Meat Cutting: Butchering Basics

This training will cover the basics of whole-animal butchery with both instruction and hands-on demonstration. Participants will learn how to break down beef, pork, chicken, and lamb into primals, subprimals, and case-ready cuts. Value added processing, such as sausage, smokes hams, and bacon will also be covered, with an emphasis on food safety, sourcing, and maintaining high utilization of whole animals.

Butchering Basics can be taken as a three-part series or individually by animal interest.

Introduction to Butchering

This training will include an introduction to HACCP planning. Participants will begin their butchering skills by focusing on chicken fabrication and a lamb breakdown.

Pig Butchery

This session focuses on the breakdown and various cuts of a pig. Participants will be introduced to value added production such as sausage making, hams, and bacon.

Beef Butchery

This session will focus on the breakdown and various cuts of a beef half. Participants will practice and feel confident breaking down a half beef into steaks, roasts, stew meat, etc.

Meet the Instructor

We’re proud to have Bill Cavanaugh, a butcher and meat-production educator, teach this training series. Bill’s passionate about well-raised meat and sharing his expertise with folks new to meat cutting. You can learn more about Bill here.