Learn to Butcher

Learning butchery is a fantastically empowering act. Butchery is a craft that largely disappeared over the course of food industrialization, leading to fractured supply chains for getting nutritious, honestly produced meat and animal products to anyone who chooses to access them. As people have worked to reclaim food systems, the lack of butchery skills has placed undue requirements on farmers and a shrunken processing sector of very small slaughterhouses that are still independently owned. Ultimately, this drives up the risk and the cost of producing meat in a truly ethical way. Learning to butcher not only gives you more options as an omnivore, in purchasing and in cooking and eating meat, it also adds more cogs in the machine of resistance to industrialized, corporatized food. 

You Will Learn

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  • What tools and equipment are needed for butchery, and how to keep your body safe and strong during your practice

  • The meaning of mindful slaughter, and why whole animal butchery is important

  • Vocab terms that you'll hear frequently in the butchery world

  • How to butchery a half hog into primal, subprimal and retail cuts

  • How to produce specific cuts for charcuterie

  • How to balance the work of processing an entire animal

  • A recipe for homemade pork rinds

Course curriculum

    1. Tools for Home Butchery

    2. Why Whole Animal Butchery Is Important

    3. Mindful Slaughter Overview and Important Butchery Vocabulary Terms

    1. PRIMAL CUTS - Removing the Pork Shoulder Primal

    2. PRIMAL CUTS - Removing the Pork Ham Primal

    3. PRIMAL CUTS - Removing the Pork Loin and Belly Primals

    1. SUBPRIMAL & CURING CUTS - Pork Belly Butchery

    2. SUBPRIMAL & CURING CUTS - Pork Loin Butchery

    3. SUBPRIMAL & CURING CUTS - Pork Shoulder Butchery

    4. SUBPRIMAL & CURING CUTS - Pork Ham Butchery

    1. Hog Butchery Review & Bonus Recipe

    2. More resources for you

About this course

  • $150.00
  • 15 lessons
  • 1.5 hours of video content

Instructor(s)

Instructor Bio:

Hi! I'm Meredith. I've been working in food and farming for over 20 years, working to de-fragment and co-recreate the food system. When I started fermenting, it brought everything that I love and believe about working with plants, animals and the soil full circle to working with food in the kitchen. My favorite thing about fermentation is that it allows anyone anywhere in the world to harness the patterns of nature that drive life, giving people a super accessible window into the elemental vitality of the earth that both inspires us to live consciously and to hope for the future. I love teaching about fermentation because I get to carry that message, and empower people to take back their food and their health. My specialty is fermented meat products, but I also enjoy making veggie ferments, miso, and non-alcoholic fermented beverages. I'd say my biggest fermentation fail was the time I tried to ferment an entire sheep's stomach. Actually, the jury is still out on that one. I think it is still in my cellar somewhere... Anyway, I can't wait to share fermentation projects with you, and learn from you in turn! You can reach me at [email protected]

Meredith Leigh