Butchering Hogs

[ironglow]

Most hog will scald in a 55 gallon drum..I've seen them scalded in 55 gal drums...up to 600 lbs.  For farmers or today's Amish farmers, scalding is the way to go..  The skin holds things together while they are smoked...and later when they are hung in a back room for storage.  A slab of bacon may not smoke too well with no "rind"..plus the rind is aprotective barrier..
   Nowdays the old cast iron cauldrons designed for that purpose are being used as laun planters & decorators..

[Ranger99]

that's what my folks call a wash pot.
mainly used for making hot water
on wash day, boiling the whites to
get the sweat stains out so you won't
be wearing a yellow shirt in church.
but was used for boiling water for
scalding and scraping, boiling water
for soap making, etc.


old timey hot water heater

[Buckskin]

We used a small stock tank, maybe 5 feet long. Filled it with water and placed 3 turkey cooker burners under it. Really worked great.  Once it got up to temperature we could keep it at 160 with one burner on very low.  We did 8 hogs that evening.

[chefjeff]

From the replies,I guess its each to his own. I see no reason to go to the trouble of scalding (and it is trouble)unless you intend to cure the hams and middlins.Much easier to skin. A feral hog is harder to skin than a domestic hog. I won't even eat a mature boar of either sort unless he's been cut(barrow). Guess I am "porkticular".

[Ranger99]

that's cuz a boar (mature) stinks
like a boxcar load of dirty diapers.
(around here anyway)

[ironglow]

Right; a full-blown adult boar is not an epicurean delight!

[briarpatch]

We would lay them on a wooden platfrom, cover them with burlap sacks and pour the water over them. Every little bit we would raise the burlap and pull the hair and when it came out easy, we were ready to scrape.