American Consequences - June 2018

pulled off the smoking hooves and then we washed the body with hot water and scraped the skin with bits of old terracotta roofing tiles. The rough tiles did the work of coarse sandpaper. The hind legs of the corpse were then lashed to a wooden ladder, with the animal’s underside facing us. Mr. Deshais sliced the belly open, carefully cutting through the fat to the intestines. The trick is to remove the animal’s innards without puncturing them. The first step is to cut out the lower end of the intestinal track – which is now at the top – and tie a string around it. Then, working downward, the internal organs are freed from the intestinal cavity... until they finally fall out. “Just throw them all away,” said Mr. Deshais of the animal’s plumbing. “In the old days, we would have used them. But they’re not worth fooling with.” Of course, the liver, heart, tongue, and some other pieces I didn’t recognize were saved. After the insides were hollowed out, Mr. Deshais cut off the head and put it in a bucket. “We’ll use that for the sausage,” he explained. He had already bought some sheep’s intestines to be used to make them. Then, he cut through the entire body from top to body – down the middle. The result was two sides – on which the cuts of meat were fairly obvious. But inside the chest cavity was a thin layer of fat and meat. “Oh... take this,” said the gardener turned butcher. “This is the best cut of meat on the

entire animal. Eat it tonight.” He carefully sliced the fat off a thin piece of muscle, which we did eat at our evening meal. (He was right... It was delicious.) Blood sausage is made by grinding the fatty meat from the pig’s head and neck, with onions and parsley... and then cooking it with the blood. Be sure to put a little vinegar in with the blood to prevent coagulation before the sausage is cooked. Once cooked, the “links” of sheep intestine are filled up with the “black sausage” mixture. There are, of course, details to be mastered and recipes to exchange. Curing the hams, for example, is an art. In some places, men would sooner share their wives with other men than share their ham curing recipe. And what to do with the remains of the head... and the miscellaneous other parts that rarely appear on a menu in the Anglo-Saxon world? I don’t know, dear reader. But now you have the general idea. If a serious breakdown in the division of labor occurs, you will be ready for it. Bill Bonner is the underground news mogul and founder of The Agora publishing company. He’s written the NewYork Times bestselling book Empire of Debt and most recently published Hormegeddon: HowToo Much Of A Good Thing Leads To Disaster . He is one of the great writers and minds in America today and also publishes a free daily letter, Bill Bonner’s Diary , which you can sign up for here: https://bonnerandpartners.com/.

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