Chapter
Part I: Time to Meet Your Meat!
Chapter 1: The Butchery Room
Understanding the Importance of Ye Ol’ Butcher Shoppe
Assuming the Role of Butcher in Your Own Home
Preserving Traditions: Sausage-Making and Other Preservation Methods
Promoting Healthy Food Systems
Chapter 2: Meat Is Meat, Right? Wrong!
Knowing What You’re Getting
Broadening Your Definition of “Good”
Chapter 3: Cuts and Terminology: The Basics of Butchery
Breaking It Down the Easy Way: Meat Maps
Making Heads or Tails of Butchery Terminology
Sourcing the Freshest Cuts from the Supplier or Meat Counter
Substituting Cuts in Recipe Planning
Chapter 4: Basic Knife Skills, Tools, and Techniques
Knives, Mallets, and More: Gathering Your Butchery Tools
Making Confident and Fluid Cuts: Basic Grips and Posture
Special Techniques Every Butcher Should Know
Being Safe While Using Sharp, Pointy Metal Tools
Part II: Poultry, Rabbit, and Lamb Butchery
Chapter 5: Duck, Duck, Goose, Chickens: Starting with Poultry
A Word about Cutting Up Birds
Pieces of Eight: Cutting Up a Fryer
Cutting the Chicken into Five Equal Portions
Making Boneless, Skinless Chicken Pieces
Impressing Your Neighbors: Boneless Chicken Halves
Chapter 6: What’s Up, Doc? Rascally Rabbits!
Cutting Up Fryers and Roasters
Chapter 7: Baaaaack to Basics: Lamb and Goat Butchery
Getting to Know Your Little Bovids
Covering Lamb and Goat Butchery Basics
Dealing with the Neck/Shoulder
Two Tasks in One: Removing the Breast and Foreshank
Chapter 8: Porky Pig: Understanding the Beast
Pork and Pigs: Getting to Know the Beast
Fundamentals of Pork Butchery
Getting Familiar with Pig Primals, Subprimals, and Retail Cuts
Chapter 9: Pork: Cutting It Up
A Bit of Advice before You Begin
Removing the Front Trotters (Feet)
Splitting the Breast-plate
Dealing with the Shoulders
Removing the Hind Trotters
Sectioning the Legs from the Loin
Removing the Pork Skirt Steaks
Cutting the Belly from the Loin
Chapter 10: Moving into Pork Subprimals
From the Shoulder: The Boston Butt and Pork Shoulder (Picnic)
Producing Retails Cuts from the Loin
Getting Great Cuts from the Leg (or Ham)
Spareribs from the Pork Belly
Chapter 11: What’s Your Beef? Understanding the Cuts
The Lowdown on Beef Butchery
Dividing Up the Task: Primals, Subprimals, and Retail Cuts
Chapter 12: Beef: The Forequarter
Breaking the Forequarter: The Basics
Removing the Outside Skirt (Rail)
Separating Out the Chuck, Arm, and Brisket from the Plate and Rib (Rail)
Squaring Up the Chuck Short Ribs (Rail)
Sectioning the Rib from the Plate (Rail)
Trimming the Brisket (Bench)
Trimming the Flat Iron (Bench)
Removing the Foreshank (Bench)
The Arm/Shoulder Clod (Bench)
The Rib and Bone-in Ribeye Steaks (Bench)
Chapter 13: Beef: The Hindquarter
Breaking the Hindquarter: The Basics
Removing the Elephant Ear (Rail)
Pulling the Cod Fat (Rail)
Pulling the Tri-Tip (Rail)
Removing the Full Loin (Rail)
Removing and Portioning the Round (Rail)
Cutting the Full Loin Down (Bench)
Cutting the Tri-Tip Free (Bench)
Separating the Short Loin from the Sirloin (Bench)
Taking Care of the Top Sirloin (Bench)
Cutting Steaks from the Short Loin (Bench)
Producing Osso Bucco from the Hindshank (Bench)
Part V: Sausage-Making and Using the Whole Animal
Chapter 14: Setting Yourself Up for Sausage
Gathering the Right Equipment
Picking from a Plethora of Sausages
Chapter 15: Sausage-Making Techniques
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Nerd: Sausage Science
Making Sausage: The Basic Steps
Chapter 16: Scrumptious Sausage Recipes
Chicken and Rabbit Sausage
Chapter 17: Processing Techniques:The Good Kind
From Scraps to Elegant Dining: Pâté, Terrines, and More
Stocks and Sauces: It’s All Gravy, Baby
Praise the Lard, Save the Fats
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 18: Top Ten Mistakes to AvoidWhen Butchering
Keeping a Messy Workspace
Letting Your Meat Get Warm
Not Following the Separation of Time or Space Rule
Not Watching Your Posture
Improperly Storing Your Meat
Letting Your Knives Get Dull
Wasting Perfectly Useful Scrap
Rushing through the Process
Being Careless or Distracted
Chapter 19: Top Ten Grilling Cuts
Chicken — The Whole Thing, Every Last Part
Hamburgers, That Glorious Staple
Flat Steaks and Their Three-Dimensional Flavor
Pork Chops — Brine and Shine
Flat Iron, a Butchers’ Discovery
Lamb Saratoga, a Treasure Seeker’s Prize
Strip Steak, America’s Sweetheart
The Rib Eye — There, I’ve Said It
Chapter 20: Ten Sssshhhhausage-Making Secrets
Test the Texture and Taste
Hone Your Stuffing Technique
Store the Sausage Properly
Butchery and Sausage-Making For Dummies
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