Gourmet Butchering

Well my, my... I actually won something! I won the DVD, The Gourmet Butcher™ from master butcher Cole Ward. Many Thanks, Cole; it's a prize I will enjoy using for a long time!!

For over 30 years, Cole has taught chefs and butchers, caterers and students, farmers and food-lovers how to cut and prepare their own meat. The DVD takes you through every step of the butchering process from breaking down a carcass into primal cuts, then into gourmet or retail cuts. The lessons cover lamb, pork, and both beef fore-quarters and beef hind quarters, plus tools and safety.

Although I have no immediate plans to do any home butchering (I raise no meat animals so far), I do plan next year to start buying my meat in sides or quarters... depending on the overall animal size and how much freezer space I have available. It will be great to be able to carve up my own, and save some money in the process.

Although I buy only local grass-fed meats, I'm not happy with the quality of the ground meats from the nearby processing facility even though they follow USDA guidelines and all meat is USDA inspected. For example, USDA guidelines allow a certain percentage of bone (and who knows what else like gristle and skin?) in ground meat, which I'd sooner not have.

Bones from packing houses are sold to companies that cook them down for soups and broths, or to pet food companies, or others that process them into bone meal. It's expensive and difficult to get marrow bones anymore, but by butchering my own I can have them available once again!

I can see a lot of good foods coming from Cole's DVD tutorials!