My name is Cheryl Hatmaker. I met this hillbilly fellow in 1988 and we married in 93. I have learned a lot about country things, since I was raised an Army brat and otherwise citified with steel worker Grandpa's. They still put out gardens and helped my great grandfather at hog killing time. My momma says my great grandmother would walk outside and grab two chickens, one in each hand, and spin them to snap their necks. She kept her flour in a big barrel. To make biscuits, she never took the flour out, she just made a well, and put the stuff in and made them right out of the barrel. Just about everyone in the family who put up their own vegetables and had farms, the country part of us, is gone. And just about everybody I can ask. My husband don't realize that you can buy garden stuff about as cheap as you can grow it nowadays, and if you cook it right, you can make it taste like it just came out of the garden. And pork is cheaper than chicken wings nowadays. As for smoking, I smoke a butt now and then, on a smoker grill. I like to mix a little fruit wood with the hickory. But my brother told me how to do it. He has his own bbq place in B'ham. Bragg Street Barbeque. I never cared much for farming when I was growing up and nobody "made" me help like they did my husband. He grew up with no indoor plumbing or central heat or air at all. They raised everything and put it up for winter. Not easy. Definitely not cheap. But we learn still from day to day. And we make mistakes, like the one I have asked for help with. His daddy was a coal miner in the hills of TN. He don't know much about store-bought curing salt. Please help with my question on how to save our meat. Thanks.
