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VISITING
AUTHOR-ARTICLE
JANUARY
2010
Schweine
Schlachte
By Erika Scheffrahn
(An
Interview with her Father)
Forwarded by
American Aid Society, Chicago
My name is Adam Berger, born 1928 in Mitrowitz, Syrmien,
Yugoslavia.
I
would like to tell you about my childhood memories of Schweine
schlachten before they're forgotten or I'm gone. Most of them are my
own happy memories and some are those told to me by my parents and
grandparents. This event held in autumn was not a fest celebrated but
rather a special family gathering for us.
I've
always enjoyed remembering the story of how my grandfather Georg
Berger was a wise and well-liked man.
It was during the Depression on St. Josefs Day in March that my
Opa Berger went to the market. A Serb greeted him and asked him if he
would want to buy a load of salt for only 100 Dinar. Opa Berger
answered back, "If I spent that kind of money on salt, my wife
would kill me". The Serb replied, "111 sell it to you for
only 50 Dinar". Opa Berger said," but I only have 20 Dinar
in my pocket". The Serb yelled, "Sold, the whole wagon is
yours". That's how my Opa Berger ended up with 1000 kilos of
salt, but that's not how the story ended. One purpose of the salt was
to feed it to the pigs. Normally when it came time to schlachten, he
would usually butcher 4 pigs. Since he had so much salt to preserve
the meat, he decided to slaughter the 12 pigs he owned. Because of
hard times, he couldn't sell the pigs nor could anyone unfortunately
even afford to buy the smoked pork. But fortunately for Opa Berger, he
could use the pork in exchange for money to pay any bills he had and
to use the pork meat to barter in exchange for paying the wages to the
workers who weeded the cornfields in spring.
The strongest and fondest memory of childhood was during the
Schweine schlachten every year especially after we moved to Klenak,
Syrmien, Yugoslavia. At age seven I started school. My sister and I
had to ask the teacher for a day off in order in order to help the
family. This would be repeated for almost a month, as we would take
turns going to my three uncles homes to Schweine schlachten. All the
relatives would gather together on different days to help each other
repeat the processing of the meat. The Schwobs had the best assembly
line going.
First fire had to be started to boil the water in a fifty
gallon kettle. They began with straw, and then dry corn stalks, added
kindling, and finally wood. The actual killing of the pigs was done by
the manure pile so that when the throat was cut the blood running out
would be less of a mess to clean up. Hot scalding water was poured
over the entire outer pig to clean it and be able to shave all the
hair off the body. The men would hang up the pig by the hind feet then
slit it open to remove the internal organs. The lung, pancreas, and
liver were boiled to make Blutwurst. The women would separate the
intestines. Resi Basel was the best at doing her job. The kids liked
to watch and join in the washing of the intestines. Luke warm water
was poured into the Large and small intestines to clean them and to
turn them inside out to be used for the casings. This was a fun thing
to do because it looked like a snake slithering really fast.
The carcass of the pig is taken down to be further cut up into
sections such as the ham then cut up further into strips like bacon.
Next the meat is ground up and spiced to make liverwurst and
bratwurst. The next day my father, Philipp would salt the meat. The
ham would soak in the salt for about four to six weeks. The kids liked
to cut the cubes to make Gramle. This reminds me of something that
happened. The adults told the kids that one of them would be special
enough to get a ring. Little did the kids know what kind of ring they
meant. The younger children didn't understand the prank, but the older
kids knew it meant putting the finger of the unexpected child into the
butt of the pig which left a black ring. I had an Onkel Anton who was
just two years older than I was, but I called him cousin. His nickname
was smart aleck Toni. Toni chose me to be the victim. The older Onkeln
pretended to go along with his trick but grabbed his finger instead of
mine and put it into the pig. He was very upset because they made it
twice in a row that he got the ring. The older Onkeln made the excuse
that they thought they had Adam's hand. Toni had more bad luck at his
house when he was supposed to guard the meat to allow the fat to run
off and he didn't pay attention so the dogs started eating the pigskin
and stomach.
After all the hard work was done for the day, everyone looked
forward to the big family dinner to taste the results of their labor.
The children went outside stood by a window and sang a song before
they would eat.
"Ich hab
gehort ihr habt geschlacht.
Gibt mir oner
gibt mir nicht
so kleinr gibt
mir lieber zwei for oner.
Keichel hinein
Keichel heraus,
oder schlag ich
a Loch ins Haus."
Then the children would run back inside the house to eat their
favorite food, fried liver. The entire process of slaughtering the
pigs was repeated for almost a month because of going to the three
uncles homes.
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