Learning to Butcher at Home

[et alors]

I'm a pretty decent home chef, but I feel a strange and overpowering desire to learn how to take apart a chicken, fillet a fish, cut chops and maybe even bigger deconstruction projects. Of course cooking classes don't go that deep (knife skills focuses on carrots and onions. and it seems to be a bit excessive to go to culinary school just for that.

Any ideas?

[ScottyBoy]

Get some nice sharp knives and follow some videos online. If you're only looking to butcher smaller things I think there are plenty of instructional videos on chickens and fish.

[Charcuterer]

I have a couple ideas. It is hands off but you can find some great tutorials on you tube. There are some good ones on a variety of types of meat. Also, I have gotten to know my local butcher and he offered to let me watch the process of breaking down a half hog.

[jorach]

Plenty of places offer butchery classes, and the bonus is you get to take home some meat.

You should look around in your area.

For example here's 4505 Meats' classes in San Francisco: http://www.4505meats.com/fmStore/list.php?itemtypeID=it000012

Edited May 16, 2012 by jorach (log)

[et alors]

Thanks!!! I suspected that there might be classes in the city of cosentino, but was unable to track them down.

(I live in Palo Alto, so SF is not far for me to travel)

Edited May 16, 2012 by et alors (log)

[KennethT]

Jacques Pepin has a DVD available (I think through the PBS website) where he shows many different techniques in quite good detail. With a little practice, he can show you how to take apart a whole chicken in less than a minute... granted, with practice, I'm still at about 5 minutes, but it's much better than it used to be before watching his technique!

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=11969480&cp=&sr=1&kw=jacques+pepin&origkw=jacques+pepin&parentPage=search

[ojisan]

See if your library has a copy of Merle Ellis' book

[Shalmanese]

Cows and hogs might be worth taking a class for but chicken and fish are trivial. Watch a few videos, do it a couple of times and you'll have them down pat.

[mgaretz]

Jacques Pepin has a DVD available (I think through the PBS website) where he shows many different techniques in quite good detail. With a little practice, he can show you how to take apart a whole chicken in less than a minute... granted, with practice, I'm still at about 5 minutes, but it's much better than it used to be before watching his technique!

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=11969480&cp=&sr=1&kw=jacques+pepin&origkw=jacques+pepin&parentPage=search

I think this technique is also shown on the DVD that comes with his latest book: Essential Pepin

[Okanagancook]

I would confirm that the on line videos allow one to do a fairly good job. We are on our third whole hog and 15 or so lambs. Very rewarding but you need good refrigeration...coolers with ice work well for us.

[janeer]

You seem to be talking about basic stuff; agree that youtube and even many cookbooks (julia, etc) will show you how to bone a chicken, filet a fish, etc. Many cooking schools have basic classes. I have always found this kind of butchering fairly intuitive. I would encourage you to, e.g., buy a whole leg of lamb and bone/butterfly it, or a whole pork loin, and make yourself a crown roast, and a whole fish and just figure it out. For something more ambitious, try this.

[weinoo]

See if your library has a copy of Merle Ellis' book.

That's how I learned a lot of tricks!

[rotuts]

The Merle Ellis book is fantastic, my copy was 'removed' from my library and i got a used one to replace the original very cheaply.

one cant beat J.P. and his new book is wonderful. you can see the shows here:

http://blogs.kqed.org/essentialpepin/

Edited May 17, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[Mr Holloway]

Love this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAekQ5fzfGM

Edited May 17, 2012 by Mr Holloway (log)

[KennethT]

That video is in the DVD linked to above, plus others turning the whole chicken into parts for sautee... I love that video!

[wanderingtaoist]

I have bought my first whole lamb this Easter and this guide has proven both foolproof and easy to follow. Bone saw was not necessary, but cleaver was pretty much indispensable.

[rotuts]

BTW the cleaver does not have to be expensive: the 'high-end' ones at IKEA are great for this sort of thing

http://www.ikea.com/...ducts/50131070/

there are also some various sized stainless steel ones in Chinatowns for ever less

Edited May 18, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[avaserfi]

You could do what I did and stage at a butchers shop, then end up working there for a year. Or practice on your own. Practice is the best way to learn to butcher. One class will show you the basics, but repetition is how you learn to do such tasks. It doesn't matter if it is a fish, chicken, pig or cow. That said, if you can butcher a bird wells most birds (and rabbit) are similar. The same is true for mammals. If you can do well with pig, lamb and cow aren't too hard. The muscle groups are similar, so they are butchered similarly. The difference come in during the fine work. Fish is a little different but most groups of fish ( I.e., flat or round) are treated similarly.

For a cheap good knife, get a victorinox straight boning knife. Skip the cleaver and pretty much any other knife. You can break down most any animal with a good boning knife and skill.

[Shalmanese]

Are there any books/resources that cover the differences in breaking down large animals between different countries? I know British, French and American cuts are different but I'd love to find out how Japan, for example, breaks down a cow or pig.

[Charcuterer]

Mr. Holloway

Thank you so much for the link to the video of Jaques Pepin. I had never boned out a whole chicken before but after watching the video I couldn't wait to try it. He is an amazing presence and a wonderful teacher. I watched it twice and went in the kitchen and boned out a whole chicken like I had been doing it my whole life! I am going to stuff it with a combination of onions, brown rice and kale. Then I'll roast it whole. Thanks again it was great to see Mr Pepin again it had been years.

Jim

[TBAFarms]

Our farm is in Upstate NY and we do Slaughter Your Own Pig classes/workshops here a few times a year. it's great fun and a pretty good deal. OP is obviously too far to partake but I thought others might be interested. Here's a link with more information.

As for OP, try this board to find a farm that might offer a similar experience on the West Coast.

[rotuts]

on the series Essential Pepin, Ep. 119 deals with game and the duck section will interest you. See the link to all the shows above.

[mgaretz]

Anyone have any experience with the Whole Beast Butchery book? Not really interested in butchering a whole beast but wondered if it might be useful for general butchering. Hoping for something like the Ellis book but with better pictures.

[Rico]

I've been threatening to do it for years, and finally pulled the trigger about a month ago and bought a whole Berkshire pig from a farm about an hour or so from where I live. They killed, cleaned and split it (and skinned it, a point I'll address further) and I went home with two halves and a head of a pig.

I'm not sure how to explain my reasoning without sounding soapboxy, so I'll just say that this 124-pound beast was purchased at a price of $3.95/pound. That's $3.95/pound for the tenderloin and $3.95 for the butt, trotters and stock bones. All in all - given the manner in which this pig was raised - it's a huge savings. On a more personal level, it helps me appreciate what I'm eating. That its life ended solely to feed me, and that my phone call to the farm essentially sealed its fate. You bet I'm going to use and appreciate every bit of this beast.

All that to say, I consider myself lucky to be able to do such a thing, and am now hooked on whole-animal butchery. If it's agreeable to y'all, I'd like to start a thread on what and how we're butchering our meats, the differences in different breeds/birds/animals/fish, etc, and how we're consuming them. We will be doing a lamb in a few months (after subsisting on pork for awhile) and I'll photodocument the process a little better. This was my first go (I split it with a friend who has a similar lack of experience), but the results ended up nicely considering our beginner status (thanks to a few youtube videos).

I'll be making head cheese and starting a 'proscuitto' with the ham (going to jmolinari's site in the process) in the following days and documenting them, if y'all are amenable to the idea. The farm took off and kept the trotters, which is irritating, but kept the livers in. Is there such thing as a smoked pork liver rillette? Can there be?

Edited November 14, 2013 by Rico (log)

[rotuts]

Enviou0s Here !~

River Cottage a GB organic-y farm does Pig-in-a-Day

a few years ago I was able to see the video.

they added the squeal to the sausage:

http://www.rivercottage.net/hq/cookery-school/cookery-courses/pig-in-a-day/

still envious

wonder why they kept the trotters. ask.

maybe your public library system has these two books:

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Fatted-Making-Sausage-Confits/dp/1607743434/ref=sr_1_1/190-6431896-7782032?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384451105&sr=1-1&keywords=In+the+charcuterie

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053/ref=pd_sim_b_4/190-6431896-7782032

Edited November 14, 2013 by rotuts (log)