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 Fu.