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Butchering

Vintage black and white photograph showing three men holding a pig in the grass for butchering and two women beginning to cut up the meat.

Archives de la Côte-du-Sud, Société d’histoire et de généalogie de la Côte-du-Sud Collection.

Butchering means to slaughter animals for meat. It includes all stages of the butchering process, such as slaughtering, cutting, and preparing cuts of meat for consumption.

Traditionally, this operation was done in early December, as ice houses and refrigerators were not common before the 20th century. Often, certain animals were fattened all summer solely for the meat they would provide. Among all of the farm animals slaughtered, pigs were preferred.

Butchering was often a communal activity. Neighbours helped each other, with men doing the slaughtering and women preparing the meat for preservation.