[AT] RE: Eating while doing tractor things sort of ramble

[Cecil E Monson]

> The cracklings I'm referring to are what is left after the hog fat has been
> cooked untill there wasn't much left. I haven't seen cracklings for a long
> time but I would equate them to looking a little like commercial breakfast
> cereal small grape nuts! Some of the fat juice was included.


	Back around 1950, and before I went in the Air Force, I worked for
Armour's Jacob E Decker plant in Mason City, Iowa. I worked on the hog kill
and we processed up to 5000 hogs a day there. I don't think anything went to
waste in the entire operation except the squeal. Every noon on the way to the
cafeteria, and also during some breaks, I went by the large rendering cookers
where the fat was rendered into lard. The delicious smell of this process
saturated that entire area of the plant. What was left over after all the fat
was rendered out of the meat was called "cracklings" and we could have all
we wanted. I usually grabbed a handful as I went by for a snack. My uncle,
Sherwin, was a long time employee of Decker's and worked in the department
that smoked hams and bacon which was on the other side of where I worked.
Between the smells of the cracklings on the floor below us and the smokehouse
behind us on the same floor, I was hungry all the time. That reminds me, the
wiener operation where they made wieners was right below us. All the scraps
from the hog kill went down the chutes into this department and were ground
up to be made into wieners. It was fascinating to watch the machine shoot
wieners, all tied and in links, about 6 feet out as they came out of the
machine. Employees grabbed them as they came out of the machine and hung them
on racks for cooking and light smoking.

Cecil
-- 
The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
what you said.

Cecil E Monson
Lucille Hand-Monson
Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole

Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment

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