Pig slaughter

Schematic representation of the main pork cuts.

Pig slaughter is the activity of slaughtering domestic pigs which is both a common economic activity as well as a traditional feast in some European countries.

Agriculture

Pig slaughter is a necessary activity to obtain pig meat - pork. It regularly happens as part of intensive pig farming.

Tradition

Pig slaughter is a tradition known in numerous European countries: Croatia (see below), Serbia (see below), Hungary (disznóvágás), the Czech Republic (zabijačka), Slovakia (zabíjačka) , Greece, Italy (maialata), Moldova, Romania, Slovenia (koline), Portugal (matança), Spain (matanza), Ukraine and other.

It usually takes part in the winter, especially before the Christmas to provide for the festive cuisine. In the past, this was the only time of the year when people could afford to eat larger amounts of meat.

The slaughter is performed by a professional butcher and accompanied by various local rituals.

Serbia and Croatia

The traditional method of slaughtering pigs in Serbia and Croatia is variously called kolinje, prašćina, svinjokolj, svinjokolja or svinjokolje. The names literally mean "pig-slaughtering" (svinja=pig, n., klanje=slaughter, n.). The event takes place every autumn and includes slaughter and butchering of pig meat. It is a custom specific to the parts of the countries in the Pannonian plain.

Traditional autumn activity

The slaughter traditionally takes place in autumn, as soon as it gets cold. The cold is required as a natural method of preserving the relatively large quantities of meat during the butchering. Yet, because people often do the work in the open, it is preferable that the temperatures aren't too much below freezing during this time, hence the slaughter rarely extends into winter. After WWII, in Yugoslavia, a state holiday fell on November 29, with that and next day being non-working, so most slaughters were held on that occasion.

The entire duration of the slaughter can be as long as three days. Because people were traditionally stocking up on supplies before winter, it became customary to slaughter more than one pig, which increased the amount of time necessary for the meat to be processed. Some families visit their relatives (often grandparents) and friends at that time of the year, in order to help. Also, little mechanization is used, with meat being cut manually. Any grinding is done with relatively small manually-operated, mechanical grinding machines.

In modern times, almost any family can afford to slaughter, yet there is also an abundance of pre-processed meat in the shops, so the traditional method of slaughtering is becoming more and more of a folk custom rather than a pure necessity.

To complement the activities, rakija or wine is drunk by participants during the butchering.

The process

The slaughter requires numerous preparations, including troughs, large quantities of boiling water, large wooden barrels for storing meat, pots, sharp knives, and in modern times also artificial intestines (hoses for various sausages). Traditionally, the pig is slaughtered with a knife and then put in a wooden or a metal trough and showered with boiling water to remove the hair. The pig is then removed from the trough and any remaining hair is removed with a knife or a razor, and then it is again washed with boiling water.

In recent times, a captive bolt pistol is used for the actual killing, or alternatively the pig itself can be obtained from a local butcher's, already slaughtered and with hair removed.

In modern times, because of the danger of Trichinosis, people are required to have critical parts of the fresh meat tested by a veterinarian.

Then, the pig's intestines are removed. These days, the pig can also be obtained as a half (polovica or polutka), without intestines or blood. The pig liver is customarily roasted the same day.

The meat can then be salted and stored in a cellar, to be taken out after ten days, when the blood is squeezed out. The meat is then stored again and left until May of the next year.

The meat from the animal is then processed further:

• The buttocks are salted and pressed in order to eventually produce ham (šunka)
• The ribcage meat is salted and smoked in order to get bacon (slanina)
• The bulk of the meat is cut and ground to produce various sausages, including kobasica, blood sausage and kulen, which are traditionally wrapped into the intestines of various sizes.
• The bulk of the fat is cut into small pieces and stewed to produce cracklings (čvarci)
• The various "leftovers" are put into švargl, hladetina (headcheese as in jelly), etc.

Most parts of the pig are used in this traditional process, even parts of the skin that would normally be thrown away are preserved to be cooked with beans.

Men and women were traditionally assigned different jobs during the slaughter. It was commonly the men who were doing the actual slaughter, the larger part of butchering, and the grinding of meat. Because the society is traditionally patriarchal, the women were in charge of a relatively menial tasks, such as waiting and cooking for the whole crew throughout the event, keeping the environment clean (washing and scrubbing), as well as the emptying the pigs' bowels in order to make them suitable for holding sausage meat.

Problems

Cruelty

In recent times pig slaughter is perceived by some as a cruel activity

Recently, animal rights protesters and vegetarians in Croatia have complained about the slaughtering process arguing that it is cruel and causes unnecessary suffering to the livestock.

The recommended practice of dazing pigs by shooting them with a bolt pistol to the forehead prior to killing has both a practical and a humane rationale - it reduces the animal stress which helps meat quality, and it prevents the situations where the animal is first wounded and then brutally put down.

Hygiene

There are worries that the entry of Croatia into the EU may see stricter legislation governing the treatment of animals and food hygiene come into force. This could mean that the practices around svinjokolja will be made illegal with all butchery moving to controlled, inspected facilities.

The standard of hygiene long recommended by veterinarians has included various requirements for the people, tools and space used in the process. All people involved in the slaughter and butchering must be healthy, dressed with a hat, apron and boots, and clean hands. The tools (knives, axes, saws etc) are sharpened, cleaned and disinfected before use, and they should be kept in a clean place throughout the process, preferably in a clean toolbox around the butcher's belt. The location of the killing needs to be a clean concrete surface with a sewer canal, meaning that the space can be easily cleaned. The trough used should have a zinced surface which is easy to clean and disinfect; the wooden troughs absorb water and microorganisms which makes them unsuitable.

See also

• Animal slaughter
• Humane Slaughter Act
• Traditional diet

External links

• Link about svinjokolja in the past (in Croatian)
• Moldavian Pig Slaughter - article in English with detailed pictures of a Moldavian family slaughtering a pig