Cold enough to kill hogs

Posted by ESC on October 17, 2005

In Reply to: Cold enough to kill hogs posted by ESC on October 17, 2005

: : Have Yall ever heard "Cold enough to kill hogs".

: : Where did that come from?

: I was a farm girl but I didn't pay attention. So I'm a little fuzzy on details. But here is the general idea. Before refrigeration, hogs were killed in cold weather. The meat could be placed in "meat houses," as in "cold as a meat house." Preserved with salt, etc. If a hog was killed in hot weather, the meat would rot.

"Country people like my family didn't have refrigeration and needed the span of a few cold days to process the hog without the meat spoiling." From "November is Hog Killing Season" by Major W. Cox, an account of hog killing in rural Alabama. Online at www.majorcox.com