Home Butchering

By the post Civil War years many Americans considered meat an essential part of their diet. Some satisfied their desire for fresh meat by obtaining it at a town butcher shop or meat market. Others, especially those who lived in the wide open plains of Kansas, resorted to other ways for several reasons. First, some rural Kansas residents were not always able to travel to town often enough to buy an ample supply of meat to satisfy their needs. In addition, the meat which they purchased at the butcher shop in a nearby town, such as Penner’s in Hillsboro, Kansas, cost more than many could afford to spend on meat. Finally, even if they could afford this butcher shop meat, some were members of one of many ethnic groups, such as Czech, Swede of German-Russian, who had settled in Kansas in the late 1800’s and desired meat prepared in their traditional ways such as head cheese, blut wurst, Potatis Korv or Jaternice. They often had trouble finding it in a store prepared in their accustomed way. So for these reasons, many residents of rural Kansas satisfied their need for meat by such ways as home butchering, home preservation or by obtaining meat from a local traveling butcher.

Home butchering did not begin in Kansas. Europeans and subsequently early Americans have had a long tradition of home butchering. Rural residents of Kansas either used the knowledge of home butchering procedures brought with them from their home European countries or they learned them from relatives or neighbors in this country. The ethnic groups of Czechs, Swedes and German-Russians especially worked hard to preserve many of the traditions and customs of their European background. Home butchering and home preservation were traditions these immigrants wanted to preserve for both economic and cultural reasons.

However, several factors have contributed to the gradual change and fading away of this art of home butchering and home preservation. The technological inventions of the tractor and electricity have had the greatest effect on those that still practice or make use of home butchering. These inventions have made the home butchering job easier and quicker. However, the greatest change has been the gradual decline of the number of Kansans who still butcher. The decrease has come because some have lost the skill; others no longer want the mess or have the time; some do not access to an animal or equipment; others have resorted to other means of preservation or have easy access to meat in the stores; and finally other no longer have the desire for traditional ethnic meat dishes.

Therefore, this account had been an attempt to preserve in writing those fading skills of home butchering and to record some personal recollections of those home butchers. The process commenced with the farmer’s choice of an animal to butcher. Since the majority chose a hog for home butchering, procedures for hog butchering have been emphasized. Prior preparation included the choosing of helpers, selecting a butchering day and getting the site and equipment ready. The actual procedures on butchering day, included stunning, shooting, stabbing, bleeding, skinning, scalding and scraping. Other butchering day procedures included removing the head, organs and intestine; cutting up the carcass; chilling the carcass; cleaning the stomach and intestines; making the sausage and other meat dishes; and finally rendering the lard. Following these numerous jobs on butchering day, the home butcher had to preserve the meat. Preservation methods included storing in the cold weather, pickling, canning, larding down, curing and smoking. Final topics concerned with home butchering were soapmaking, beef butchering, the life of the traveling butcher and ethnic food recipes.