I also run a podcast that covers some true crime aspects - in one of the episodes, we covered Katherine Knight, a butcher/abattoir worker who slaughtered her partner.
Hygine in some areas is on-point. In others, you'd stop eating meat if you knew. My old boss used to say if people knew half what happened to their meat before they bought it, they'd never eat it again.
Would you say that you've gained a tremendous amount of overall strength since you started? I've always admired the sheer strength and accuracy it takes to be a really good butcher.
You have no idea. I pulled a muscle in my belly once and I didn't realise how much I used it until I tried to break a cow the next day. The strength is in certain directions, however, usually in the pull/push/lift motions - but I can't do a push up to save me. I also have very good leg muscles from bracing. But lifting and carrying 2 x 20kg lamb carcasses? Piece of piss.
It's complicated. The more time I spend around meat, the less of it I want to eat - that's just natural avoidance from dealing with it all day. If I don't have to cook it, I still find meat enjoyable, but I'm partial to a good cesar salad or crunchy apple if given the choice. I have a vegan friend and am related to 3 vegetarians bordering vegans, so I understand where that feeling comes from
OP, I have a few questions if you don't mind but it's pretty late where I am. Would it be ok if I write you another time? (questions regarding meat/baby food; chicken and deep frying)
A whole dressed carcass? Yes, I've done goats and pigs. They take time, but the meat is amazingly tender. If you stuff the chest cavity with the right spices, the whole thing melts with flavour.
Beef and red wine is just bangin', or pork and apple cider. Venison or buffalo with redwine depends on the cut and the vintage. Camel works great with a white wine garlic sauce. And of course, you have your traditional duck and bourbon sauce.
Is it true that when you come across a cancer part in the meet, you cut it out and the normal part is going for sale? How often do you spot cancer in the meat?
Generally, it's not cancer, it's an ulcer, or an abcess, or a healing bruise, or something harmless like that. If the affected area is big enough, we throw it away.if it's small, we just cut it out and sell the rest, as it's harmless meat.
How would you suggest to get more in touch with food? I know this is quite a general question but what are some of your ideas that you think people could use to start?
I am interested in why you moved from Organic meat to the supermarket, usually I have seen it go the other way, from lower to higher quality. What prompted you to make the shift? (Or is Organic meats a brand name in Australia?)
Because the owner of the shop made his money, closed the shop and moved interstate. I had a choice of supermarket 1 or 2 at the time, as there are few independent shops here and they were all "full" at the time. :)
The only difference is the price and the fat content (sometimes). Otherwise it's exactly the same and you're being ripped off. That's why I hate when people want ground eye fillet, it's a waste of good steak and proves the person has NO idea about their food, and has more money than sense.
The ever-increasing numbers of people asking basic questions is a big give away. Gluten free sausages have been a thing for 30 years that's why we don't advertise it. Yes, the thing labelled "slow cook chuck" is good for slow cooking. Yes, you can slow cook anything and it will be delicious.
I boned out a possum for a lady so she could make a stew for her grandfather. They're illegal to kill anywhere but Tasmania, so they get shipped up here. Otherwise, camel or crocodile, I guess (not the whole croc, don't want to bring Sobek down on me).
I was eager to know this from someone who knows their way around meats, but is it really bad and unhealthy to eat chicken skin? My mom keeps telling me that but I don't believe her lol. I just wanna know the truth.
A few years ago British grocer Tesco got in trouble because horse meat was mixed with ground beef. Have you ever cut a horse, and do you have any industry perspective on the ethics of eating/selling horse meat?
I have never slaughtered, cut or sold horse meat. My aunt had horses (she passed in 2020), so I have a personal perspective on the assholes (my ribs were never the same after the percheron kicked me).
Hey there thanks for the AMA. I’m from Ireland where meat hygiene is incredibly important and we have health campaigns to warn us of the dangers of not separating meats and using the same counter tops for different meats and it’s pretty endless, as such I’ve grown up to be quite aware of meat and kitchen hygiene. I moved to China a few years ago and had to start ordering imported meats. Mostly due to how unhygienic the butchers are. Some examples are the chopping board never getting cleaned, fish, chicken, pork, beef & everything else descaled and cut on the same board. Putting chicken into the freezer at night and taking it back out into the display in the day. Not washing anything. And use the chicken in the display to wet their fingers to open the window plastic bags and then putting the chicken into the bags by hand without even a sink nearby to clean before or afterwards. My question is how much of the western hygiene standards are precautionary and how much are actually important? Nobody here is getting sick the way the adverts back home would have me believe.
I've been getting interested in butchery skills and home butchery over the last few months as an extension of doing more advanced cookery. It also means I can pay more respect to the foods and animals I consume.
I say this a lot, but ask your local butcher. They're generally happy to give you pointers or demonstrate anything you want to know - I've shown the same guy how to bone out a lamb leg three times, he says he's almost got it :). An in-person butcher will be more likely to pick up anything you're missing as you talk to them, than what any internet source can offer!
This one I can only answer in the specific experience of what I witnessed with the organic butcher shop. The farmer came in, chatted to the owner, the owner said OK, send me a body in a couple of weeks. The farmer did so, the owner looked over the body, cut it, aged it, sold it and listened to feedback. It was damn good beef, so he picked up the farmer as a source. Their partnership went on for about 15 years, and the farmer would occasionally dip into town to check in and make sure everything was alright. Butchers are old school, so you're always going to want to try old school ways of contact - face to face first, etc.
The first thing you're taught is to make mince and sausages. The second thing is how to sharpen our knives. Most butcher shops have knife sharpening services available, as we do it a minimum of once a week for our own kits.
Thank you for the most interesting ama I’ve read in a long time! Your answers are great, and I have a few questions of my own (sorry I’ve you’ve answered them already)
How can you distinguish a good butcher and good meats from a bad ones (quality of meats/quality of cuts) as a person who knows nothing about butchery or meats
Kangaroo leather is more supple, and usually doesnt need as much oiling to remain so. It's also in ready supply, as we do a cull every year to keep the numbers under control (you think mice are a plague, try 5ft tall ones!). A lot of Aussie leather work is done with kangaroo leather.
I'm an 20 years ago just started living alone what's the easiest part to cook that doesn't take so much time? I saw video they say steak is fast and easy
Ok so random but I just bought 1/4 cow. Last night I cooked a steak that was TERRIBLE!! The recipe called for top sirloin, I grabbed tip sirloin thinking it was just another name for the same thing. Then I seared each side in oil for 3 minutes, then cooked in oven for 12 minutes (as recipe indicated). It was nowhere near done, so I did another 10 minutes and it was done. Omg we couldn’t eat it though. It was tough and chewy like really firm gristle or something. We gagged until we just threw it away and ordered a pizza. I realize it was a different cut meat…but wtf??? Why was it so…cartilaginous or whatever? 🤢
Truth? I worked at the shop slicing small goods during my uni degree and was too lazy to find another job. By the time I'd been there 12 months I saw 4 apprentices and 3 butchers come and go from the business. I figured I could do better and see it through.
Pet mince is what's left over - chicken pet mince is basically chicken skin, bones, feet, all ground down into a slurry that, surprisingly, smells like boiled peas.
I stopped eating meat roughly a decade ago, because it really sunk in that I don’t have it in me to butcher my own meat. I feel that if I can’t bring myself to kill an animal, I don’t deserve to eat it. With that in mind, do you ever feel guilty for killing/butchering an animal?
No, I don't. As I like to quote, fish gotta swim, bird's gotta eat. We're made for eating meat, maybe not so fancy, but we are. To deny it is to deny being human.
When there is another poorly referenced campaign every day eith spurious "facts" about meat, in your opinion how could the "bad" industry ever reclaim a reasonable standing and put forward honest facts about high standard meat rearing?
Take the non-pretty cuts - facings off steaks, odd bits, bits you didn't mean to cut off- mince them up. Add 100ml water for every kg of meat, 100g rice flour for the same, plus herbs and spices. Mix together, mince a second time. Run it through a filler (looks a bit like a dalek), using natural (gut) or synthetic (collagen) casings. Tie, twist, hang for a day to let them drain and 'set', then cut and display.
I heard from a anime, that if you find yourself with no food in the woods, you can actually eat moose testicles, not sure if raw, or just very easy to prepare, of course the hardest part would be to catch the damn thing and take it down but, i am curius if there are any truth to it.
You got any secret butchery codes? I’m a 30F butcher in UK (or a pretend butcher really, I can only do basic shit). We call old meat ‘delo’, wondered if it was the same in Aus?
Yeat, I speak rechtub klat. Out of practice a bit, and was usually only taught pervy phrases or stuff you don't want normies to know :) "gib stit on the lrig", stuff like that.
Tongue is beaut, don't much like the rest of it, smells funky and seen it rotting too many times to ever thing it yummy. The only intestines I eat are sausage casings
Why do you think some people have moral issues with eating some animals, but not others? Even those who are considered similliar in their social abilities such as pigs and dogs?
It's the "cute animal" psychology, coupled with the "useful" psychology. We only started eating cattle in earnest when we didn't need them so much to pull our plows. Cats and dogs still have a "use", they're usually cute, and they generally don't have the good-quality meat to justify it.
How hard is a lamb to process compared to a deer or pig? Lamb is stupid expensive here. And I’d really like to get some. Me the wife and her dad processed two 400lb pigs in a weekend. Just curious how hard a lamb is, I’d assume it’s closer to doing a deer?
Closer to deer, yes. Bit stiffer, but that's the fat. Much easier to wrangle, lambs are only 20kg/ 42lb? (Mental conversion, take with a grain of salt) dressed, while pigs are almost 100kg (220lb?)
when vegans come up with the argument that we wouldn't eat dogs so why other animals deserve to suffer, while on this ama everyone's basically asking for ways to eat our own damn species.
how difficult is it to dislocate the hip socket of a 1 month old calf? asking cause we had an attack on our farm and the inner organs were missing and the hip visibly dislocated
Fellow Aussie here, why is lamb so expensive? We have sheep farms as a primary industry but prices for the meat show it's a total delicacy. What's the logic behind this?
Because people will pay for it, like everything else. You can complain that lamb cutlets are $43/kg, but when you still walk away with 1kg, they have your money and don't care.
We are losing touch with food because housing, utilities, gas and groceries are at all time highs and they're squeezing every last cent from us. But go on ...
It's only chefs who talk about everyone "losing touch with food", citing city slickers that "don't understand" that the food they eat was once alive and etc.
It's true none the less. My favourite trick is freaking out the kids by showing them the fridge with the hanging bodies. Then mum and dad has to explain that their sausages were once alive.
Biltong is thick-cut jerky, from what I understand. You can make it yourself or try Billabong or Swagman jerky. I love Swagman, 1kg lasts me about 5 days num num
It's a long time coming. We as a race waste so much of the animals we eat. If we consume less, means we slaughter less, means we breed less, means more of the animal is used again.
I like boning out and breaking a lamb leg down. When I get bored at work, I break down a lamb leg onto individual muscle groups instead of the cuts, because it takes time and keeps my skills sharp. And customers never complain about the extra-lean diced lamb that results from it :)
A few times, but mostly on the internet. One of my friends decided she couldn't be friends when I started the apprenticeship because she was vegan, but that's the worst I've gotten :)
Genuinely curious - Do u reckon u could stomach chopping up a human?
I also run a podcast that covers some true crime aspects - in one of the episodes, we covered Katherine Knight, a butcher/abattoir worker who slaughtered her partner.
For you, what's the most underrated meat?
When it comes to flavour, that has to be goat - it's lamb without that horrible greasiness. Best sausages I ever ate were goat.
What's the deepest, darkest secret of the butchery world?
Hygine in some areas is on-point. In others, you'd stop eating meat if you knew. My old boss used to say if people knew half what happened to their meat before they bought it, they'd never eat it again.
Would you say that you've gained a tremendous amount of overall strength since you started? I've always admired the sheer strength and accuracy it takes to be a really good butcher.
You have no idea. I pulled a muscle in my belly once and I didn't realise how much I used it until I tried to break a cow the next day. The strength is in certain directions, however, usually in the pull/push/lift motions - but I can't do a push up to save me. I also have very good leg muscles from bracing. But lifting and carrying 2 x 20kg lamb carcasses? Piece of piss.
What are your thoughts on vegetarianism and veganism? 🙃
It's complicated. The more time I spend around meat, the less of it I want to eat - that's just natural avoidance from dealing with it all day. If I don't have to cook it, I still find meat enjoyable, but I'm partial to a good cesar salad or crunchy apple if given the choice. I have a vegan friend and am related to 3 vegetarians bordering vegans, so I understand where that feeling comes from
Fellow Aussie here, this is a great AMA with interesting replies.
You will always, always, always get better quality meat from a butcher.
What’s your favourite cut of meat?
A beautifully marbelled scotch fillet, cooked to blue and served with steamed veggies topped with garlic butter. Heaven.
OP, I have a few questions if you don't mind but it's pretty late where I am. Would it be ok if I write you another time? (questions regarding meat/baby food; chicken and deep frying)
Absolutely, feel free to dm/just come back to this thread, and I'll answer when I can.
You ever spit roast a whole animal?
A whole dressed carcass? Yes, I've done goats and pigs. They take time, but the meat is amazingly tender. If you stuff the chest cavity with the right spices, the whole thing melts with flavour.
Do any meats marinade with specific alcohols better than others?
Beef and red wine is just bangin', or pork and apple cider. Venison or buffalo with redwine depends on the cut and the vintage. Camel works great with a white wine garlic sauce. And of course, you have your traditional duck and bourbon sauce.
Is it true that when you come across a cancer part in the meet, you cut it out and the normal part is going for sale? How often do you spot cancer in the meat?
Generally, it's not cancer, it's an ulcer, or an abcess, or a healing bruise, or something harmless like that. If the affected area is big enough, we throw it away.if it's small, we just cut it out and sell the rest, as it's harmless meat.
How would you suggest to get more in touch with food? I know this is quite a general question but what are some of your ideas that you think people could use to start?
If you have access to a butcher, green grocer, fishmonger:
I am interested in why you moved from Organic meat to the supermarket, usually I have seen it go the other way, from lower to higher quality. What prompted you to make the shift? (Or is Organic meats a brand name in Australia?)
Because the owner of the shop made his money, closed the shop and moved interstate. I had a choice of supermarket 1 or 2 at the time, as there are few independent shops here and they were all "full" at the time. :)
Do you ever kill the animal you are butchering?
In Australia, you can't slaughter and butcher on the same premises - there's health and hygine laws preventing it.
Settle a major debate between me and a friend.
The only difference is the price and the fat content (sometimes). Otherwise it's exactly the same and you're being ripped off. That's why I hate when people want ground eye fillet, it's a waste of good steak and proves the person has NO idea about their food, and has more money than sense.
Why do you think the world is losing touch with its food?
The ever-increasing numbers of people asking basic questions is a big give away. Gluten free sausages have been a thing for 30 years that's why we don't advertise it. Yes, the thing labelled "slow cook chuck" is good for slow cooking. Yes, you can slow cook anything and it will be delicious.
what was the most exotic animal you ever butch?
I boned out a possum for a lady so she could make a stew for her grandfather. They're illegal to kill anywhere but Tasmania, so they get shipped up here. Otherwise, camel or crocodile, I guess (not the whole croc, don't want to bring Sobek down on me).
I was eager to know this from someone who knows their way around meats, but is it really bad and unhealthy to eat chicken skin? My mom keeps telling me that but I don't believe her lol. I just wanna know the truth.
No, it's not unhealthy. That's a remnant from the "fat is the enemy!!" Marketing blitz. Also, lots of people layer it with Salt, so there's that too.
What do you mean by "Originally worked with organic meats"?
Originally I worked with organic meat - pesticide, hormone, so on, free.
•Opinion on grass-fed & grass-finish beef? •Opinion on hunting? •Do you sell suet/tallow?
A few years ago British grocer Tesco got in trouble because horse meat was mixed with ground beef. Have you ever cut a horse, and do you have any industry perspective on the ethics of eating/selling horse meat?
I have never slaughtered, cut or sold horse meat. My aunt had horses (she passed in 2020), so I have a personal perspective on the assholes (my ribs were never the same after the percheron kicked me).
Do you still have all your digits?
Yes I do. My parents ask every time I visit them.
Best method for cooking sausages? Do different sausages benefit from different cooking techniques? Eg. Venison, beef, boerewors, etc
The less far the slower the cook, because otherwise it will dry out.
Hey there thanks for the AMA. I’m from Ireland where meat hygiene is incredibly important and we have health campaigns to warn us of the dangers of not separating meats and using the same counter tops for different meats and it’s pretty endless, as such I’ve grown up to be quite aware of meat and kitchen hygiene. I moved to China a few years ago and had to start ordering imported meats. Mostly due to how unhygienic the butchers are. Some examples are the chopping board never getting cleaned, fish, chicken, pork, beef & everything else descaled and cut on the same board. Putting chicken into the freezer at night and taking it back out into the display in the day. Not washing anything. And use the chicken in the display to wet their fingers to open the window plastic bags and then putting the chicken into the bags by hand without even a sink nearby to clean before or afterwards. My question is how much of the western hygiene standards are precautionary and how much are actually important? Nobody here is getting sick the way the adverts back home would have me believe.
Almost everything you listed, I have seen done at least once (here's usually sinks around, for example).
I've been getting interested in butchery skills and home butchery over the last few months as an extension of doing more advanced cookery. It also means I can pay more respect to the foods and animals I consume.
I say this a lot, but ask your local butcher. They're generally happy to give you pointers or demonstrate anything you want to know - I've shown the same guy how to bone out a lamb leg three times, he says he's almost got it :). An in-person butcher will be more likely to pick up anything you're missing as you talk to them, than what any internet source can offer!
How does a farmer/food producer get started and sell to you and restaurants? I’m curious how does one go about getting clients
This one I can only answer in the specific experience of what I witnessed with the organic butcher shop. The farmer came in, chatted to the owner, the owner said OK, send me a body in a couple of weeks. The farmer did so, the owner looked over the body, cut it, aged it, sold it and listened to feedback. It was damn good beef, so he picked up the farmer as a source. Their partnership went on for about 15 years, and the farmer would occasionally dip into town to check in and make sure everything was alright. Butchers are old school, so you're always going to want to try old school ways of contact - face to face first, etc.
Do you sharpen your own blades or is it not cost effective?
The first thing you're taught is to make mince and sausages. The second thing is how to sharpen our knives. Most butcher shops have knife sharpening services available, as we do it a minimum of once a week for our own kits.
Thank you for the most interesting ama I’ve read in a long time! Your answers are great, and I have a few questions of my own (sorry I’ve you’ve answered them already)
I’d like to ask a couple of questions!:
How can you distinguish a good butcher and good meats from a bad ones (quality of meats/quality of cuts) as a person who knows nothing about butchery or meats
Unless you know what you're doing, no, it's almost impossible. You need knowledge to pick out the bad ones.
This may be a very weird question, and possibly in the wrong place to ask, but I thought I’d take a chance.
Kangaroo leather is more supple, and usually doesnt need as much oiling to remain so. It's also in ready supply, as we do a cull every year to keep the numbers under control (you think mice are a plague, try 5ft tall ones!). A lot of Aussie leather work is done with kangaroo leather.
I'm an 20 years ago just started living alone what's the easiest part to cook that doesn't take so much time? I saw video they say steak is fast and easy
Toast.
Ok so random but I just bought 1/4 cow. Last night I cooked a steak that was TERRIBLE!! The recipe called for top sirloin, I grabbed tip sirloin thinking it was just another name for the same thing. Then I seared each side in oil for 3 minutes, then cooked in oven for 12 minutes (as recipe indicated). It was nowhere near done, so I did another 10 minutes and it was done. Omg we couldn’t eat it though. It was tough and chewy like really firm gristle or something. We gagged until we just threw it away and ordered a pizza. I realize it was a different cut meat…but wtf??? Why was it so…cartilaginous or whatever? 🤢
Tip sirloin is much more sinewy - did you get the front quarter, or rear? Sirloin is on the rear.
Just curious- What made you choose your profession?
Truth? I worked at the shop slicing small goods during my uni degree and was too lazy to find another job. By the time I'd been there 12 months I saw 4 apprentices and 3 butchers come and go from the business. I figured I could do better and see it through.
I saw your response about barehanded being cleaner than gloves, why is that?
From another answer:)
Might be a weird one. But what goes into “pet mince”? Is there anything to look for when buying bones/mince for dogs?
Pet mince is what's left over - chicken pet mince is basically chicken skin, bones, feet, all ground down into a slurry that, surprisingly, smells like boiled peas.
I stopped eating meat roughly a decade ago, because it really sunk in that I don’t have it in me to butcher my own meat. I feel that if I can’t bring myself to kill an animal, I don’t deserve to eat it. With that in mind, do you ever feel guilty for killing/butchering an animal?
No, I don't. As I like to quote, fish gotta swim, bird's gotta eat. We're made for eating meat, maybe not so fancy, but we are. To deny it is to deny being human.
When there is another poorly referenced campaign every day eith spurious "facts" about meat, in your opinion how could the "bad" industry ever reclaim a reasonable standing and put forward honest facts about high standard meat rearing?
We can't, it's too ingrained in 3 generations now. We have to do the guerilla thing, and work on ine family at a time.
Hey there, it me again! This isn’t a question, but more of a statement.
Thanks mate, good to know! (Didn't realise there was a difference, but if course there is :) )
How are sausages made?
Take the non-pretty cuts - facings off steaks, odd bits, bits you didn't mean to cut off- mince them up. Add 100ml water for every kg of meat, 100g rice flour for the same, plus herbs and spices. Mix together, mince a second time. Run it through a filler (looks a bit like a dalek), using natural (gut) or synthetic (collagen) casings. Tie, twist, hang for a day to let them drain and 'set', then cut and display.
Why does the chicken now sold in grocery stores taste so badly?!? Like a consistency of wood if it’s not milk soaked for a day before. What is that?
I've never soaked chicken in milk. I don't understand how it would do anything.
I heard from a anime, that if you find yourself with no food in the woods, you can actually eat moose testicles, not sure if raw, or just very easy to prepare, of course the hardest part would be to catch the damn thing and take it down but, i am curius if there are any truth to it.
No. Testicles hold little to no nutritional value. You'd be better off with your time finding honey and fish.
You got any secret butchery codes? I’m a 30F butcher in UK (or a pretend butcher really, I can only do basic shit). We call old meat ‘delo’, wondered if it was the same in Aus?
Yeat, I speak rechtub klat. Out of practice a bit, and was usually only taught pervy phrases or stuff you don't want normies to know :) "gib stit on the lrig", stuff like that.
I grew up on a Goat farm in Kentucky.
Those of us on the front lines have seen it for a while, but the monopolisation of our food into big superstores is only hurting us.
How do you feel about offal? A bushie cooked me sheeps bowel and it was delish, but I always have trouble getting anything of the sorts
Tongue is beaut, don't much like the rest of it, smells funky and seen it rotting too many times to ever thing it yummy. The only intestines I eat are sausage casings
What's your favorite way to cook steak? And best seasoning for lamb backstrap?
Scotch fillet, salt and pepper with garlic butter num num
Have you heard about that tick that makes people allergic to meat? I don’t think the science community is taking it seriously enough.
I have not heard of it, no. Do you have a source I can read up on?
What do I ask the butcher for here in Australia when I want what they call a "Boston Butt" in the states?
Boneless pork shoulder, mate. Skin on if you want crackling, skin off without.
We butcher animals at work and I'm sure you have great skills. We do pre-1850s so it's just knives and hatchets historically.
Probably ly very little hatchet work in that :) well done.
Fav meat pie (if any)?
My homemade plain old beef mince. I don't know why we had to improve on perfection.
Do you age the beef?
Minimum 7 days, I push for 28-45 when I can :)
Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers.
Why do you think some people have moral issues with eating some animals, but not others? Even those who are considered similliar in their social abilities such as pigs and dogs?
It's the "cute animal" psychology, coupled with the "useful" psychology. We only started eating cattle in earnest when we didn't need them so much to pull our plows. Cats and dogs still have a "use", they're usually cute, and they generally don't have the good-quality meat to justify it.
Good luck, this whole vegan agenda is going to destroy you.
There's a few vegans in the comments and they're happy to ask questions and learn. Be chill.
What is the beat way to cook meat when you come home tired from work and need a quick meal
Not op but I offer this: When you get take out, get an extra side of rice and freeze it in a freezer bag at home.
How hard is a lamb to process compared to a deer or pig? Lamb is stupid expensive here. And I’d really like to get some. Me the wife and her dad processed two 400lb pigs in a weekend. Just curious how hard a lamb is, I’d assume it’s closer to doing a deer?
Closer to deer, yes. Bit stiffer, but that's the fat. Much easier to wrangle, lambs are only 20kg/ 42lb? (Mental conversion, take with a grain of salt) dressed, while pigs are almost 100kg (220lb?)
when vegans come up with the argument that we wouldn't eat dogs so why other animals deserve to suffer, while on this ama everyone's basically asking for ways to eat our own damn species.
Humans are opportunistic omnivores. If it lived/lives/will live, someone will try to eat it.
how difficult is it to dislocate the hip socket of a 1 month old calf? asking cause we had an attack on our farm and the inner organs were missing and the hip visibly dislocated
The only thing holding the hip joint of any animal on place is a single tendon. It's easy to pop, especially with a twist.
What is the best and worst part of your job?
Best - cheap meat. Worst - customers asking advice and ignoring it.
Fellow Aussie here, why is lamb so expensive? We have sheep farms as a primary industry but prices for the meat show it's a total delicacy. What's the logic behind this?
Because people will pay for it, like everything else. You can complain that lamb cutlets are $43/kg, but when you still walk away with 1kg, they have your money and don't care.
We are losing touch with food because housing, utilities, gas and groceries are at all time highs and they're squeezing every last cent from us. But go on ...
It happened long before now. If it didn't, I would have had to advise a 40-something mum yesterday on how to cook sausages.
It's only chefs who talk about everyone "losing touch with food", citing city slickers that "don't understand" that the food they eat was once alive and etc.
It's true none the less. My favourite trick is freaking out the kids by showing them the fridge with the hanging bodies. Then mum and dad has to explain that their sausages were once alive.
i love biltong. i cannot find it since i moved from NSW and i would like to know what is most similar to it and where i can easily find it! thanks :)
Biltong is thick-cut jerky, from what I understand. You can make it yourself or try Billabong or Swagman jerky. I love Swagman, 1kg lasts me about 5 days num num
Does the physical labor of butchery allow you to have a ripped or muscular physique? Am curious esp being a female butcher dealing with many kgs.
Not even close.
What happens to all the skin from skinless chicken thighs/breasts, and can you ask a butcher for a bunch of skin?
You can definitely ask. Some goes into chicken sausages, some goes into pet mince, the rest goes into fat and bone for upcyclong into fertiliser.
Why do the sausages i make always taste like bacon I use pork shoulder meat and fat at the right ratio
How much salt are you using?
Are there any mental/emotional effects for those who are involved in the slaughter?
I'm not involved in wholesale slaughter, so I can't tell you first hand.
how long did it take you get used to handling dead animal bodies/parts?
I've been doing it since I was a kid in one form or another (great-granddad was a butcher, so are some cousins). Just natural for me.
What you butcher cats/dogs if there was a legal market for them?
If there was a market, but to be honest, there's better animals out there to eat, not as tough or boney.
What do ypu think of recent push to lower beef consumption?
It's a long time coming. We as a race waste so much of the animals we eat. If we consume less, means we slaughter less, means we breed less, means more of the animal is used again.
What's the name of your podcast? I'm super interested now!
DM'd
Would butchering help you to perform surgery on humans?
If you need me to amputate, yes. If you need me to follow a muscle seam down and remove something, sure, won't be pretty, but it could be done.
Which animal's meat is more tender, sheep or goat?
What is your favorite thing to chop up and why?
I like boning out and breaking a lamb leg down. When I get bored at work, I break down a lamb leg onto individual muscle groups instead of the cuts, because it takes time and keeps my skills sharp. And customers never complain about the extra-lean diced lamb that results from it :)
How common or rare is the mar cow disease
In Australia? So uncommon I've never heard of it here. We don't feed our cattle beef, just grains and grasses.
Why does goat taste like fish to me?
I do not know. I hate seafood but like goat. Maybe it's the way it was cooked, the sauces used, etc?
Favorite video game, board game?
Assassin's Creed Origins, and I rock at Monopoly. Still can't beat my dad, tho.
Most used tool?
5in boning knife can literally pull apart an entire body. Only use the 12in steak knife for cutting actual steaks. :)
If you’re eating meat, you’re out of touch with food…we are not even supposed to cook our food. And yet here you are giving advise….
Who says all the meat I eat is cooked? :) I eat a lot of my beef raw.
Has anyone protested against you for being a butcher?
A few times, but mostly on the internet. One of my friends decided she couldn't be friends when I started the apprenticeship because she was vegan, but that's the worst I've gotten :)
You're barbaric. No one wants to learn a barbarian ABC.
[удалено]
No it doesn't get to me. Fish gotta swim, bird's gotta eat.