Once the pig is dead, the hair is removed with a gas-powered paint remover
or which the embers from swatches of hay.
Then the pig is washed down and the intestines removed. The intestines are
handed over to a group of ladies whose mission is to clean them in sucessive
salt water baths, so that the skin of the intestines can be used to fill
with 'picadillo' or ground meat or coagulated blood...in the prepartaion
of the sausages. or 'Butifarra', or 'Chorizo', while the men
mix by hand the ground meat and with much discussion and RED WINE ...decide
(mutually) upon the axact amount of salt, red pepper, and optional ingredients
like cimamon, or garlic.
Someone is always taking samples of the raw picadillo in a small frying
pan to cook it for samplong purposes, and this is passed around until a
consensus is reached that the picadillo is just right.
Wooden fires are started up , and huge kettles of water at set upon then
to boil.
With around 10 people the whole process takes around 5-6 hours. And the
reward to all the people who helped is a grand meal.
The meal consists of ARROZ del MATANZA.
And its ingedients are RICE, sausages, like chorizo and butifarra, roast
meat, bacon, onions, tomato, garlic, laurel leaves, and it is delicious!
What the owners of the pig get from the deal-.........almost a years supply
of cured hams, sausages, bacon, and fried pork skin.
Most of the ham is hung up un a cool cellar for curing. The
sausages are boiled in the
the kettles for a couple of hours and are then hung up in the same cellar
for curing.
The porkchops, sirloin and other fresh meat are grilled and eaten in the
following days.
But NOWHERE, have I ever seen such awesome amounts of pork consumed by so
few people in one day!
Sanitary authorities of Spain are trying hard to do away with this family
tradition, but I doubt of their plans will meet with success.
The matanzas are only done in winter between DECEMBER and MARCH...when bacterial
levels are at their lowest. |
The land in the countryside of Ibiza is widely held.
Almost every Ibicencan family has a plot of land or a small farm in the
countryside.
It is here that family traditions are passed from generation to generation...like
wine making or the MATANZAS.
This centuries old tradition consists of the slaughtrer of the family PIG.
And it is done in a KOSHER way.....no guns, or slaughter pistols.....they
simply tie the pigs legs, hoist him onto a lage table.......and cut his
throat. It is a family event.
NOTHING goes to waste. The blood is collected for blood sausages, and even
the ears go into the soup.
Elliot Paul (1936) described it like this....."--If a little girl were
to fall down and scratch her knee......the entire neighborhood would come
out to console here, hush her crying and treat her wounded spirits........but
the sweetest sound to an Ibicenco is the sqealing of the pig with his throat
cut at Matanza time...."...
The way it is done is this:
You invite the entire family and friends (because it is a lot of work!).
And you give an apron to everyone.
Here is what happens if you overdo it with enough stout VINO PAGÉS....
(homemade country red table wine).
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