We have attended pig kills before but this time it would be different because the pig was destined for our freezer. We knew that if we were to benefit from the meat bargains that are available and fruit and vegetables that come into season we would have to get some means of keeping them. So, one of the first things we did when we arrived in Hungary was to purchase the largest chest freezer we could buy.

During the run up to the big day, Saturday, 5th July 2003, a lot of preparations had to be made. The slaughter man had to be booked, helpers organised, and the pig keeper had to make sure that we would be available on the chosen date.

We have bought meat in the supermarkets in Hungary and although it was very good it wasn’t cut and presented as it is in England. We thought that as we were buying a whole pig we would like it cut up in the manner we were accustomed to.
Big problem – it would be different so detailed instruction would be required!

We said that we didn’t want any of it made into sausages.
Big problem – nobody in their right minds refused sausages!
It meant that the man who usually killed our friend’s pigs and made the sausages wouldn’t be needed so a different slaughter man would have to be booked – one that would just kill and butcher the pig.

We said we wanted the skin left on.
Big problem – the skin was always taken off to put in the sausages – but we didn’t want sausages ….. nobody had heard of crackling on roast pork.

Several conferences were held to establish how we required it to be cut up. We said we wanted the carcass cut in half down the middle; head off, legs off and each side cut into 2 portions. The rest we would do ourselves.
Would we want the heart, liver and kidneys?
Yes, we would.
How would we able to cut up the pig?
We produced our butcher’s knives and a cleaver which we used to cut pork & beef for the freezer in England.
Eventually we managed to convince them we were capable of managing the butchering of a pig and all was set for the big day.

We made preparations by purchasing plastic freezer bags in the supermarket, they were made of a thinner plastic than we were used to and we had to buy pedal bin bags for the larger joints but they were adequate. We were also given a large, thick, chopping board by a relation so we were well prepared.

The big day arrived and we were told to be at our friend’s house at 5.30pm ready for 6pm start. We were welcomed with the customary pálika to celebrate the occasion. At 5.50pm there was a phone call to say the slaughter man was held up and wouldn’t be there until 6.30pm and eventually he arrived at 6.45 pm with his helpers.

I was not brave enough to witness the actual killing, (given time, you never know, I may be able to bring myself do so) and my husband declined the offer to view it. We were told at this point that the men had gone to the pig pen to get the pig out. There was such loud squealing that we were sure that it had been killed there and then and for the first time we suddenly felt sorry for the pig and guilty that we were the cause of its death. But, we were then told that it had not been killed but that it was just loudly objecting to be taken away from the other pigs.
Mr. Pig was marched up the yard and put into a wire cage to be weighed. We were summonsed to witness the weighing so we knew what we were paying for – he weighed in at 130kilos – and he was the smallest pig in the sty. When everybody realised I was going to take photographs of the proceedings there were very anxious I should record every part of the action and kindly posed at each stage.

We had been assured that the slaughter man was an expert at his job and had won prizes for his speed and skill at killing & butchering a pig. But, we made ourselves scarce as we really didn’t wish to witness it. We were told that the pig would be knocked on the head with an object that looks like a hammer with a spike embedded in it. The pig would immediately become unconscious and a knife would be plunged into his heart, through the base of his throat. As the blood pumped from its neck it would be caught in a bowl as fried blood is apparently a delicacy (one I personally declined to try) and it is the main ingredient of one of the sausages (véres hurka).
We were summonsed as soon as the killing was over and we arrived in time to see the bowl of blood being taken away and the pig still gently kicking as its life ebbed away.
The weighing pen and the hammer were put away and as the animal was by then completely dead it was hosed down with water. We had heard stories of men going into the house at this stage, to celebrate a successful killing, with a pálinka of course, and stopping to having several pálinkas and by the time they returned the pig had been stolen. Luckily, that was not the case on this occasion. Next a huge gas-gun was produced and the slaughter man began to burn the hair from the pig.
Different slaughterers have different ways of doing this. In the old days the pig would be covered completely with straw and they would set fire to it. Another method would be to drop the whole pig into a vat of boiling water and then scrape it clean.
Anyway, our man’s chosen method was a gas-gun and he proceeded to burn and scrape the hairs away with a cone shaped metal object until the pig was clean. But, to my horror, he began to burn it all over again until it was completely black.One half of me kept thinking he knew what he was doing and it was the way to do it but the other half of me was convinced that it would be either partly cooked or so burnt it would be inedible. Imagine my relief when he began to scrape at the pig once more and it was perfect underneath all the burn.
He then scrubbed the carcass with water and it was placed on a board and rolled beneath 2 hooks mounted on a roller.
The pig was hoisted up and again hosed down. It was slit from tail to chin along the belly, the innards removed and then cut up to our requirements.

All the resulting pieces of meat were loaded into the back of our car and we took it home. After unloading it into crates and taking it into the kitchen we suddenly realised how much meat was on a 130 kilo pig. My husband & I don’t have large appetites in the hot weather so unless we have a lot of visitors I can see us eating pork for the next year.

We had been told that we couldn’t put the meat into the freezer until the next day as it had to be left dry and cool down over night and I was surprised at how hot the meat was.
It was 9pm by that time and we thought we had better joint the meat ready for packing before we went to bed so we laid a plastic sheet on the floor, turned on the cooling fan and proceeded to cut the pig up as we wanted it and lay it on the sheet. The only thing we were not prepared for was that the pig had such a thick layer of fat under the skin. In England you are lucky to get ¼” of fat on the meat but on this one there was at least 2-3” on it. We cut a lot of it off, diced and packed it so we could cook it later for pork scratchings (tepeató).

Next morning we were up early and we put all the meat into freezer bags and put it away in the freezer. We left out some pork chops for our evening meal so we could sample it.
I decided an English meal was called for so I pan fried the chops in the evening and served them with new potatoes, cauliflower, mushroom sauce and apple sauce. We decided it was the most delicious pork we have tasted in a long while – sorry Mr. Pig.

Later that morning we took back the containers we had borrowed to transport the pig. We tentatively asked how much we owed for the pig and to our amazement were told it was 32.500 forint (£89 UK* - 69p per kilo) for the pork (250 forint per kilo live weight) and 2,000 forint for the slaughter man. We were obviously delighted with the price and, of course, it called for another pálinka to celebrate the deal. Before we left I promised our friend that I would cook him and his family an English style roast pork dinner with crackling.

*exchange rate of 365 forint to £1 at this time