This story takes place in Polk County, FL just a few weeks ago for the holidays. My families Puerto Rican and every year we make pounds and pounds of pork. That’s just what we do. Sometimes my Grandfather kills and guts the pig himself. This year the younger generation wanted to try to gut it like the way the older generation did back in the day. I wanted to participate because I wanted to experience where my meat comes from. And this is the pig. Let’s call him Jerry.
So a country man drove down a dirt road with two pigs in the back of his truck. He drove to our house and tells us that he just killed them and bled them. To bleed it is self explanatory. You hang the pig upside down and let all the blood run from its body. So we took Jerry, put him on ice for a few hours, and started the process.
After you kill it and bleed it you skin it. Now you don’t technically skin it. You basically shave it. In order to do this you have to boil water, pour the scolding hot water on the pig and shave it with a knife. The boiling water makes the hair easier to come off. If you notice the guy with the hat and pot belly at the top is my O.G. Grandfather or as we like to call him, abuelo. He’s schooling us and basically saying we’re not doing it right. Of course.
As you can see this next step is when you \gut it. It’s interesting because if you cut a little part at the top of the guts, and cut the butt hole, you can pull all of the guts out in one pull because all of the guts are connected. After this you clean it, season it, put a pole through it, above ground usually on some cinder blocks or something to hold it up. Then you put the fire underneath it and slow cook it for 6-8 hours like so.
Now if you look at the plate you have rice and beans on the north east of the plate, Mofongo to the NW, a little potato salad to the SW and in the SE is our boy Jerry…… Or is it? If you butchered before you know where the tragedy lies. That’s not Jerry at all. It’s another pig. Let’s call him Sebastian. It turns out when you kill an animal you are suppose to gut the animal immediately and if not you risk the chance of bacteria seeping into the meat which is exactly what happened. We could’ve poisoned the whole family. Thankfully we’re Puerto Rican and had two huge pork shoulders on reserve in the freezer. Our abuelo got the last laugh and we are still light years away from his manly skills. Maybe we can compete next year. But next up on the adventures is a Mural in Orlando, FL, writing songs in Miami and a show I’m doing with Man Man in Philly.
