This weekend was definitely a first for me... throughout my year in Hungary I have experienced many traditions and festivals, but non so intense as the one and only Pig Cutting.
Arriving at the Hunters Hut in southern Hungary (so far South that my phone tried to connect to a Serbian network), I really didn't know what to expect... we hopped out of the car, and before I could even stand up properly, my dog ran over to what looked like a small whale in a cage! This was by far, one of the biggest pigs I had ever come in contact with. I knew that without a doubt, that this was the last night on earth for this little pig... and soon... to be blunt about it... he would be in mine, and many others' bellies!
After a night of seeing old friends and drinking lots of wine and palinka, we rose with the sun, and at 7.30am this enourmous pig took his last breath. Some may find this pretty disturbing, some may not, but truth be told, I think that if you are a meat eater, it is something you need to whiteness, and even be a part of. I always knew where my meat came from, but to actually see it... hear it... well, this is a different story..! I won't go into the details of the slaughter, but it was performed by professionals, in the most humane way possible.
After the pig was drained of his blood (which was then brought to the kitchen for breakfast!) he was cleaned, shaved, burned, hung from a hook, separated from his head and insides and then ready to be processed. I'm indifferent to say that I really didnt have much part in this process, my job was to take pictures and simply watch, but I am happy to say that my lovely girlfriend did, in fact, get to use a flamethrower on the pig (to remove leftover hair) with a cute, yet slightly sadistic smile on her...
After the cleaning, we went inside to enjoy breakfast... pigs blood, fried with onions! I have to say, I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it... to me it tasted a bit like paté with no flavour. It was the idea behind it that throws you the most. Next came the pigs liver, which was actually delicious! A bit of salt and garlic on top made, for me, a fantastic breakfast!
Next came the sausage making! While we were inside, the two 'proffessionals' and some of the other men cleaned out all of the pigs intenstines, and in short, turned the entire pig into mince meat. We then took turns (and yes, I did try too) stretching the intestine skin over a nozzle on this special machine, as minced pork (mixed with garlic, paprika etc) was squeezed into the pigs old intestines... talk about recycling..!
The whole process was actually quite fun, as long as you were willing to get your hands dirty! This was actually one of the most social parts of the whole process, as people are laughing, fighting, teasing each other about how awesome or terrible their sausage turned out! My 2nd attempt, if I do say so myself, was quite fantastic! (My first attempt ended in the intestine bursting, and meat spilling all over the table... nice! But in my defense, I can't really speak Hungarian, and no one was translating the instructions to me, which resulted in someone placing the intenstine skin in my hand as everyone quietly stared at me, waiting for me to act..!)
Needless to say, that evening we had an absolute feast! Every kind of sausage imaginable (mixed with blood, paprika, garlic, rice etc) was being passed around from plate to plate. Nothing of the pig was wasted, and I mean nothing... as we ate, there were rogue plates coming towards us, one of which very obviously had the pigs brain on it. And yes, people were not only eating it, but enjoying it!
The evening continued as 20+ extremely full bellies added beer, wine and palinka to the mix, resulting in an extremely enjoyable night with great company and even greater conversations (yes, it is true that when I drink, my Hungarian gets increasingly better).
Overall, it was an incredible experience. Yes there were times when I felt sorry for the pig, but then again, its demise brought families and friends together for an incredible weekend of catching up and rekindling of old friendships. This is absolutely a tradition that I will look forward to in my future years of living in Hungary, and something I reccommend to anyone who is willing to try it..!
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Arriving at the Hunters Hut in southern Hungary (so far South that my phone tried to connect to a Serbian network), I really didn't know what to expect... we hopped out of the car, and before I could even stand up properly, my dog ran over to what looked like a small whale in a cage! This was by far, one of the biggest pigs I had ever come in contact with. I knew that without a doubt, that this was the last night on earth for this little pig... and soon... to be blunt about it... he would be in mine, and many others' bellies!
I understand your point, and appreciate the fact that you are probably a vegetarian?
ReplyDeleteBut truth be told, only roughly 5% - 7% of the worlds population are vegetarians, so killing an animal for food is far from an uncommon practice. This has been done for thousands of years, and as mentioned in the Blog, it was done in an incredibly humane way. And no, I don't deny it brought people together, but not the killing part, it was the feast itself - the eating, the drinking, the fun and laughter..
Apologies if it offended you, but this is what happens in the world. 93%-95% of the world's population eat meat, and it really shouldn't be a surprise as to where it comes from..!
I always get surprised when people have this 'so disgusting' attitude towards things like this...
ReplyDeleteI mean... where do people think meat comes from??
If you're a vegetarian, no worries, that's your thing!
But if you eat meat, I mean, c'mon! This is part of it...! I honestly think that anyone and everyone who eats meat should be involved in something like this.
You can live in bliss all of your live eating ribs and burgers, but it's a bit hypocritical, no?
I'm a vegetarian and find this upsetting, BUT I can respect the author for not being a hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteI think for many hungarians (and other cultures) this is not done by choice... it's a necessity in order to have food on the table. We're very lucky today to have the choice of what we eat and whether we choose to be vegetarian, vegan etc. But that was and in many places still is a real luxury when you can barely afford to put food on the table.
ReplyDeleteWhat's disgusting about it? Those sausages look delicious!
ReplyDelete