Zabijacka

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February 14, 2011

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Allan Stevo

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Zabijacka – literally “the slaughter” or “the killing” is a fundamental part of Slovak culture. Fundamental, because even in this era, so many urban dwelling Slovaks maintain a connection to their rural roots. With an almost ritualistic rhythm to it, many Slovaks will once or several times per year, engage in this event commonly translated into English as “a pig killing.”

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Some will find this gruesome, some will find this fascinating. Nonetheless, it is a significant part of Slovak culture. Merely seeing a zabijacka is often hard to arrange. Having such detailed photos like this is even more difficult to come by. For those who do not find this overly gruesome and who take an interest in the step-by-step of such a complicated process, I’m sure the process below will be of interest, but if you think this will be too much for you, please do stop reading and please do stop back next week.

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I tried to remove some of the more graphic images that might be especially startling. When you are involved in the process from sun-up to sun-down, the process feels gradual and even, perhaps, natural. Simply scrolling down to get from beginning to end in five or ten minutes will feel less natural and might be more likely to feel startling.

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While it’s easy to say that a person who raises a pig might be but a simple farmer, there’s nothing simple about having a crew of 10 or 20 people each working on their own vital step of the process, and often doing so simultaneously. It’s really very complicated when you think about all the knowledge that goes into doing every step of the process right, knowledge never studied in school or read about in an article like this, but rather passed down from one generation to the next.

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This sixty-eight step guide to killing a pig has been developed after participating in the slaughter of approximately one dozen pigs on a total of nine occasions. It is common for a Slovak family (even one living in big cities like Bratislava or Kosice) to have close connections to family in villages. It is fairly common to kill a pig once or even several times each year as a source of meat, as a time to make homemade sausages, and even as an excuse for a family gathering (since it is necessary to have many hands to help with this process).

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Initially, the idea of voluntarily killing a pig seemed to me a brutal act that only a violent person would want to be involved in. Why be gruesome when you can just buy your meat wrapped in paper from the local butcher?

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Eventually, I came to appreciate this Slovak ritual. Many Chicagoans see meat as a commodity that might as well have originated in the grocery store. The life cycle of the pig, the quality of the meat, the way it was raised are all largely irrelevant where I come from.

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Unlike Chicagoans, many Slovaks (even those who live in dense urban areas) seem to understand how to go from raising a newly birthed pig to slaughtering it for meat and breaking down the meat into manageable, storable pieces.

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That is Slovakia – a connection to nature, a connection to life and death, a more brutal connection to reality than I knew in people before I came here, a connection to the village. It is a resourcefulness, a sense of responsibility for oneself and ones family.

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At the first pig killing I attended, something happened that reinforced the brutality of the event. Done right, the pig is knocked out and killed in 30 to 60 seconds. This was not the case that day; something had gone wrong. A mistake was made and it took 20 minutes for the pig to die. It was horrifying to hear the pig scream a scream over and over that was almost indecipherable from that of a human. It was a very large pig, over 600 pounds, and the device used to knock the pig out was simply not strong enough to do the job. I learned that day that that was a mistake I must never make. No creature deserves to go through that unnecessary pain.

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Despite that shocking start to my first experience, the rest of the day taught me that the process was not “barbaric,” as I had first assumed it to be. There was much more to it and a great deal of respect for the pig. A great deal of care and intricacy went into preparing the various pork products over the next two days at that pig killing. The entire process, it was clear to me, took great skill and the way the day had started was an accident that others there also felt bad about. I continued to be invited to and attend pig killings.

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In time, I actually even developed an appreciation for pig killings. The festiveness of the event, the teamwork and bonding, the fresh food, delicious products, the plentiful drinks and jokes, the fun conversations, the feeling of doing a hard and long day of work. Most importantly though, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for the life cycle, for those living things that must die so that we can eat, so that we can live. The meat eater who will not kill the pig with his own hands is a hypocrite, unwilling to deal with the reality of the life and death that was needed to put that meat in front of him.

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By merely living here as a curious observer of culture, Slovakia has caused me to confront that fact. If you want to eat meat, then it’s part of life to do the dirty work. The idea that our survival depends on the death of other creatures tends to make me feel a greater sense of responsibility in my life that goes something like this – you better make your life matter, because if not, all you are doing is taking up space and killing a lot of creatures to sustain yourself along the way.

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Despite years of communist attempts to centralize almost everything, Slovak culture is very decentralized. This is true from the fact that from village to village and household to household, a very common dish may be prepared differently, to the fact that from one valley to just the next valley over the local dialect may be almost unintelligible. Even when speaking standard Slovak, you don’t have to drive more than one hour to find a significant variation in the accent between once place and another. This is not when using a dialect, mind you, but just when speaking standard Slovak (studied by every Slovak in school). Villages all have their own folk costumes, which are likely to be very different than a folk costume used by the next village over. In much the same way, if there are one million families in Slovakia, there can be one million different ways to go through each of these steps for having a zabijacka. Nonetheless, despite the differences from village to village, it can be hard to say that lines on a map are clear indicators of anything in Central Europe. The photograph below is taken in southern Hungary in the year 2007. You’ll notice however that the pig, the man, his son, and the backdrop look like it might have occurred in Slovakia. Though the photo was taken in Hungary, nothing about the photo betrays that fact. It could just as well have been Slovakia or any other place in this region. The steps I’ve written have been common steps and techniques that I personally have seen in a variety of families from different parts of Slovakia.

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February feels like both a late and early time to write about zabijacka (or “zakalacka” as it is also sometimes called), because it does not feel like a common time for holding the event. Weather is a consideration for many on when to have a zabijacka – dusty and windy is bad because the meat may end up dusty. Very hot is bad, because the meat will spend a large amount of time unrefrigerated. Very cold is bad because the pig will spend time outdoors and may freeze and be hard to work with. An ideal time is 1. when you need meat and 2. when the weather is cool and damp. While some may say that a pig killing season exists, I have found no standard time for families to kill their pigs. Just before Christmas seems to be a popular traditional time so that the meat is available and for the Christmas celebration. The weather is ideal, too.

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For many, pig killings take place regardless of season. I’ve heard of pig killings on very cold days and very hot days alike, because well, when trying to determine when to have a pig killing – rule #1 takes precedence over rule #2.

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These 67 common steps of the pig killing were compiled on visit after visit to families throughout Slovakia. A key part of any zabijacka is the interplay between the sexes. As one observer from the Slovak town of Dudince put it “There are two teams, the outside team and the inside team. The inside team is always telling the outside team – ‘come in and eat before the food gets cold, you need a rest.’ The outside team is always saying, ‘okay we’ll come in soon, we’ll come in soon. Just a little longer.’” Often the men are outside killing the pig and butchering the meat while the women are inside preparing meals and processing the freshly butchered meat, but that too may not always be the case. There are few hard and fast rules that are true for all of Slovakia, so I am reluctant to say that one is always a woman’s work and the other the work of a man.

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By accident of birth, this list of 68 steps that I’ve been exposed to takes place among the outside team. The inside team surely has its own 68 steps, or maybe even 136 steps, that some resourceful female traveler to the Slovak lands will one day commit to writing. As I reflect on what it would be like to organize a pig killing of my own, I am certain that I could not do it, because while I know and have done virtually every outside step in the process repeatedly, I have such little knowledge of what happens behind the scenes in the kitchen.

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There are many interesting websites out there that offer classes in the United States on the process of slaughtering and butchering a pig and that sound fantastic, but they seem to miss the importance of this event being a family event. It requires two teams to ensure that the entire process is finished within one day. An interesting part of the pig killing is that it is not just some beastly I AM A MAN!! I KILL THINGS!! ritual. It is not meant to scare away women. It is the male and female components of the teams together that make this day the special day that it is.

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While researching this article, I came across this website, that demonstrated the wrong way to kill a pig (its photos are way more graphic than anything on this page). It didn’t intend to demonstrate the wrong way to kill a pig, but it did just that. Example 1 – I’ve never seen a Slovak woman who was as terrified of her 400 lbs. pig as these guys are of a 150 lbs. pig, which automatically makes me lose some respect for what is happening. Example 2 – As a result of how far they are from the pig, they are unable to effectively kill the pig (3 gunshots before they would climb into the pig pen, 2 of which were point blank and missed terribly). Example 3 – The process is wasteful (it’s done over a garbage can, so they can easily throw anything slightly undesirable away). Example 4 – The process is lazy (they don’t even bother to deal with cleaning the skin). Example 5 – Then, the most telling of the photos is the last photo. The most telling photo is a photo of the role of their wives in this process..far away huddled around the cars. A zabijacka that has no place for a woman, is no zabijacka at all. It’s just a bunch of low-brow brutes giving a unnecessarily hard time to a defenseless creature. When compared to the great respect I’ve seen for the pig and the process in Slovakia, it’s hard to feel anything but contempt for the guys on the website.

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There’s a tremendous amount of preparation, skill, organization, and cooperation required in the process. There’s much respect for the pig that you and your children raised from the time it was a piglet. There’s distaste for causing the pig pain. There a disappreciation for anything resembling waste – from the way the muscles of the pig are broken down, to the many recipes that allow all parts of the pig to be used, there’s very little waste in the process. Not wasting is another way to respect the pig.

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Again, these pictures are graphic, please use discretion when viewing them or sharing them. I did not think words alone would do the process justice. If you want to participate in a zabijacka the next time you are in Slovakia, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do to organize that for you. Or, if you want an extra pair of hands the next time you have a zabijacka, send me an email. I’d love to help out.

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Below are 68 steps I’ve been taught, by family after family on how to kill and butcher a pig in the Slovak style.

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Note: SCROLL OVER PHOTOS TO READ THE CAPTIONS. CLICK on Photos to enlarge.

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The 68 Step Guide to Killing a Pig



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Step #1. Raise a pig (more common) or buy a pig from the local pig farmer. Pigs in Central Europe are popularly raised to be larger and fattier than in the U.S. There is more of a demand here for the pig lard.

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Step #2. Put the pig in a pen, or some other enclosed space, so that you do not have to chase it around.

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Step #3. Calm the pig down.

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Step #4. Knock the pig unconscious. There are a variety of techniques for this. Most common is to shoot the pig in the head, a little higher than directly below the eyes because the skull is thinner and more sensitive there, using a spring-loaded device that fires a bolt that penetrates the skull, or using a small caliber rifle like a .22 or using the device show above, which just knocks a pig on the head in the right spot pretty good and renders it unconscious. Its official English name for this device is a “captive bolt pistol.” The process of rendering a pig unconscious before bleeding is considered a vital part of reducing the suffering of the pig.

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If the details of this topic interest you here is a diagram of proper captive bolt pistol placement for various animals and here is a white paper on proper livestock stunning techniques.

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). The larger a pig is, the larger its sinus cavities are. The same captive bolt pistol that will knock out a 100 lbs. pig may be ineffective on a 600 lbs. pig, as was the case in the story of my first zabijacka above. Something stronger is needed in that situation. A pig that has been properly knocked out will have dropped to the ground immediately, will no longer have its blinking reflexes, and will not vocalize when the next step takes place. It will be unconscious. In 1903 Hugo Heiss was credited with the invention of the captive bolt pistol, as part of a more humane way of killing an animal, according to Animal Revolution by Richard Ryder (available here online for free and here online for purchase ). The larger a pig is, the larger its sinus cavities are. The same captive bolt pistol that will knock out a 100 lbs. pig may be ineffective on a 600 lbs. pig, as was the case in the story of my first zabijacka above. Something stronger is needed in that situation. A pig that has been properly knocked out will have dropped to the ground immediately, will no longer have its blinking reflexes, and will not vocalize when the next step takes place. It will be unconscious.

Step #5. To remove blood from the pig and to kill the pig quickly, the pig should be stuck with a very sharp knife at a specific spot in the throat or a little lower in the chest. Properly doing this is believed to cause the pig less suffering. It also maintains a higher quality of meat. Causing the pig stress before its death will damage the meat. A good butcher will be able to tell if a pig was stressed before slaughter based on the pooling of water inside the pig’s body.

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Step #6. Hold the pig down and allow the pig to bleed and die. Then steer clear of its back legs as it kicks powerfully. It’s said that a pig can break your leg if it lands one of its kicks on you. Its back legs kick so mightily that I believe this. Allow the blood to drain; “pumping” its front leg by extending it and contracting it fully may help it bleed more quickly. Some families collect the blood for soup (done in cultures north of here), blood sausage (krvavnicka), to add it to jaternica (a type of white sausage), or other dishes.

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Step #7. Now the pig needs to be moved. Moving dead weight can be very difficult and may require the help of everyone around. Drag the dead pig out from its pen by ropes around its legs and a rope around its snout or a hook in its mouth.

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Step #8. Roll it onto a board. Lift the board and place it on sawhorses to make it easier to work with without having to bend over.

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Step #9. A pig has lots of bristly hair all over its body. This needs to be removed. Pour boiling water on the pig to clean the skin and scald the skin. The hot water makes the hair easier to remove.

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Step #10. Scrape the pig’s skin with a scraping device. Some use knives at this point, essentially shaving the hair off the pig. It is common to use a scraping device that is especially made for this purpose. It is in the form of a metal cone and shown above. One side is for scraping, the other, hooked, side is for removing the toe nails from the pig’s trotters. It is referred to in English as a “bell scraper.”

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Step #11. Flip the pig over and repeat this process on the other side.

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Step #12. At this point the skin is generally quite clean and free of most hair. Use fire to singe off the remaining hair. Some people use a large blow torch and others will use dry straw set afire placed around and under the pig. While burning, the dry straw can easily be moved around with a metal shovel.

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Step #13. It is important to burn the nails of the pig to make them easier to remove. After the nails are heated, remove the nails with the hook on the bell scraper or with your bare hands.

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Step #14. The pig skin will likely be at least a little dirty again with perhaps a little blood, a little dirt, and some soot from the fire. Clean the pig off with water and brush off the top layers of burnt skin with a strong scrub brush. You want the pig skin to be very clean when you bring the pig inside to work with, since you will likely be keeping the meat for a long time and do not want to introduce the presence of any unecessary outside contaminants to the meat. The process is hardly as hygienic as an operating room, but a great deal of care is still taken to avoid contaminating the meat with dirt, crumbs, blood, bile, or other items that might spoil the meat.

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Step #15. Flip the pig to the other side. Repeat.

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Step #16. Cut the skin on back of legs and hook the pig by the tendons on the back of its legs.

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Step #17. Carry the pig on the board to a tree or a stand and hoist it up into the air legs first.

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Step #18. The belly of the pig will be used for bacon. If you have a female pig, there is the issue of nipples to deal with. Since the nipples don’t taste good and generally a person does not want to see nipples on his or her bacon, the nipples should be removed with a knife.

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Step #19. Cut off the head by cutting through it with a big knife while someone holds the body still and someone else holds the pig head. The person holding the head must be ready to break the neck and twist it off when the flesh has been cut away. The head should be soaked it in water to be dealt with later on.

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Step #20. Using a knife, cut the pig across its belly from anus (in the back under the tail) to the place where its head used to be.

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Step #21. Cut the skin of the pig in the same way across the back, straight down the middle in preparation for the pig to be cut in two a bit later.

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Step #22. The digestive tract contains many bacteria that are beneficial to the digestive process. This is true in pigs just as it is true in humans. Bacteria contained in the colon, in addition to other waste from the body should not be eaten, because they can make a person sick. In order to prevent the contamination of the meat with these waste products, the anus must be removed and the colon behind it tied off with a string so that it does not empty onto the meat, which is likely if it is not tied off. Allow the tied off colon and anus to hang freely until it is time to remove the other organs.

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Step #23. The urinary bladder still contains some waste as well, so in order to prevent that waste (urine) from spilling on the meat, the urethra must be removed and then tied with a string in the same way to prevent leakage.

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Step #24. With the those two organs from the excretory system secured, the belly can now be cut through all the way to its sternum (chest bone) with a knife.

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Step #25. The inner organs of the pig are surrounded by a thin membrane. With someone standing by holding a wooden trough, the first person with one arm, goes along the back of the cavity and scoops the organs into the big wooden container. Some sort of plated metal surface is probably better to prevent transmission of bacteria, but in almost every family I’ve been in, older wooden vessels are commonly used.

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Step #26. Find the gallbladder inside the liver, and cut it out. Throw away the gallbladder, so that the bitter fluid inside will not ruin the meat or the other organs.

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Step #27. Kidneys and eggs are a popular breakfast in some families during zabijacka, brain and eggs in others. Fried liver with onions and spices is also popular. These are often tasty snacks served on bread, so now is the time to separate the favored organs and to send them inside to be cooked up.

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Step #28. The lungs with trachea attached and heart remain. Remove both organs, leaving the inside of the pig empty.

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Step #29. Cut open the heart and dispose of the clotted blood inside the heart. Having chickens around will make the process of cleanup easier. If you are in a barnyard, you can simply throw any of these undesirable items onto the ground and the chickens will gladly hurry for them, fight over them, and eat them.

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Step #30. After the organs are removed, clean the cavity a little with water especially where a little stray blood might have been left. There is very little blood left in the pig at this point. Be sure to clean the area where the head was. It will be the area with the most blood left on it, since all blood from the pig has flown down to it. The blood will cause the meat to spoil more quickly than meat that does not contain blood. Also, be sure to take a moment to make sure that no feces accidentally dropped on the meat, perhaps with careless handling of some of the inner organs.

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Step #31. Use an ax or saw to cut through the sternum of the pig.

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Step #32. Separate the backbone from the ribs on each side, leaving the backbone intact, or slice down the middle of the backbone with an ax, saw, clever etc.

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Step #33. Finish separating the two halves of the pig, all the way down to the neck. If you have decided to leave the backbone intact, the back bone will need to be separated first and brought inside.

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Step #34. Two strong people of approximately the same height and with good backs should squat down under half of the pig and while standing, should drape half of the pig over a shoulder in a way that the pig can balance over each person’s shoulder.

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Step #35. With both halves of the pig supported, two other people should each take a sturdy and sharp knife and simultaneously cut the tendons that are supporting the weight of the pig from the hooks on the crossbeam, allowing the half carcass to fall onto the other person’s shoulder.

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Step #36. Bring each half inside, lay it onto a wooden board. 4 people are needed for this process of moving the pig halves (5 or 6 are even better, to allow for support staff). It is necessary that the pig not be allowed to fall into the mud or dirt. This makes these dozen or so footsteps so vitally important.

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Step #37. Sharpen your knife and be prepared to resharpen it regularly.

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Step #38. Cutting very close to the bone, remove the ribs from the half of the pig.

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Step #39. Remove the sviecka (loin).

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Step #40. Remove the legs, cutting them into pieces with a saw

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Step #41. Remove the feet to keep for later.

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Step #42. Remove the skin and adjacent fat from the meat. Those who have visited a butcher in Slovakia and a butcher in the U.S. will notice that butchers in the two countries tend to have a different style of butchering meat. The style popular in Slovakia and throughout Central Europe is referred to as “seam butchery” and seeks to take the natural divisions of muscles in the pig into consideration. This style saves meat by cutting through connective tissue instead of cutting through muscle. Much of the butchering can be done with a knife. To learn more about this style of butchering, click on this PDF article on Remove the skin and adjacent fat from the meat. Those who have visited a butcher in Slovakia and a butcher in the U.S. will notice that butchers in the two countries tend to have a different style of butchering meat. The style popular in Slovakia and throughout Central Europe is referred to as “seam butchery” and seeks to take the natural divisions of muscles in the pig into consideration. This style saves meat by cutting through connective tissue instead of cutting through muscle. Much of the butchering can be done with a knife. To learn more about this style of butchering, click on this PDF article on seam butchering

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Step #43. Cut some of the skin, fat, and meat into slabs of bacon,

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Step #44. Salt the bacon, rubbing each piece generously with salt, to prepare for smoking later today or tomorrow.

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Step #45. Salt the feet too. There’s a short, interesting article on the Internet about Salt the feet too. There’s a short, interesting article on the Internet about salting down pork meat in North Carolina

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Step #46. On other pieces that are almost all fat and no meat, separate the fat from the skin with a knife. Save the skin.

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Step #47. Cut the fat into cubes.

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Step #48. Cook the cubed fat a long time, stirring constantly to render. This is where the lard comes from that will be kept in the kitchen and used for months in cooking. The fat will be reduced to small crunchy pieces called “oskvarky,” often called “cracklings” in English.

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Step #49. Cut apart the other slices of meat, leaving them in large cuts that can be frozen or otherwise processed at another time.

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Step #50. Boil all organs in water.

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Step #51. Clean out the small intestines (to be used for sausage casing later). The most common way to do this is with a shoot or twig bent in half or by taking a piece of wood with a good edge on it.

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Step #52. All this time the head has been soaking in water. Remove it from the water and remove the following parts that humans are not likely to eat – the eyeball and tissue behind it and the inner ear. With a knife cut through the skin and meat near the jaw bone and then with an ax, break through the jaw bone on both sides. Cutting close to the bone with a sharp knife, carefully remove the fleshy chin area from the bone, cut the tongue away from the sinews holding it in place. It will be added to the boiling organs. Through away the jaw bone. Cut the head in half with an ax, remove the brain, send it inside to be fried with eggs to make a spread that can be eaten on fresh bread. Alternately, try the same with the kidneys.

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Step #53. Grind sausage meat and fat into a long shallow wooden tub.

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Step #54. Add lots of spices, especially rasca (carraway seed), paprika (both “sladka” sweet and “stiplava” spicy) garlic, salt, and black pepper (and “majoranka” – marjoram for jaternica later)

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Step #55. Mix well. This step takes many hands and more strength than you might expect.

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Step #56.. Taste the raw meat. Correct seasoning.

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Step #57. Taste again, correct seasoning, repeat as needed.

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Step #58. Make into balls about the size of a large snowball.

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Step #59. Pack into casing and hang sausage. Smoke 10 days.

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Step #60. After some of the slanina (bacon) has finished boiling bacon, cover with paprika, garlic, black pepper, and salt.

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Step #61. Make jaternica (a type of white sausage) – grind boiled innards, including lungs. Mix that with meat and rice, and lots of majoranka, black pepper, and salt, add a little cooked blood that has been ground (optional).

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Step #62. Taste the raw meat mixture. Correct seasoning.

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Step #63. Taste again, correct seasoning, repeat as needed.

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Step #64. Make into balls, pack into casing, send inside to be cooked or stored.

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Step #65.. Make krvavnicka (blood sausage) by mixing, blood, spices, and torn up rolls. Blood sausage is sometimes put into casing, sometimes cooked on its own in an oven, spread

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Step #66. Make tlacenka (head cheese) by boiling skin, heart, and tongue along with the fatty and tender meat scraps from around the head (thus the name head cheese). After boiling, cut the meat, tongue, and heart into thin slices. Slice skin. Mix the tlacenka ingredients and place into large plastic casing made for this purpose (or into the cleaned stomach) with seasoning and soup made from skin. Tie at both ends, press weight on top and chill.

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Step #67. Make pasteta (pate) with all of the above, adding mustard, some raw pieces of meat and some liver, horseraddish and spices. Spoon into cans. Seal and then boil the cans for two hours.

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Step #68. Take note of what you have done since sunrise, store everything in its place safely for the night, cleanup so that everything is spotless for the next time around. With that, you can call it a day. Go inside to the kitchen for some food and for communal camaraderie between the inside and outside group.

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Allan Stevo is a writer living in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Amy M. Wicks is the photographer of the photos on today’s posting and edits all articles at 52 Weeks in Slovakia.