'A Hotop tradition'

Jacob Wiegand

Monday, March 2, 2020

For the Hotop family, hog butchering is a decades-old tradition passed down from generation to generation. Paul Hotop said his late father, Rueben Hotop, taught him how to butcher and his father taught him. “It’s something our dad did whenever he was young, he taught us to do it and now I’m teaching my boys to do it,” Paul said. “Not many people do it anymore. We like to know where our meat comes from.” Paul’s brother Allen Hotop of Apple Creek, Missouri, said the family always picks the same weekend, the one before the Super Bowl, each year to butcher. This year was no exception as numerous family members gathered Jan. 25 to butcher seven hogs on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. “Back when we was going up, we kind of had to do it cause mom and dad had 13 kids so it was, you know, anything we could do to keep us from going to the meat store is probably why dad did it,” Paul said. Allen said the hog butchering was done before he was born in 1960. “I would say everybody used to do it out of necessity and now it’s done as a novelty,” Allen said of the butchering. “This is a Hotop tradition.”

The oldest boy of Rueben Hotop's 13 children, Ronnie Hotop of Perryville, Missouri, lights a fire under a cooking pot shortly prior to 7 a.m. before the start of hog butchering Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
JD Jenkins of Marble Hill, Missouri, (left) and Pat Hotop of Perryville, Missouri, (one of Rueben Hotop's 13 children) work with recently decapitated hog heads Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Handling hog from left: Nathan Richardet, Brian Leible, Mike Hotop and Mike's son Austin Hotop take a hog off the trailer for butchering Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. Seven hogs were butchered on the occasion. Mike said some of the products from the butchering would include sausage, pork steaks, pork chops, ribs and bacon. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
From left: Brian Leible, Mike Hotop, Mike's son Austin Hotop and Pat Hotop tend to butchering a hog Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. "I'm 53 and I don't ever remember a year not doing it," Mike, one of Rueben Hotop's 13 children, said. "Even when I was little my dad and my grandpa always butchered." (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
A tag displaying the name "Hotop" is seen on the body of a hog Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. Ronnie Hotop of Perryville said the numbers indicate the hog's "live weight on foot" and the weight after slaughtering and cleaning. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Pat Hotop of Perryville, Missouri, (left) and JD Jenkins of Marble Hill, Missouri, decapitate hogs Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Siblings Kaitlyn Neislein, 4, and Thomas Neislein, 7, both of Perryville, Missouri, look at hog heads Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Adam Hotop, 15, (left) and Austin Hotop pick up a portion of a hog for butchering Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. Adam's father, Paul Hotop, said he brought his son to his first hog butchering when he was 3 months old. "He was born in October and I brought him in January," Paul said. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
From left: Mike Hotop of Perryville, Missouri; Eric Richardet of Perryville; and Kyle Blandford, originally of Perryville and now Imperial, Missouri, butcher hog meat Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Andy Kliefoth of Kansas City, Missouri, (left) and Pat Hotop of Perryville, Missouri, put hog parts into a pot to cook Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. Diane Mahnken of Perryville, one of Rueben Hotop's 13 children, said normally they take the cooked meat and, using the hog blood, make blood sausage, but this year the blood wasn't kept like it was supposed to be. This year Mahnken said they'll use the cooked meat to make either head cheese, liver sausage or something of that nature. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Avoiding hog splines, Adam Hotop, 15, (left) and Pat Hotop of Perryville, Missouri, put hog hearts and livers into a cooking pot Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
From right: Julia Kliefoth, Stefanie Kuntz, Austin Hotop, Valerie Hotop and Terina Dillahay share a moment as sausage casings are prepped Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
From left: Tom Scott of Arnold, Missouri; Nathan Richardet of Perryville and Ronnie Hotop of Perryville put hog meat into sausage casing Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Terina Dillahay of Perryville, Missouri, (left) and Austin Hotop work with hog meat shortly after it was put into sausage casing Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)
Mike Hotop (center) gives a piece of meat to Roger Schremp of Apple Creek, Missouri, next to Julia Kliefoth (right) while also working with Stefanie Kuntz (far left) and Pat Hotop (second from left) to take cooked hog meat off the bone Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, on a farm in rural Perry County, Missouri. "Honestly, when I was a kid, used to just love it. We used to run and play and up and down the creeks and always playing outside and all adults did all the work," Mike said. "And then, as it went, then we started doing it cause we like the fresh pork. You know doing it ourself. We like to do it. We had the facilities. We had the equipment. ... Decided to keep it going. Make our kids know what it's like." (Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian)