Tia Harrison is co-founder of The Butcher's Guild, executive chef and co-owner of Sociale Restaurant, and co-owner of Avedano's Meats, a neighborhood butcher shop that focuses on whole animal butchery. Tia is passionate about food, education, and reviving the dying art of butchering by hand in addition to supporting small farms and sustainable food systems.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book is Organized 3

Part I: Time to Meet Your Meat! 3

Part II: Poultry, Rabbit, and Lamb Butchery 4

Part III: Pork Butchery 4

Part IV: Beef Butchery 4

Part V: Sausage-Making and Using the Whole Animal 4

Part VI: The Part of Tens 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Part I: Time to Meet Your Meat! 7

Chapter 1: The Butchery Room 9

Understanding the Importance of Ye Ol' Butcher Shoppe 10

Identifying what butchers do 11

Patronizing your local shop 14

Assuming the Role of Butcher in Your Own Home 14

Knowledge and equipment you need 15

The benefits of butchering your own meat 15

Preserving Traditions: Sausage-Making and Other Preservation Methods 17

Making sausage 17

Other preservation techniques 19

Promoting Healthy Food Systems 19

Chapter 2: Meat is Meat, Right? Wrong! 21

Knowing What You're Getting 21

You say "tomato"; I say "porcupine" - Playing the name game 22

Think cooking instead of cutting 22

Deciphering labels 24

Focusing on Flavor 26

The amount and kind of fat 26

The age of the animal 28

The meat's grade 28

Whether the meat is dry or wet aged 29

Ensuring you get the best flavor 30

Broadening Your Definition of "Good" 31

Chapter 3: Cuts and Terminology: The Basics of Butchery 33

Breaking It Down the Easy Way: Meat Maps 34

Making Heads or Tails of Butchery Terminology 36

Keeping track of body parts and positions 36

Understanding cut terminology 38

Breaking news: Bench (or table) or hanging 38

Sourcing the Freshest Cuts from the Supplier or Meat Counter 39

Finding a reputable supplier 39

Judging freshness at the meat counter 40

Identifying standard and specialty cuts 41

Substituting Cuts in Recipe Planning 41

Braising, slow cooking cuts 41

Grilling or quick-searing cuts 42

Roasting cuts 43

Chapter 4: Basic Knife Skills, Tools, and Techniques 45

Knives, Mallets, and More: Gathering Your Butchery Tools 46

The essential cutting implements 46

Other necessary items 48

Useful but nonessential items 49

Making Confident and Fluid Cuts: Basic Grips and Posture 49

Get a grip! Holding your knife properly 50

Maintaining good posture 52

Special Techniques Every Butcher Should Know 53

Denuding 53

Cutting steaks 54

Frenching 55

Butterflying 56

Cubing meats for braising 58

Being Safe While Using Sharp Pointy Metal Tools 58

Part II: Poultry, Rabbit, and Lamb Butchery 61

Chapter 5: Duck, Duck, Goose, Chickens: Starting with Poultry 63

A Word about Cutting Up Birds 64

Getting familiar with poultry musculature 65

Basic chicken-butchering tools and techniques 66

Pieces of Eight: Cutting Up a Fryer 67

Removing the head and feet 67

Removing the wings 68

Removing the legs 69

Cutting out the spine 70

Splitting the breast 72

Dividing the legs into two pieces 73

Finishing up 73

Cutting the Chicken into Five Equal Portions 74

Freeing the oysters 74

Removing the legs and spine 75

Sectioning the wing portions 76

Making Boneless, Skinless Chicken Pieces 77

Removing the skin 77

Cutting up the skinned chicken 78

Deboning the breast 78

Deboning the thigh and drumsticks 79

Impressing Your Neighbors: Boneless Chicken Halves 81

Chapter 6: What's Up, Doc? Rascally Rabbits! 85

Cutting Up Fryers and Roasters 85

Removing the offal and silver skin 86

Removing the back legs 87

Removing the front legs 88

Cutting through the ribs 88

Removing the pelvis 90

Sectioning the saddle 90

Portioning the loin 91

Finishing up the rack 92

Deboning the Rabbit 93

Removing the rib cage 94

Cutting out the skeleton 95

Removing the leg bones 96

Removing the arm bones 97

Chapter 7: Baaaaack to Basics: Lamb and Goat Butchery 99

Getting to Know Your Little Bovids 99

The lowdown on lamb 100

Getting (to know) your goat 100

Covering Lamb and Goat Butchery Basics 101

On the bench or on the hook? 101

The cuts 101

Dealing with the Neck/Shoulder 104

Slicing the Skirt Free 105

Removing the Flank 106

Two Tasks in One: Removing the Breast and Foreshank 107

Removing the foreshank 107

Removing the breast 108

Removing the Hindshanks 109

Using a saw to remove the hindshank 109

Using a boning knife to remove the hindshank 110

Removing the Shoulder 111

The Leg 112

Removing the legs from the loin 112

Sawing the legs in two 114

Working with the Rib 115

Separating the rib from the loin 115

Chining the rib 116

Cutting Denver ribs 118

Portioning the rib chops 118

The Loin 119

Part III: Pork Butchery 121

Chapter 8: Porky Pig: Understanding the Beast 123

Pork and Pigs: Getting to Know the Beast 124

Pork production 125

Weighty matters: Making sense of pork poundage 125

Pork's USDA identification categories 125

Fundamentals of Pork Butchery 126

Inspecting the carcass 126

Paying attention to safety issues 127

Getting Familiar with Pig Primals, Subprimals, and Retail Cuts 127

First and second cuts: Primals and subprimals 127

The retail cuts 129

Chapter 9: Pork: Cutting It Up 133

A Bit of Advice before You Begin 133

Removing the Head 134

Removing the Front Trotters (Feet) 136

Removing the trotters with your boning knife 136

Removing the trotters by sawing 137

Removing the Foreshanks 138

Splitting the Breast-plate 139

Dealing with the Shoulders 140

Removing the shoulders 140

Splitting the shoulders in two 142

Trim work: Cleaning up the shoulder 143

Removing the Hind Trotters 143

Sectioning the Legs from the Loin 144

Freeing the legs from the belly 144

Separating the loin from the legs 145

Sawing the legs in two 146

Removing the Pork Skirt Steaks 147

Cutting the Belly from the Loin 148

Chapter 10: Moving into Pork Subprimals 151

From the Shoulder: The Boston Butt and Pork Shoulder (Picnic) 152

Separating the Boston butt from the picnic 152

Making retails cuts from the picnic 156

Producing Retails Cuts from the Loin 158

Cutting center loin chops 158

Boneless loin roast and chops 161

Baby back ribs 164

Removing the tenderloin 165

Porterhouse or T-bone steaks 166

Getting Great Cuts from the Leg (or Ham) 167

Spareribs from the Pork Belly 169

Trimming Meat for Grind 170

Part IV: Beef Butchery 173

Chapter 11: What's Your Beef? Understanding the Cuts 175

The Lowdown on Beef Butchery 175

Muscles matter! Paying attention to beef musculature 176

Maximizing flavor and tenderness 177

Playing it safe 178

Dividing Up the Task: Primals, Subprimals, and Retail Cuts 178

Forequarter and hindquarter primals and subprimals 179

The retail cuts 180

Chapter 12: Beef: The Forequarter 185

Breaking the Forequarter: The Basics 185

Fashioning a hook and rail 186

Cutting on the rail 187

Removing the Outside Skirt (Rail) 189

Separating Out the Chuck, Arm, and Brisket from the Plate and Rib (Rail) 190

Step 1: Marking the chuck and rib 191

Step 2: Separating the rib from the chuck 192

Step 3: Scoring the brisket 193

Step 4: Removing the arm from the chuck 193

Step 5: Removing the brisket 195

Step 6: Removing the neck meat and atlas joint 196

Step 7: Removing the flat iron 197

Step 8: Removing the chuck 198

Squaring Up the Chuck Short Ribs (Rail) 199

Sectioning the Rib from the Plate (Rail) 201

Trimming the Brisket (Bench) 202

Trimming the Flat Iron (Bench) 203

Removing the Foreshank (Bench) 205

Cutting the foreshank from the arm 205

Osso bucco 206

The Arm/Shoulder Clod (Bench) 206

Removing the arm bone 207

Extracting the petite filet 208

Preparing a cross rib roast 209

Tying the arm roast 210

The Rib and Bone-in Ribeye Steaks (Bench) 210

Cutting bone-in rib eyes 210

Frenching the bone-in rib eye 211

Chuck Short Ribs (Bench) 212

Fabricating the chuck roll 212

Seaming out the mock tender 213

Removing the neck and spine 214

The last stages of the chuck 216

On the Bench: The Plate 217

Removing the inside skirt 217

Cutting the short ribs 217

Cleaning the breastbones 219

Chapter 13: Beef: The Hindquarter 221

Breaking the Hindquarter: The Basics 221

Removing the Elephant Ear (Rail) 223

Pulling the Cod Fat (Rail) 224

Dealing with the Flank 225

Removing the flank (rail) 225

Freeing the flank steak (bench) 226

Pulling the Tri-Tip (Rail) 227

Removing the Full Loin (Rail) 228

Removing and Portioning the Round (Rail) 230

Removing the knuckle from the round 230

Cutting the top sirloin free from the round 231

Removing the gooseneck (bottom round) 233

Cutting the Full...