Honouring a pig's death

Before reading this, breathe in and out. The article that follows may contain spills of blood but also delicious meat. 

It’s still dawn. 5am on a cold winter morning on the Hungarian countryside. A family gathers together in the backyard of their house. The invited butcher is already waiting outside and brought the right equipment. Drinks, check. Everyone is prepared for a feast. Everyone is here for ‘Diznovagas’.

The Hungarian traditional pig slaughter is not simply killing the pig. It’s a ritual, a family event. From dawn to dusk, it also includes the cleaning and making pork dishes for the whole family and with the whole family. The old butchers in Hungary were often invited to help because they had special slaughtering equipment (e.g. sausage filler) and were experienced in it. 

‘Diznovagas’ has been part of the traditional Hungarian lifestyle for many centuries. But during Communism, there was no such thing as a pig slaughter. Not because the Communists would not eat pork, they would. But officially all pigs belonged to the community, no private pigs were allowed. Then in 1989, when Hungary turned into a democratic country, home based pig killing feasts returned.

There are fewer and fewer Hungarian pig slaughters due to the major changes of lifestyle all over the world (including globalization and health conscious – vegetarian/vegan movements) and while most Hungarian teens do not ever see a pig killing feast these days, it still has a big and rich tradition, but is not widespread any more. One has to travel to the countryside to experience ‘Disznovagas’. 

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN?

The day of the Hungarian pig slaughter is usually set on a cold day, any time during winter season, usually between November and February. Cold helps to minimize the risk of bacteria spreading in the meats.

Pig killing is usually done once a year, maybe twice. Pigs are often slaughtered for Christmas and New Year festivities. 

HERE COMES THE BLOOD

Photo: Sonni Holmstedt

First things first, drinks. Family and invited butcher only do the slaughter with shots of Palinka, a strong Hungarian spirit. Yes, as early as 5 am or 6 am, shots go down. Palinka is a distilled fruit brandy, which is as clear as water. Quick, burning feeling on the tongue and in the stomach, which quickly goes away.

The hog killing takes place outside the house, in the backyard, where the yard has been arranged for pig killing. Pigs are then picked for the slaughter. Typically, the pig needs to have between 150-300kgs. 

Killing the pig was traditionally done with a sharp knife: the pig was first sedated, then stabbed to death (in the medieval ages pigs were often clubbed to death). Three to four strong men would keep the pig down, a bigger child or teen kept the tail, while the butcher (boller – böllér –  in Hungarian) would stab the pig chosen for slaughter.

The knives were soon replaced by guns, which made the process of killing it more humane, less suffering, fewer unbearable squeals. Then the guns were replaced by shockers (often home made shockers, which still cause accidents), followed by stabbing the knife in the pig.

After killing the pig, the family lets it  bleed. After paralyzing the pig with the shocker, the neck is slit by the butcher, and the blood starts to spurt out. But the blood is not just flowing on the ground, it is collected in a bowl, and used for the first feast of the day. 

In most places, cleaning the pig starts with getting rid of the hairs on the pigskin by using a blowtorch. This has a special smell, like any burning hair, which may put off many people, but the hair must be removed somehow. As disgusting it is, it must be done quite thoroughly to make sure no hair remains on the skin, which is also to be re-used. The skin of the hog is thoroughly blazed, and makes it ready to eat.

A few decades ago, the scorched skin of the pig was one of the main delicacies of the slaughtering feast. Kids would look forward to gnaw on the scorched and cleaned ears of the pig as a meat snack (somewhat like a beef jerky today).

Once the skin has been burnt with the blowtorch, the pig is placed on a big plank, then cleaned thoroughly with hot water. The hot water makes the skin softer, and with a knife the black skin can easily be cleaned away. These days it is done with a hose, and water pressure, but in the past, the pig was often put in a tub to be cleaned with hot water.

THE BREAKDOWN

The clean pig is placed on an A-shaped structure by its hind legs hooked to the frame (rémfa in Hungarian). And now comes the cutting. Each country has its traditions of cutting up an animal, even butchers or families may have preferences. But one thing is sure, the bowels are removed first, along with the internal organs, making sure they do not fall to the ground, as they will be reused. The innards are followed by dissecting the head and the fatty skin.

In some places, the pig is cut into pieces along the spine, without cutting the spine itself, in other places the spine is cut into two parts with a sharp hatchet or saw.

When the pig has been cut up into bigger chunks, its parts are placed on a clean wooden table for further processing to make ham (sonka), pork chops (karaj is the leaner version from the back, and tarja is the fatty version from the parts of the neck of the pig), ribs (oldalas), bacon (szalonna), shoulder blade i.e. the upper part of the front leg (lapocka) pork knuckle (csülök), hoof (köröm), leg of pork (comb), pig tail (farok), stomach (gyomor).

The head of the pig is cleaned (the eyes and the inner ears are not used, but the rest is), and cooked (often used in a cabbage dish called Toros Kaposzta), its meaty parts are used in making the freshly processed pork meats, i.e. the blood and liver puddings and sausages.

THE FOOD FEAST STARTS EARLY IN THE MORNING

While men are outside cleaning the pig, women are already inside making breakfast for the family. The first pig snack is made from blood and sauteed onions. 

Not all the blood is eaten right away. Much of the blood is just salted and put away, as it will be used in the Hungarian black pudding (veres hurka).

Hardly anything is thrown away from the pig, almost every little part of it is found fit for consumption in one way or another. Needless to say each part is absolutely cleaned and prepared for eating, frying, cooking etc.

The bones of the pig are also used, cut up and cooked in traditional Hungarian meals like the meat soup or kocsonya.

The sausages and hurka (the Hungarian black pudding and ‘white pudding’ made with rice rather than oatmeal) are also the highlights of the ‘Diznovagas’, when the meats and livers are ground, mixed with lots of spices, from garlic, salt and pepper. And lots and lots of Hungarian paprika.

The sausages, cut up meats, fats, ground meat, hurkas, etc. could fill up a freezer for a family, lasting many months.

Written by Miguel Andrade as part of Terroir Budapest

Photo: Sonni Holmstedt