Chitterlings (often pronounced /ˈtʃɪtlɪnz/ and sometimes spelled chitlins or chittlins in vernacular) are the viscera intestines of a pig that have been prepared as food. In various countries across the world, such food is prepared and eaten either as part of a daily diet, or at special events, holidays or religious festivities.
In colonial times, hogs were slaughtered in December. During slavery, in order to maximize profits, slave owners commonly fed their slaves in the cheapest manner possible. At hog butchering time, the preferred cuts of meat were reserved for the master's use, with the remains, such as fatback, snouts, ears, neck bones, feet, and intestines given to the slaves for their consumption.[2] Wealthier individuals considered pig innards (offal) as inedible and sometimes had them buried as garbage, but enterprising slaves would unearth them under cover of darkness and salvage them for the cook pot.[3]
