Monday morning has arrived much more quickly than I would have preferred. We are now on daylight savings time again, which means that the children left for school while it was still dark outside. They were getting used to it being daylight when they left. I wish the time would stay the same all the time, either fast or slow. I don't like changing the clocks back and forth.
My husband Joe is home today as this will be another four-day week at the factory. We plan to do laundry first thing this morning and then start processing meat.
On Saturday, brother Albert, Sarah Irene and family and sisters Susan and Verena helped us and Jacob butcher three hogs. One hog was for Jacob and two were for us.
The hogs weighed a total of 855 pounds live weight. It was a day of hard work but we sure are thankful for all the meat. We now have ham, bacon, pork chops, pork steak, ribs and sausage to pack up for the freezer. We also will process some of the sausage. Our hogs gave us quite a bit of sausage. The meat for the sausage has to be cut up into small strips for the meat grinder. After the sausage is ground up it has to be seasoned.
We processed some liver pudding on Saturday. Pon Hoss (I explained what that was in last week's column) was also made in a big black kettle. We have already enjoyed some. We usually eat the Pon Hoss sliced and fried until golden brown.
Liver pudding is made from the meat that we take off the bones that were cooked in the big kettle. Some of my children don't want to taste it because of its name. I told them there isn't any liver in it. I have often wondered myself why it is called liver pudding if there is no liver in it. Do any of you readers know?
Joe likes it when I fry liver and onions but I am not a fan of it. I would like to put some boneless pork chops into jars to process as I like to make pork chop gravy once in a while. We don't waste anything from the hog. For instance, this morning I fried eggs, potatoes and pig brains for Joe's breakfast. He likes the fried pig brains, but I don't care for them. Maybe I'd think they taste OK if I didn't know what I was eating!
Today Jacob will come to take their meat home and help clean up a bit more. What a relief it will be when the greasy job is done. We are thinking about still butchering a beef if it stays cold enough. I am running low on beef chunks and hamburger.
We usually put our Pon Hoss in our coffee soup or eat it with eggs and potatoes. For those of you unfamiliar with coffee soup, here is the recipe:
Coffee Soup
1 c. water
2 heaping t. instant coffee
4 t. of white sugar
3 c. milk
Crackers or toasted bread
Heat water until boiling; take off heat. Add coffee and sugar; mix. Return pan to stove and add milk. When hot, remove the pan from the stove and crumble toasted bread or crackers into it -- or it can be enjoyed without either one.
Lovina Eicher is Old Order Amish. She hand-writes this column from her home in southern Michigan. Anyone with cultural or cooking questions can send them to: Lovina Eicher, The Amish Cook, P.O. Box 2144, Middletown, OH 45042. Read all of her columns online at www.record-eagle.com/amishcook.
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