Home Distiller

I grew up in rural central Oklahoma in the 1940's & 50's. Stills were as common as corn fields.

I rode up onto one about a mile deep in the woods when I was 12 or 13. Nearest house was at least a mile away. Just a little tin shack that had two barrels of mash cookin off. I knew who it belong to so I left (quickly). Told my dad later and he confirmed who the 'operator' was. Told me to stay away from there.

Also watched the sherrif raid a still about 100 yards uphill from my grade school. Major operation. It had tracks on the ceiling for moving barrels with electric motors and chain hoists. They had 5 or 6 barrels going when it was raided. They used butane burners (that was before the days of propane). The sherrif poured the barrels out the front door and the mash ran down the hill toward the school. Man, that stuff stunk for weeks.

We had roundup twice a year (lived on a ranch). One colored guy always helped just so he could get the 'mountain oysters'. He always brought two quarts of lightening over as exchange. By the end of the day, the men were feeling pretty good, to say the least. Dad would never let me partake of the stuff. I did sneak a little now and then and that was the root cause for me to take up this hobby as of late.

What are mountain oysters? Is it really obvious and I've just made a clown of myself?

Mountain oysters was shortened from Rocky Mountain oysters. These are the bull testicles left over from castration of calves usually. They are quite a culinary treat.
I prefer lamb fries though. Same concept for lambs.

Fortunately coops, this is one part of American culture that we have not adopted.

I knew a guy who used to do the same for pig testicles.

blanikdog wrote:Fortunately coops, this is one part of American culture that we have not adopted.

Sorry, but u do NOT know what u are missing (that is not a joke).

Just up the street, at a steak house called "Around the Bend", they have a testicle festival going on (well it just ended). Great time, lasts a week, and yes, the food is damn good.

There is not too much organ meat (bad pun intended ) which I like to eat. However, bull fries, turkey fries, etc are one of them. The other organs I like are bird gizzards (pheasant, water fowl and chick) and Liver, but liver HAS to be cooked somewhere OTHER than my house P.U....

H.

Husker wrote:Just up the street, at a steak house called "Around the Bend", they have a testicle festival going on (well it just ended). Great time, lasts a week, and yes, the food is damn good.

A testicle festival sounds like a big balls-up to me, but thanks for warning me to NEVER visit or eat in Oklahoma during July.

'Mountain oysters' are also called 'sweet meats' in some parts of the world.

Think I'll stick to kangaroo tails, wichetty grubs, green ant's arses, and Vegemite.

Husker wrote:

blanikdog wrote:Fortunately coops, this is one part of American culture that we have not adopted.

Sorry, but u do NOT know what u are missing (that is not a joke).
H.

No, Husker isn't jokeing. People here would come and castrate hogs simply for the take it homes. Our home town butcher would dress our beef , and at a reduced price if they were bulls, till one day, i had dinner with him, and enjoyed something better than any tenderloin.

We would kill our own hogs, and the fresh hogs liver that night gave no unpleasant smell, very sweet and fresh actually- not like chickens or others, esp. if not that day fresh. This was part of the hog killing regime, fresh pork liver for dinner that night, and pork tenderloin the next morning. Becomming a lost art and culture, but was one of the best and most enjoyable events of the year. Then, we'de prepare hams and middlings for cureing, grind, cook and can sausage, hot water can backbones and ribs for about 5 hours, render lard and fresh cracklings, and much other. Almost nothing went to waste. And every bit of it beat what you can buy at a store today.

yup used everythang but the oink
never was much on hog hash
aint sure if yall eat chitlins but if they getin low an alot of folks
is eatin an you want more you get you one kernel of corn.
dont let no one see you put it in your mouth but pull it out for everyone
to see an that will thin the table out.
dependin on what we was gonna use him for we
would vat him an scald then use one of them old mason jar zinc
lids an scrap the fur off.

goose eye wrote: aint sure if yall eat chitlins but if they getin low an alot of folks
is eatin an you want more you get you one kernel of corn.
dont let no one see you put it in your mouth but pull it out for everyone
to see an that will thin the table out.
.

Some fokes around here even caught the blood.Called the dish blood pie or pudding.Was something in the fall that was looked foward to, Hog killin time. Fokes worked and helped each other out it seems more in those days.

I grew up in Western Kentuck near the intersection of Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky a few miles down river from the Wabash, right on the Ohio River. We had a huge German influence there and most of our local butchers were from the Black forest area of Germany.
Blood sausage (blutwurst) was a favorite of mine and is hard to find any now that is edible. I also enjoyed head cheese (souse) which me and grandpa would eat with cider vinegar, and liver sausage (Liverwurst or Leberwurst). He called breakfast sausage bratwurst. Cracklin mush was a very common supper meal along with liver cheese coated in fat(braunswager) and pickled beets.
I still make my own pickled beets and corn mush, but I miss all the flavorful sauges and cheeses from my childhood.

I'm a chef in Oz. we call lambs liver "lambs fry." "Sweet breads" or "sweet meat" is the thyroid gland of the lamb (just below the neck) don't know what we call sheep balls lol... i love lambs fry but much prefer brains to sweet breads

We call them "mountain oysters" the same as everyone else.

We call em Prarie oysters up here...

No one has ever enjoyed real bacon or middlings after a taste of homemade sugar cured for several months. Same with the hams. No other flavour in the world like it. Cracklings in corn bread is a taste all its own. We had a pharmacist and his wife that would always make hogs head cheese on halves, and at beef killing time would make the finest soap ever. Pure wood ash lye, and fat.

There would be around seven families that wouls come together and do this aroung thanksgiving weather depending. It was a 3 day festival for us, Cleaning the hogs, then after cooling, cutting up, salting and sugaring, and peppering, then grindind sausage, and slow canning the backbones and ribs. About 8 or 9 community meals were enjoyed during the process. Took a cord of wood or more. We all pitched in and built a great meat cureing house at one of the neigbors who was best at the cureing. Food used to be much fun.

Every once in a while i still cure and smoke a honey cured bacon.There messy to make but ya cant beat their flavor.

Sometimes I'll buy the chicken breast with the bone and skin on it, and leave it on! Man thats some good stuff!!! I am farther south then just about everyone here I think and I cut a couple bulls in my time but never thought to eat them, they got a Wendy's right down the road. LOL

we usually kill a couple three a year. if we makein sausage we take em
to the slaughter house an theyll kill skin an clean for $25.00.
we buy em cheaper than we can raise em . heavys was goin for
45 cent on the hoof. you want to get a farm raised one the ones raised
in the air is to lean to make good sausage. figure you get a little less
than 1/2 of hoof weight. so you got bout a dollar in it an you can sale it
for 2 dollar a pound all day long. stay away from potbellys unless
you renderin lard

Here in the U.S. I think most sweetbreads are pancreas. LOVE Sweetbreads.

Calves liver is pretty good.

Tripe is pretty good but mostly just as part of a soup.

Chicken livers/gizzards/hearts etc. are awesome fried up.

Not a huge fan of rocky mountain oysters but not too bad.

I always have dibs on the Turkey neck. I had to wait for my grandfather to die before I had enough seniority to get ANY of the neck He also brewed beer in the basement before Jimmy made it legal.

I don't like brain.

I think my favorite though is beef tongue. Just about always get tongue at the local taquerias.

Chicken hearts! hands down best food ever! Brazil heavily salts them then puts em on a spit...FANTASTIC!

In South Central PA, we call the thyroid of the pig Sweatbreads.

We never ate the testes when castrating hogs (damn, those little suckers squealed...made me feel a bit sorry for them), we couldn't keep the dogs away from them though.

Been a long time since I butchered hogs, I really like homecured hams and bacon, but I always had to soak the hams for a day first, without the soak they were a bit too salty.

Cracklin's from the rendering of lard are a nice treat once in a while, and some butcher shops still sell them around here. Wenger's meats, and some Amish and menonites sell such fare.