I remember the day when I first met Bill's mother "Mag" and his Aunt Lu. They were in the living room peeling potatoes, getting ready for Thanksgiving. They were gracious, elderly women, and very elegant.

Mag's home was a humble place, full of people. A pungent smell wafted through the house, but having visited nursing homes many times I figured it was possibly an incontinence problem between one of the two gracious ladies, and thought it best to be discreet and say nothing.

I found out later that was dinner cooking because Shelly, Bill's niece, bounded down the stairs saying, "Granny, those chittllins are stinkin up this house!"

I found out that same day that putting potatoes in the steamy pot does NOT cut the smell. (My apologies for all gracious black matriarchs, but that just ain't true.)

I learned that because Mag said to me, "Honey, I'll tell you a secret. I cut a raw potato or two and put it in that pot, it absorbs the smell."

"Um-mh" nodded Aunt Lu.

But after 9 years I found the only thing that really cuts the smell is a crock pot with a good lid. But there were no crock pots when these girls learned to make chittlins.

In 1995, the year we married, I could stand the smell.
In 1996 I could get the spoon close to my lips.
No progress for 7 years.

Then, on Thanksgiving in 2003 it happened - I actually ate a bowl of chittlins and liked it. Without hot sauce. Old school.

From then on, I'm the first to sneak in the kitchen on holidays. Bill lets me sneak a bit, while the older kids get scolded for nabbing a dish! The privledge of a wife from her gentleman husband, and a tradition I enjoy.

Pork Chitterlings take a very long time to prepare. You literally buy gallons of it, then soak them in a brine in a clean sink. It will take an hour or two (sometimes more) to carefully seperate the lining from the meat of the inerds, but this is a critical process since the meat is loaded with bacteria. Then comes about 10 hours of slow cooking, with a potato or two, garlic and seasoning. The pot boils the gallons down to about 2 gallons of meat if you're lucky. It looks like noodles, and it's incredibly tender.

Have you ever watched a dog watch you eat? Animals are used to plunging into food. They think the human preparation of food is actually a part of nurishment. I think this is why they are so attentive and curious when I run to the fridge to get lunchmeat, then Miracle Whip, then bread from the bread drawer, then a knife, and so on. But cooking is a proces - even making sandwiches. Chitterlings aren't the best things I've eaten, but they require time and care - and are difficult to make - making it perfectly human. Aside from the tradition of being a slave food handed down (which is gravely important to me when remembering Thanksgiving and liberty) it is a loving process, and important contribution to tradition.

It celebrates being distinctly human: making something good from what little is left when all seems lost, and preparation - a respect for the living creature which gave us the food. Dignified.

Short Stories
Chitterlings