This blog is a record of my adventures as I endeavor to learn more about butchery, meat cutting, and making good use of meat, focusing particularly on the underutilized parts of animals known as offal, variety meats, or the fifth quarter. Charcuterie will happen, as well as some philosophical musing on the historical and cultural context of cooking and eating meat. Underlying this endeavor is a strong and abiding belief in what is today called a nose-to-tail ethos. It used to be called `eating,’ and simply means that if you kill an animal for food, by all means try to use the whole beast, and don’t let anything keep you from the tasty textural treats comprising the fifth quarter.
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Flickr Photos
Resources for students of butchery & charcuterie
The River Cottage Meat Book
Excellent source of sustainable meat mojo: background, techniques, and recipes, and written by the prince of modern & progressive smallholders.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
This is the brightest star in the modern charcuterie constellation, my main source of charcuterie principles & recipes, and perfect for both beginners and more experienced students of charcuterie.
The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
Uncle Fergus leads the modern nose-to-tail revolution. Indispensable.
Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook
More of the same good nose-to-tail tuition.
CHARCUTERIE AND FRENCH PORK COOKERY
Another extraordinary resource for learning to make charcuterie.
Cooking by Hand
A seminal reader on butchery & charcuterie, with deeply thoughtful essays on food from the bottom up.
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes
Love the fat, and all will be well.
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
An important book which highlights the nutritional benefits of meat, fat, and offal.
Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine
A beautiful treatise on Nordic cuisine with an emphasis on a local approach.
Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer
A fascinating and practical perspective on traditional British curing of bacon, hams, etc. Lots of helpful photographs, and many recipes.
The Butcher's Apprentice 
So good, cured meats is part of the DNA here in Norway, love it. I was about to do a page on it myself, i would love to have a link to your site, if i may. You have a good, interesting and informative site. Tusen takk fra Norge.
Hej Skjerstad!
Thanks for coming to visit, and of course I’d be delighted if you link to my blog. You can be sure there will be many Danish charcuterie recipes coming in the future –I think sylte (headcheese or brawn) will be coming soon as I have a freezer full of pig heads! I know I’ll be visiting your site –your fish recipes look outstanding.
Cheers & takk fra en Dansker i Vermont 🙂
Thank you for your very interesting blog, I was very happy to find it. I am a Danish/American living in Provence, and very in to curing, salting and smoking; both hot and cold. I would love to hook up with people who do smoking and curing, as I am somewhat limited living in France where this is not a real hobby; people tend to buy their stuff.
I will keep checking for new ideas here, and thanks again,
Leif
Hej Leif! I love that fellow scandinavians are visiting my blog –taler du også dansk? It’s ironic that it’s not popular to do home charcuterie in Provence, but considering the abundance of good stuff available there, it is understandable. If you ever visit Gascony, I encourage you to get in contact with Kate Hill –she shepherds all sorts of amazing charcuterie and butchery classes and workshops. Her website is http://kitchen-at-camont.com/ and she’s an amazing resource.
Varm & venlige hilsner 🙂
Yes, I speak Danish as well.
It is really funny, I just came across Kate Hill’s name yesterday when I was searching for a course in basic butchering, and I had decided to go there for a week’s course in the Fall.
I think the reason that people are not doing so much here themselves are the great markets with lot’s of artisan products including all kinds of cured/salted/smoked meat.
I have also been encouraging the CIA to ad a course in butchering, I have taken their boot-camp course and that was very good.
Best regards,
Leif
Love to have you come over Leif. and thanks for the nod Iliana. I’m setting fall dates very soon. Kate
Your meat-full adventures are truly inspiring. Thank you
Just back from Barcelona and Paris where we feasted on charcuterie galore and every time I saw a meaty tidbit draped in caul I thought of you and your wonderful photography, writing and cooking. It’s good to be back in Vermoont where we’ll take a break from meatiness for a few days…cleanse the system a little. Then back to it! Warmly, Sue
your blog is awesome! your friends and family are lucky lucky people!
Hello Butcher’s Apprentice! Will you PLEEEEEASE continue with your amazing wriiting and recipes and photography?? I came here from the Punk Domestic’s site, they linked to your “Just ducky” post. Gorgeous work, thank you and I do hope all’s well for you.
Thank you! It’s a treat to receive a bright little gem of a comment like this, and encouraging! I’ve being doing more arable farming lately, and working on fixing some broken things. Oh for 33 hours in every day and a 900-year lifespan with an option for renewal!
Awww, great! So good to know you are kickin’ and glad to hear you are immersed in farming…I’d love to hear all the updates about how you are now living!