One of the things that I appreciate about other cultures is their use of virtually the whole animal, nose to tail. The Chinese are notorious for still doing that. My parents and grandparents were raised that way. I remember my Grandaddy Gene Hardy even eating the chicken feet from the chickens we raised on the farm. I didnt see where there was much to eat, but they are a valued food in Chinese cuisine. There was not an unlimited amount of steaks, breasts, chops and tenderloins. We used to have a hog killing every January when I was growing up, slaughtering about 8 hogs on the farm. I remember vividly my grandparents, aunts and uncles all coming together to slaughter, scald, clean, cut up and process the pork. My Grandma Nellie was in charge of the wash pots where she cooked the lard, cracklins and skin. Daddy was in charge of putting the hams and bellies in salt for making country ham and side meat. Mr. Sidney Earl Dixon would often come and help with the sausage making as we used his personal recipe. One year, my Aunt Helgas mother, Oma came from Germany to help us kill hogs and make sausage. She had such a good time and commented on how she used to do this on the farm that she lived on growing up near Karlsruhe, Germany. Not a bit was wasted. Pig tails, homemade souse, chittlins, etc. Families were frugal, but they ate well. No GMOs, no hormones, no antibiotics. They incorporated a lot of vegetables into their meals, eating what they had grown in the garden. One of the frugal meals that we had was Pork Neckbones with potatoes, onions, carrots and homemade cornmeal dumplings in the pot. My mama, Sandra, still makes this just like my Grandma Nellie used to. I find that our customers hardly ever buy Pork Neckbones, even though they are priced at $1.99/lb. This is quite reasonable considering the cost we pay the processor for slaughter, cut and wrap on those is $1.50/lb. Some people may think that because our family has the farm that we eat lots of steaks, chops, etc. Honestly, we eat a lot of the stuff that our customers dont purchase. I am cooking for a huge crowd, 7 head. We have to eat frugally. Pork Neckbones are on our menu. You can make Pork Stew, cook them in the crockpot with BBQ sauce, make a traditional Italian meat sauce, slow cook them and put over rice, etc. They are very flavorful. I stay busy all the time and I have realized that I have not dedicated enough time to teaching my children (especially Hardy, 17 and Alena, 16 how to cook and live frugally). These skills are important because we never know when our children face hard times just as my Grandparents during the Depression. Here is a link from Chow Hound on what to do with neckbones: chow/food-news/134950/what-to-do-with-pork-neck/ tastebook/recipes/541466-Italian-Gravy
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 15:09:34 +0000
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