How To Build a Smoker

Getting up at first light of day was common on a farm in the 1940s.

There were cows to milk, chickens to feed and many other chores to do at different times of the year.

Fall was the time for hog killing, cutting up the meat and curing it. First heating the water, scalding and removing the hair, hanging up and removing the internals.

Our smoker was a small building with the front door opening into the backyard for ease of entrance and removing meat by my grandmother.  This was a smoker for curing hundreds of pounds of meat every fall and winter. Of course, we called it, “the smokehouse.”

At the back of the smokehouse was a large bench going all the way from wall to wall. On the back wall was a half door, reaching from the bench up to the rafters. Through this door the hog carcass was laid on the bench where my grandfather cut the carcass into curing size.

First the meat was covered in salt for several days. The salt was removed and the chunks of meat were hung from poles fastened overhead. A small fire making smoke was kept going for several weeks until the meat was cured.

My grandfather had his own curing rub and sausage formula that he mostly made from herbs growing wild. I was proud to helped him gather these special herbs and mix them.

Over the fall and winter season we also had deer to add to our supply of sausage. People today don’t eat half as well as we did back then and what we ate was a lot healthier than what you can buy in a super market today…

Tomorrow, I will post a couple of rub formulas.

In the 1940s, winter was a time of rest. Oh we had the animals to feed and take care of. This was a time for the working animals to get fat. They mostly just ate and laid around.

My granddad always had a winter garden which gave us a few fresh vegetables to eat.

Spring work began in February when we prepared the ground and planted Irish potatoes in what we called new ground. New ground consist of  land where we cut firewood the previous fall. We cleaned the tree stumps from the land and plowed it under in the fall and let it rest over the winter.

About the middle of February, according to the moon phase, we planted Irish potatoes for our use. At the same time we were getting more of the new ground ready for the spring garden.

At the same time we were also planting a few acres of potatoes in one of the main fields for market.

My granddad always bought potatoes for seed and we cut them into smaller pieces, one eye to a piece. We always planted them with the eye pointing up.

More spring time chores later.