Sticking the Pig and Drinking the Mulled Wine

Posted by Chris on March 7, 2008

Joe of Egészségére! wrote about his multiple experiences with mulled wine while they took part in a little pigsticking, which is apparently illegal except for in “heritage” places. I am not sure I understand why bull fighting is ok and pigsticking is not but, well, I digress… About the day of pigsticking and mulled wine:

We arrived at 9:30 in the morning, and were greeted with shots of palinka. Palinka is a honey-apricot brandy sort of liquor. So we had two shots of that, then watched the pig die, it’s hair was burnt off, and then they cleaned the skin. While watching this, we got mulled wine. Then we went inside for breakfast, and had more mulled wine. The breakfast was interesting. They fried pigs blood and pig fat together, until it turns into little black lumps, and we were served this, and then more pigs blood is mixed with eggs and onions. This and bread rolls was breakfast. We went on a walk to see the animals, and played around with the electric fence, and then came back to watch the pig’s head come off. We got more mulled wine to celebrate this. After this, we stood around and watched the pig be dismembered. I was not as bothered by this as I thought I would be. We were served mulled wine throughout. we then had a three course lunch. First we were served soup made with noodles and the spine of the pig. Next was the entree, which was blood sausage, liver sausage, and simple sausage with paprika potatoes. Dessert was a Hungarian style custard pie with marmalade topping. It was alright, but after hearing all of the things that went into the foods, I couldn’t bring myself to get that excited about the foods.

It sounds like the day was more about drinking than about anything to do with pig skin but so is American football, right?

My understanding is that pigsticking is a traditional event about the enjoyment of the feast. The blood is enjoyed along with many of the usually-less-desired parts. hmmmm.