What all the hog provided

The hog killing and curing out the meat for the winter was only the beginning for the those doing the "hog work". The women would have a big cast iron wash pot heating over a open fire outside and the fat from the hog was placed inside it to melt down and this would be the lard (we now use shortening). I have used lard to make pie crust and they are MUCH better--flakier. I remember Momma had a real big tin can with a lid that she would put the lard in, it was kept sitting by the old kitchen cabinet--made it handy for her to use . In those days the kitchens weren't decorated as they are today--they were totally functional--no frills just serviceable.
The women would use some of that melted fat to fry the cracklings in (the pork skin); when they floated to the top --out they came and were salted and ready to snack on. Sometime you put some of the cracklings in your cornbread batter --made it rather crunchy. A lot of people think the meat in the hog head makes the best tamales ever---WELL, I'll take their word for it---Mom never tried it ...
The old lard that the women would save from frying food in, was put to good use in making the lye soap--that was a all day job. You would skim off as much of the "Food bits" from the melted lard before adding your lye etc. I won't bother to tell all they put into the soap as I REALLY doubt that anyone is biting at the bit to make a batch of soap. After it had cooled in the big pans that Mom poured the soap into, she would cut it into bars. She usually had me,Mickey and Mike to shred some of the bars with a grater to be used for washing clothes and for washing dishes. The other bars would be used for bathing---you sure didn't want to scrub very hard using this soap--it would remove skin and all! It was a luxury when people started buying bought soap...My Aunt would put some crushed lavender in her soap--smelled good but would still take the hide off!
Now, I'll just bet that a lot of you really didn't realize how much the hogs helped out people in the good ole days, HUH?? Fed us, provided fat to cook other foods with and kept us clean to boot!!