Jack stopped by yesterday and I asked him about this operation. He called it ponhorse. The only thing that they used was the broth, and corn meal. Forgot to ask about salt and pepper, but I'm sure they did.

I'm not sure exactly how they butchered the hog, a lot of people will make "whole hog sausage". Most folks will cut off the loins, save a couple ham roasts, whatever else they'd want, and bone the rest of it out for sausage meat.

So you've got all of those little bits of meat sticking to the bones. Put all of the bones, spine, all of them into the kettle and boil it till the meat falls off. Let it cool off and then pick out the bones.

Then you heat it back up and add the cornmeal. Jack said they used 9 2-pound bags of cornmeal. So 18 pounds.

I figure they had one man stirring, one person dipping it out of the kettle and 2 or 3 people keeping the empty pans lined up and ready.

These guys were cooking outside, in a cast iron kettle over a wood fire and all. Jack has been doing this stuff all of life, so it's nothing new. Plus, that was a learning experience for his grandkids. Just a good time.

Moe and I were coming out of the mountains the other week, and I told him that I was thinking about buying a vacuum sealer. We talked about the time his freezer went bad. He lost everything.

I was there, we cut all of the plastic bags off, and dumped it all. Who knows how much money down the drain?

Anyway, Moe said that I needed a food sealer like the one that he has.

We talked about the stuff that we dumped and all. Deed honest, most of the stuff looked like it'd been skinned and packaged the day before.

Moe told me that he and Susan had a package of the 6-point, just the evening before, and he said the meat was just the same as the day that he'd sealed the bag.

Honestly, I don't remember the deer that he was talking about. He didn't kill a 6-point this past season, and he didn't kill one the season before. So, that deer meat would have had to have been from the season of 2020, maybe before? So, if you can keep meat, frozen for 2 years or better, that's pretty good.

I remember his last 2 bucks, I was with him, and he killed one of them with my rifle.

Anyway, he sent me a link to a vacuum sealer, very similar to his. It was priced at $180.

I asked him to get me whatever I'd need, with 3 rolls of 8" bags, and 3 rolls of 11" bags, the total price was $265.

Moe offered to come and show me how the thing worked, I haven't read the instruction book. I searched online, and found a U-tube video, the first one that I watched, the lady did a very good job of explaining how it works.

Not sure if it's the best or not? But it's a "Food Saver" 5200 or 5300 series?

Moe, said his is 5 or 6 years old, and he uses his quite a bit. So, that's what I have. I've only used it 10 or 12 times so far. Also has a 5 year limited warranty, it'll pay for itself in 6 months or so. It it keeps on working.

Talking about it being big and bulky, it's about 9x, 9x by 16 inches. I can make room for it under the kitchen sink. And it only weighs 10 pounds. So, that won't be a big deal.

But I like it so far.

The machine we use is also a 'food saver', model V2244. It's small, barely five pounds. It's probably at least a dozen years old, and I use it just occasionally, mostly when I purchase a family sized package of meat. The con to this machine, and they warn you in the pamphlet, is that you have to wait a half minute before you seal the next envelope. (we call that a beer sipping break) This little guy is 16" wide, 4" high, and 6" deep. And I probably paid a hundred bucks for it back then. My grandgirls were in charge of the packaging and they had no trouble with the 40 lbs of brat links we produced. When you start the vacuum on your machine, I'm going to bet you start sucking your lips together. It's inevitable.

Frank.

You know, I'm not sure if I pucker-up when I press that vacuum/seal bar or not? But I guess I will be from now on. Just to give it that last little nudge, for good measure.

If you've had 10 or 12 years of use, from a $100 machine, that's very good.

Moe told me that he's using his second vacuum sealer, and it's 5 or 6 years old. I'm not sure how long the first one lasted?

I may have mentioned this before in another thread? One deer season, Moe and I stopped at the neighbors hunting camp, just to say hi and see what's going on. They don't have electric service at their camp. Anyway, there were 2 or 3 guys working up the deer that they'd already killed.

Some of these newer vehicles have an AC outlet, they had a cutting board and vacuum sealer set up on the tailgate of a truck. They were slicing up the meat, sealing it and putting it into an ice chest.

So, that would come in handy when they get home, transfer it into the freezer and you're done.

Moe uses his food sealer a lot, he'll do ramps, berries, fish and all.

But in the long run, this machine will pay for itself. Honestly, I don't think it's going to take long to break even.

Above we were talking about scrapple. Here at work the one company that we deal with has a "special sheet", items that are on sale or have the price reduced a little bit. (I also get about 2 E-mails a week listing stuff that the price has increased too.)

Anyway, the company has Kunzler brand, scrapple on sale this week. Eight, 1# packs, my cost is $20. So, that's $2.75/pound or so.

I honestly don't know that much Kunzler meats, but they make about the best bacon that you can buy. It's good.

I'll search: Kunzler scrapple. This is the list of ingredients.

A special blend of quality pork ingredients, combined with whole wheat and corn meal, makes Kunzler Scrapple a unique breakfast meat for a sandwich, side or as a stand alone. Ingredients Pork Broth, Pork, Pork Skins, Pork Livers, Whole Wheat Flour, Corn Meal, 2% or less of: Potassium Lactate, Salt, Water, Natural Flavorings, Sodium Diacetate.

Here at the store, we ordered yesterday, they deliver tomorrow.

They also have "sliced slab Kunzler bacon" on sale. My cost for a 10# slab, is about $35 per box. I'm not sure what a single 1# pack of bacon sells for now? I know it's expensive.

But here at work, we're constantly trying new items, now and then we'll find one that will really take off and sell good. We'll see what happens with scrapple, maybe it will and maybe it won't. There is only one way to find out.

How would we prepare it? Oven, fry, boil, nuke, just cold sliced?? It does sound interesting though.

Frank.

Well, the grocery truck was here a little bit after 8am.

I'll tell you the scrapple is vacuum packed into neat little blocks. Nice looking package. Each pound block is 5" x 2.5" x 2". Smaller than a pound box, of 4 sticks of butter.

I haven't cut one open yet, but just looking at it through the plastic, it seems the meat, liver meat and all is ground very fine. About as fine as the cornmeal.

I thought that maybe they'd include a "favorite recipe", but they didn't. The only directions on the package said: Slice to desired thickness, pay fry until browned and warmed thru.

Think I'll try the first batch on a cookie sheet in the oven.

As far as boiling it, if you'd add water an boil, you'd be able to drink it through a straw.

It's pre-cooked, so you could eat it cold. Doesn't sound very good.

Just to squeeze the pack, it feels similar to Spam, maybe a little bit softer? But I'll try a package soon, and give you my opinion. But I'll try it with eggs or pancakes or fried potatos.

But for a 1 or 2 person meal, it'll be quick and easy.

Scrapple, souse, headcheese -- all from the days when they used everything on the hog but the squeal. A friend of mine made headcheese once. I'm not sure about his method but in the end it was okay -- if you were hungry.

We tried something similar. My son bought a bunch of loins cheap and we ground them with some hog fat and spices. We were aiming for breakfast sausage but ended up with more like bratwurst.

Back in the day when we butchered our own hogs, we quite often dedicated a whole hog, or two for sausage.

Hmmm, I've heard folks talk about headchees, I don't have a clue, how or what that would be, or how it's made.

I'll let you guys do the math, I bought 8, 1 pound packs of scrapple the other day, for $20. So, I had $2.50 in it per pack.

Here at work they priced it at $3.00 per pack. (gotta sell volume)

Anyway, my buddy Frog stopped by, gave me a pair of "cut resistant gloves" I searched online, those things are $16/pair! (Moe nicked me across my thumb again this last deer season). So, I gave Frog a pack of scrapple.

Lee, one of the guys that helped Jack, and gave me 2 pounds of ponhorse, wouldn't let me pay him or anything. So, they gave me 2 pounds, and I gave him 1 pound of scrapple.

Gary, my #1 mechanic, the same man that sold me a set of 4 truck tires for $600, that's a big discount. I gave Gary a pound of scrapple.

Gary and his family are to make lard, cracklings, ponhoss/scrapple, in a week or so. That's 35 miles from here, and I'll probably be working, but I'd like to go and take a turn tending the fire, and bs'n, if I get the chance.

My man Shawn from the other big store here in town, stopped by last evening, handed me a bag of BBQ pulled pork. Same Shawn that gave me my beef suet for the birds. So, I gave him a pound of scrapple. I figure that #2 of pork, would sell for at least $8. So, I did ok there.

I did sell one pack of scrapple to brother-in-law Mick, so I made $0.50 on that deal.

I cooked up one batch of scrapple for myself, I ate half of it, alone. Baked it in the oven, on a cookie sheet. I'll tell you, it is ground very fine, similar to "Potted meat", at room temperature.

As it was cooking, it gets darker, I'd guess the blood coming out of the liver meat? Cause I first thought that it was starting to brown, and poked it with a fork, and it was just mush.

It's ok, but it will never replace bacon! Kind of a different taste, not sure how to describe it?

But I've got 5 slices here in the cooler, I'll give them to another friend, he just wants to try it before he buys a pack.

But, all of the guys I've listed above, they're all good friends and customers. With the gloves and pulled pork, ponhoss, tire discount and all, I've done ok. This is a small town, we'll take care of each other.

But it all just kind of fell in place last evening, Friday night, guys just getting off of work, ready to get home.