January

Pig slaughter is a tradition known in numerous European countries besides Slovenia. 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. 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.

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.
The pig liver is customarily roasted the same day as well as the fresh blood.
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, 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 (ocvirki)

As the meat is stored for the following months, we can enjoy blood sausages and frying sausages till the beginning of spring while smoked meat and lard can be enjoyed till next pig slaughter.
For blood sausages you need:
Intestines, fresh blood, meat from well cooked pig’s head, lard, buckwheat groats, rice, salt, pepper, marjoram.