35 Appalachian MEAT Tricks Grandpa Never Wrote Down

🔗 Grandma never wrote hers down, so my wife Opal finally did. All 118 plus much more. Get em before they're gone: https://cecilrowe.com Cecil Rowe counts down the old mountain way with meat — the Appalachian butchering, curing, and cooking tricks the mountain folks did by heart and never once set down on paper. From beating the cheapest tough steak tender with the rim of a saucer and salting a roast hours ahead of the pan, to rendering leaf lard low and slow, salt-boxing a whole ham down till it keeps a year with no ice, hanging a carcass in the cold, and smoking the hams over hickory for thirty days, it's how the old-timers took one hog and a cold cellar and made a year of suppers — nose to tail, with nothing going to the ground. Souse out of the head, pickled feet, a liver-and-cornmeal loaf, potted meat sealed under lard, a ham bone that seasoned a whole week of pots, and the meat put up in glass jars against the heat of July. These were the doins the county health men once warned folks off of — the ones the science quietly circled back around and proved right. And there's one cold black cup Cecil saves for near the end, soaking a cheap steak in the dark the whole way down, that he swears makes the meanest cut in the case cut like warm butter — and a number one he'd hardly give a number, because it's the truest thing hog-killin ever taught him. His mama held all of it behind her eyes and never set a word of it to paper. Until now. In this one, Cecil covers: • Tenderizing the cheap cuts — beating a tough round with a saucer, salting hours ahead, buttermilk and vinegar soaks, the long low braise, and the cold cup that softens the meanest steak • Curing & the smokehouse — the salt box, hickory smoke over pine, peppering a ham against the skippers, hanging and aging, and drawing the hard salt back out of a year-old country ham • The whole hog, nose to tail — souse from the head, pickled feet, cracklins, potted meat, a liver-and-cornmeal loaf, and the ham bone that seasoned every pot • Keeping meat with no ice — the spring house over the cold creek, sausage packed down under lard, dried beef that never turns, and putting meat up safe in glass jars • Stretching a little meat across a big table — milk gravy off a half-pound of sausage, one old hen and a pot of dumplings, stale bread worked through the loaf, and no roast ever eaten but once • Old-time cooking & wild game — rendering your own lard, a sorghum glaze on the ham, soaking the wild taste out of venison and squirrel, and parboiling the tough old rooster before he's floured and fried • Waste nothing — one hog and a cold cellar turned into a year of suppers, and the knowing that dies when the old hands do These are the real secrets the old mountain folks knew for keeping and cooking meat — and now they're finally written down. What's the one thing your daddy or your pawpaw did with a hog, a smokehouse, or a cast-iron skillet that you carry only because you stood and watched him do it? Tell us down in the comments who taught you the old ways, and what part of the country he kept them in — Cecil reads every last one. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Steak Soaking in the Dark 1:53 Dried Beef That Never Turns 2:33 Beat It Tender with a Saucer 3:16 Render the Lard Low and Slow 4:03 Salt It Hours Ahead 4:47 The Grease Can by the Stove 5:29 The Cheap Cut, Low and Slow 6:16 A Buttermilk Soak Overnight 7:09 Hickory Smoke, Never Pine 8:08 Hang the Meat in the Cold 8:53 Fatback Over the Lean Roast 9:36 A Splash of Vinegar 10:19 Parboil the Tough Old Rooster 11:22 No Roast Eaten but Once 12:04 One Hen and a Pot of Dumplings 12:48 Milk Gravy off a Little Sausage 13:34 Soak the Wild Taste Out 14:18 A Ham Bone Seasons the Week 15:04 The Spring House, Not the Icebox 15:56 The Feet and Backs for Broth 16:36 Stale Bread to Stretch the Meat 17:18 The Sage in the Sausage 18:02 Cracklins from the Lard Pot 18:57 Soak the Year-Old Ham 19:43 A Sorghum Glaze on the Ham 20:32 Canning Meat in Glass Jars 21:26 Fried Sausage Under Lard 22:19 Cure Only in the Cold 23:10 The Salt-Box Ham 24:05 Pickled Pig's Feet 24:47 Potted Meat from the Scraps 25:42 Pepper to Keep the Skippers Out 26:22 Souse from the Hog's Head 27:24 Liver and Cornmeal Loaf 28:05 The Cold Cup of Coffee 29:08 Everything but the Squeal 30:32 Put Your Hands to It This Week 31:33 Written Down at Last