The Red Flannel Rag

puddin’ meat and cornmeal, and w e ate like royalty for those seven days consuming

puddin’ fried with onions, pinto beans, fried potatoes, and corn cakes. She reminded me

of that week until she died. It was one of her finer moments.

Toward the end of hog-killing day, the final chore for the men was making the

panhaus . This job was always performed by the head butcher, either Uncle Shirley or

Uncle Jim. Panhaus was made by boiling the broth from the pudding meat, and mixing

in cornmeal, flour, salt and pepper. It was stirred very fast until it thickened. Then the

butcher dipped it into small pans and sat it on the meat boards to cool. It jelled into a

delicious treat when sliced, fried, and eaten with apple butter in the days to come.

The remainder of the meat — the tenderloin, the stuffed sausage, and the ribs, was

turned over to the women. The meat was allowed to cool all day on Sunday. It was

believed that meat canned with the warmth of the hog still in it, would spoil. Besides

that, everybody was very tired and needed Sunday to rest.

The hooves of the hogs were made into pickled pig’s feet. The reproductive organ

of the hogs were hung in the woodshed and used for greasing the bucksaw. Hogs’

bristles were set aside and sold for use in plastering and making brushes. Sometimes

the gall bladders were used to make a salve for treating frostbite. The few scraps left

over at the end of the day were fed to the dogs and cats. My dad often made the

comment, “We put every part of the hog to good use except the squeal.”

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