# Resources for Meat Processing - Slaughter, Butchering...



## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We spent eighteen months learning commercial meat cutting with master butcher Cole Ward in preparation for opening our own on-farm slaughterhouse and butcher shop which we're building. A film group has just released a series of four one-hour videos about butchering pork, lamb and beef done by Cole Ward. He's an excellent teacher. This is a great resource for anyone looking to learn to cut their own meat. Check it out at:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/2011/03/cole-ward-dvd.html

Cheers,

-Walter


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## Brooks WV (Jul 24, 2010)

Wow! That is perfect for us! Thanks for the tip!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I am hoping that Cole will bring out some additional videos on sausage making, hot dog making (a bit more specialized), advanced cuts, etc. The first set was only $30 for the four sessions (2 disks). I think it took them about six months to shoot. I remember him talking about this back in the summer.


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## Mountain Mick (Sep 10, 2005)

Hi Guys,

I found this in the net about cutting up pork not bad, there is 12 part, MM
http://www.legourmet.tv/butchershop/pork.html


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## tailwagging (Jan 6, 2005)

Thank you


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

Mountain Mick said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I found this in the net about cutting up pork not bad, there is 12 part, MM
> http://www.legourmet.tv/butchershop/pork.html


Thanks for posting this link Mick. I have watched it about a dozen times. It is very helpful if you butcher your own pig.

Best,
Gerold.


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## Julia Winter (Jun 25, 2013)

We bought downloads of the Cole Ward videos and they are terrific! He is a natural teacher, and the production quality is very high. Even though we'd been butchering for a few years, we still found them to be helpful, and we are likely to keep reviewing the videos each time we process an animal. He covers beef, lamb and pork, as I recall.

He's working with a chef, and she has some very nice recipes that she demonstrates, a la Food Network but with less glam.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

I have the series, and they do retail cutting wonderfully well. Before you buy, however, be aware they start with halves or quarters. There is no information on getting a live animal to that point.

There is a couple of times in the video where he mentions something and says he will cover it later.. then never gets to it....at least in this series.

Having said that, I am not criticizing the video, simply making people aware that it doesn't start with a live animal on the hoof. The portioning of the animal into cuts is excellent,


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Correct, this is a butchering video, not a slaughter video. He focuses on what he does which is butchering also known in the trade as as meat cutting and raw processing. Slaughter and butchering are two separate processes. Another separate process is smoking and then there are the various brining, charcuterie and similar processes like for making bacon, jerky, etc.


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## Muleman (Nov 8, 2013)

Ok, As I have said before, I have never taken an animal to the butcher shop to be processed. We have just always butchered at home. I am no expert and I am sure we do not make all of the "Professional" cuts that a butcher shop would, but I know I get all of my meat and waste very little. I do not care what kind of animal it is whether a squirrel, or Raccoon, or pig etc. I just do not believe is wasting edible parts just because it is not a "Prime" cut. Something tasty and nutritious can be made out of almost every part. 
I am always up to learn more though and so I recently bought some butchering DVD's. These were by two different professional butchers and I am glad I got both.

#1 Cole Ward, The Gourmet Butcher : I bought this one first and it was really well made. The editing, and sound quality was excellent. This DVD covers beef, pork and lamb. This is not a slaughter video. He starts with a half side of pork on the table and basically quarters it, then takes each quarter and shows what cuts come from where and how to do it. He does a lot of the cutting with a knife and hand saw and a small portion with a band saw. The dissection of the shoulder and hams and the different muscle groups is really good. There are recipes (maybe not all complete, but if you cook you can figure them out). Keep in mind this butcher/cook is from the North East. These are good recipes, but I will say a bit different flavors than you would find if say it were a Southern cook or a southwestern cook. 
I would say if you wanted to learn how to cut up the meat, once the slaughtering was complete, this will show you how. A person should be able to watch this with no prior experience and take a skinned, gutted, otherwise clean carcass and cut it into usable pieces, for storage and cooking.

#2 Craig Meyer, Ask The Meat Man. This was a two part DVD actually two different DVD's that can be bought separate or together at a package price. One is Pork Slaughter, the other is Pork Butchering. These are good videos, which takes you from live animal standing in the field to wrapped meat on the counter ready for the freezer. The editing and sound quality is not the best! Not bad, but not as good as it could be. The slaughter section is pretty thorough, actually showing where to shoot it and shows it done, like I said from the very beginning. He explains how to do some of the steps when you do not have a winch or loader to lift the animal. How to store it until time to butcher etc.
The butcher section is also very complete even going into wrapping. I would say he uses a band saw and a large meat grinder (that most of us do not have) for quite a bit of the processing. This is not to say you cannot find other ways of doing it by hand, but it will not be step by step if you do not have some of the equipment, you will have to improvise. Still a very complete butchering DVD.

*** So which to buy?? If I had bought Craig Meyer's videos first, I probably would not have bought the Cole Ward video. Craig Meyer runs a butcher shop in Missouri and has a wide selection of knives, seasonings and supplies for sale on his website and to be honest you can buy just about everything you need to process your pig at home from his site. He offers many things in bulk, so the prices are pretty reasonable. The fact that this set of videos goes from live animal to packaged meat makes this a more complete instructional series than the Ward DVD. Having said that, I am glad I got the Cole Ward video, while it does not cover the slaughter portion it does cover the butchering section in a different way (not better, but different) than the Meyer video. I think something can be learned from both of these videos. What are they both missing?? They both use some machinery, I would like to see a video made with hand tools in a farm setting that most of us will be working in, not a complete butcher shop setup. They have skinned pigs. I would like to see a video that goes from start to finish with a scalded hog. Both videos make mention of lard and sausage and what to do with the "Extra" stuff, but neither really go into detail, as I would have like to have seen. 
Hope this helps, if you have the money, buy both as you will learn something from both of them. For the Cole Ward video you will find a link at the top of the pig forum in a sticky that Highlands made, and for the Craig Meyer video you can go to "ask the meat man .com" or Amazon
Thanks


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Good review of both. One of the things that we did in our preparation to open our own on-farm butcher shop is train with multiple butchers and get just about every DVD on slaughter and butchering I could find as well as watching many on YouTube. For decades I've done slaughter and butchering just by boning out but for doing commercial butchering I wanted us to go the next step to commercial meat cutting. Seeing how different people do things is valuable. You learn new tricks by seeing the multitude of ways. There's the old saying about there are many ways to skin a cat. We can also say there's many ways to cut a carcass!


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## agreatday (Oct 9, 2013)

Thanks for the review!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Cole has a new very good book out: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/cole-ward-book/


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

I've butchered a few animals in my life. More than the average person. I also bought "Cole Ward, The Gourmet Butcher" and it taught me a lot about 'cutting' up an animal. Even to the point I had to tell my Uncle, who has butchered countless hogs, that I wanted to cut mine up different then he had taught me. 
I am totally satisfied with the purchase.
Going to look into "Craig Meyer, Ask The Meat Man" next.

Thanks for the Reviews Muleman.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Cole just came out with a book on butchering and there is a new one out that I haven't seen yet by another gentleman Adam A Danforth which I've not yet seen. My take on this sort of thing is to read (and get if you can) as many books and videos as you can. I've learned something valuable from each that made the purchase price always worth the cost.

(I'm going to merge this thread in with the stickied one so people will see and hopefully add reviews of ones they have.)

-Walter


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

I think this is a good place to put this.

I went through great lengths to find information on saving my own casings from butchering this year. My Uncle with all of his knowledge on butchering said "well thats what the women took care of, I'm not sure how". Well, none of our family women folk were still into butchering or it had been so long they were not sure. And this was one subject I was unable to find 'good' and 'pertinent' information on using the 'world wide web'.
Well luckily for me we found a friend of the family to come show me how to save the intestines to make casings. And, btw, it was a woman. But you know it use to be the women that did the cooking at home. Now these days all is changing. So we worked together and from one pig I save what looked like a 'hank' of casings. This can run you about $30 to buy. Yes it would be easier to buy, but that is NOT the point. I make a lot of different sausages and I like being able to 'get back to the basics'. Put into perspective we slaughtered 5 pigs that day and I could have come up with enough casings to last me 2 years. Also was taught how to save the stomach for some specialty sausages.
Long story......
My request is if anyone knows of a book or video explaining this subject, it could prove useful to others and myself. Most of the videos on the internet have to do with eating chitlins or large mechanical systems. This is not the same. 
If not I may have to video our next session and post it for anyone else that is interested.
Just like some breeds of pigs got left behind because of changing times, so did the skills of some people. I'm proud to be one of the few that want to carry on these traditions. Even if it is not the most $$ smart.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Interestingly this was on my radar today too... And my resource is a woman I know - what chance. This is exactly what I think you're looking for:

http://butchersapprentice.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/hog-casings-from-scratch/

I also saw:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6556e/X6556E03.htm


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

The first link is better than what I found before hand, by far. But, it would be tough to do just reading that. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is thousands of pictures. This is much ado about technique.
But that is a really good link. For all of us sausage makers.


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

BTW,
The reason I started raising hogs again after 15+ years was my sausage and smoked meat hobby.


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

Muleman said:


> Ok, As I have said before, I have never taken an animal to the butcher shop to be processed. We have just always butchered at home. I am no expert and I am sure we do not make all of the "Professional" cuts that a butcher shop would, but I know I get all of my meat and waste very little. I do not care what kind of animal it is whether a squirrel, or Raccoon, or pig etc. I just do not believe is wasting edible parts just because it is not a "Prime" cut. Something tasty and nutritious can be made out of almost every part.
> I am always up to learn more though and so I recently bought some butchering DVD's. These were by two different professional butchers and I am glad I got both.
> 
> #1 Cole Ward, The Gourmet Butcher : I bought this one first and it was really well made. The editing, and sound quality was excellent. This DVD covers beef, pork and lamb. This is not a slaughter video. He starts with a half side of pork on the table and basically quarters it, then takes each quarter and shows what cuts come from where and how to do it. He does a lot of the cutting with a knife and hand saw and a small portion with a band saw. The dissection of the shoulder and hams and the different muscle groups is really good. There are recipes (maybe not all complete, but if you cook you can figure them out). Keep in mind this butcher/cook is from the North East. These are good recipes, but I will say a bit different flavors than you would find if say it were a Southern cook or a southwestern cook.
> ...


Okay received and watched the 
_#2 Craig Meyer, Ask The Meat Man.
_
This video got a less than good report on Amazon because of its 'amateur' videography 

HERE is my 2.5 cents.

Guess us farm folk don't have good enough cameras as the Hollywood folk!
This vid is* GREAT information! * Sorry if you thought taking a full length video of skinning a pig should have been 'High Def' and/or had some back ground music. Or he should have paid some professional crew to tape it. This is 'down to earth' showing you how to _kill, skin and gut a pig_. And this guy does it like a PRO! If I could do it like this guy I would be happy. I will have to watch it many times and process many pigs to do it.
Also, the knife sharpening extra is really good info over and above. Worth every penny!
Going back to Amazon to post my review. 5 Stars


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## Shoestringer (Oct 18, 2013)

If you have a bit of time and inclination, there are fewer people getting into slaughter than there once were, and quite a few small niche market butcher shops. I work one day a week as a slaughterman in a small, government inspected slaughterhouse, and another day in the cuttin room of the attached retail butcher shop. We do custom processing for local farms and their customers, as well as the owner's own grass finished angus. I have gained a wealth of knowledge and improved what skills I had from hunting and processing our own animals.


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

I don't want to have to borrow as much equipment for my butchering so I have started to acquire my own goods.

Has anyone bought/used this brand of kettles? 
http://www.agrisupply.com/cast-iron-stew-pot/p/59664/

I plan on getting 3 soon.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

The butcher we apprenticed with to learn the art of butcher pigs in preparation for opening our own on-farm butcher shop is going to be on the radio today at noon (live - you can ask questions) and then again at 7 pm (rebroadcast). He just published a book about meat and also has a DVD video series where he shares his techniques learned over five decades of butchering for sheep, beef and pigs. 

See: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/cole-ward-master-butcher-on-vermont-public-radio-at-noon/

Cheers,

Walter


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## WadeFisher (Sep 26, 2013)

Just in case there are others that want to butcher good-ol Pennsylvania Dutch style. Here is a place a did find to get American made cast-iron kettles and related items.
https://www.mcssl.com/store/8443838/catalog/category/5326419

When we butcher we cook everything down, so we need kettles to boil off the bones and organs to make 'pudding meat','scrapple' Lard and cracklins. Not to mention lots of hot water for cleaning. 
Seeing as my father had sold my Great Grandfathers butchering kettles I had to track some new ones down. This took a little while to find good ones.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

For anyone interested ... I went to find this online for someone & the link is no longer good. However, I did find it here 

http://www.aces.edu/animalforage/swine/documents/FB2265.pdf

eta: this is only the 36 page one ... sorry


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## Rockchuck (Aug 11, 2010)

This is public information so Google Books has the entire thing:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JR...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false



MullersLaneFarm said:


> For anyone interested ... I went to find this online for someone & the link is no longer good. However, I did find it here
> 
> http://www.aces.edu/animalforage/swine/documents/FB2265.pdf
> 
> eta: this is only the 36 page one ... sorry


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Someone asked about processing prices and this thread is a good place to have a link to various other threads that have covered that topic so with that in mind here are links to older threads where people have given their slaughter, butchering, smoking and other costs:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/489404-butchering-fees.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/478675-processing-cost-per-animal.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/474442-butchering-questions.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/468992-hanging-weight.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/485584-hanging-weight-percentage.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/li...91689-what-price-our-hogs-when-butchered.html
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/503103-butchering-selling-your-product.html


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## BlueFalcon (Sep 11, 2014)

This guy is a master butcher in the UK and does a pretty good job with hand tools. 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXPmxWEXrRU&list=PLhmRg9u-TX-cEAdosn_4McS2wnP6aFvQz[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhp2wcWtR0s&list=PLhmRg9u-TX-cEAdosn_4McS2wnP6aF[/ame]


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## Muleman (Nov 8, 2013)

I am looking to replace the old meat grinder we had and also thinking of buying a meat cutting band saw and a slicer would be nice also. We had an old (very old) electric grinder, but it is all but worn out. I am not set on electric, a large manual is what I think I really want (I can always add a motor and pulley if need be) but I would like the sausage stuffing tubes and the ability to buy different size plates for it. I really wanted a good used Hobart slicer, but so far they are out of my price range, and the little ones at Cabelas and the like, I just do not think would work well. As for the band saw, the only ones I have seen besides thousand dollar used Hobarts are the cheap little Chinese imports, is there something in between?? I have been searching ebay and Amazon, but if anybody can recommend a brand or list some available sources it would be appreciated and would probably be a welcome addition to this thread as well.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

I have been using a Northern Tools Chinese-made meat band saw for years now. Got it off CL from someone whose dad bought it and never used it. I'm very pleased with the saw, but the attached grinder would need some jury-rigging to make it work properly. It squishes the meat instead of cutting well. 

The saw cuts well, is easy to assemble and disassemble, the parts are usually in stock, but I keep a full set of the stuff I usually break, so I don't get stopped in the middle. If you get one, buy an extra blade because it gets dull after several beasts, and the mechanism that holds the blade in place right above where the meat goes through. It's pot metal and if your son over-tightens the screws, it can break.

I've done dozens of pigs and sheep, 2 beef and deer, and it's been just lovely.

I use my kitchenaid's meat grinder, though. Small and a bit slow, but it cuts pretty well.
Kit


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

A related thread about small pig cuts:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/pigs/525485-best-cuts-small-pork.html#post7240155


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## woodsman14 (Oct 6, 2014)

An interesting site with free video instructions on butchering pork at the bottom of the page.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/pork_cuts.html#blade_steaks


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