Barry pm’d me and asked about my avatar, he guessed three things and one was right, a sausage maker.
Years ago every farmer that did his own butchering had one of these. It was a lard press too that had a lard bucket perforated with holes and had a smaller disk press plate to fit inside the bucket. It was also used to press fruit.
Cut up hog fat with the skin was rendered down and all poured into the lard bucket then pressed to extract the lard to use for cooking. It also came with tubes for stuffing sausage. I never got to see one in operation but remember well my uncle’s large wood press in his slaughter house. My cousin and I wanted to be there when he made lard to get the hot cracklins. He lined the cylinder of the press with cheese cloth and after all was pressed pulled out the large disk of cracklins and dumped them onto butcher paper. I think he gave these away at his grocery.
More than twenty years ago my sister in Texas wanted me to find her one and send it to her. I found an antique dealer that had two of them. One was complete with sausage tubes, lard bucket and lard disk; the other one did not have the lard bucket but had what looked like the original paint and stenciling. I called her and she wanted the one with the lard bucket. I bought it boxed it up and sent it to her. I went back and bought the other one for myself. I paid $80 for hers and $70 for mine.
I was always going to clean it up and use to stuff sausage but was afraid I would not get it clean enough so bought a new stainless steel one. I did buy a new stuffing tube from Lehmans Hardware in Kidron, Ohio who still has them for the Amish people. They have a web site. I got a bargain since the one they sell; same size as mine, 8 quart No. 35 sells for $595. I think it is made in the USA.
Mine is stenciled “This cylinder bored true, 8 quart No. 35” and it has some stenciled designs on it.
Smokin Don
