Butchery

We slaughter and butcher our own meat with the exception of the time when we make bacon, sausages and prosciutto, we buy the meat for this from a local slaughterhouse. We will just cover basic of butchery here but you will be amazed at the variety of produce we can produce, we certainly are.  We'll be honest and admit that we learned everything we know about butchery from 'Butchery and Sausage Making for Dummies' an excellent starting reference but after 2 years, experience tells you what to do.

What do you need?

In addition to the equipment you need for sausage making there are certain bits and pieces just for butchery.  The most important are decent knives and a sharpener.  The video shows our basic set.  We have excellent de-boning knives and scimitars and also a good heavy cleaver and a bone saw.  When using the cleaver we never just hack at the meat.  The tip of the cleaver is placed where the cut needs to be and then hit with a rubber hammer, much safer.  You obviously need a good table, cutting board, apron, a plastic cover for the table and a cool place to store the meat.