| It
was a busy place. Here the milk was churned into butter or turned
into cheese for the home table or Dent market. At 'back-end time'
- the autumn - a fat pig would be killed for the winter. Within
living memory Harry Booth of Deepdale and Matt Haygarth of Rivlin
were the main pig-killers. The bristles were scalded with boiling
water and scraped off' 'then the pig was hung up for 2 days before
being cut up. Blood was 'catched' for black puddings, the head
was made into brawn and the trotters boiled. The rest was preserved
by rubbing in salt and a little sugar, with some salt-petre added
around the bones.
Fred Taylor of Butterpots
tells how pig-killing day was a social event*. 'They all worked
it so there was a pig-killing every weekend and, naturally, everybody
was invited to take part.' The salted meat was stored in layers,
the hams at the bottom, shoulders in the middle and flitches (the
middle part) on top. That's how they saved their bacon. My dad
was a good salter. He'd rub the hams longer than t'others because
they were to be kept in salt the longest. The pig-cheek was fetched
out after about a week. The flitches were the next to be lifted,
after about a fortnight. Then t'shoulder followed, three weeks
after being put down, and hams after a month. A ham was boiled
for special occasions.' |
The
Dentdale Story
