer taken before or after?? Teasing Alert! RN.

If God wanted you to eat liver He would have made it taste good!

HE did & It Does!


Doc :>)

RN:

Try "live White rice" (Maggots) they're pure protein, or Ants, Grasshoppers, Worms (NO, not Gummy Worms) Earth Worms or Night-crawlers. Just about anything that walks, crawls, swims, flies, or slithers is edible.

SweetFeet:

Liver Pudding is GOOD!

Try BLOOD Pudding. LOL!

Doc

Walt, I ate blood pudding when I was in Estonia and it was good. I am not much of a lover of THAT kind of food, but I would eat it again as long as it is fixed the way it was when I ate it. Jim