Comments for I Will Cut You

I Will Cut You

2008-09-11T01:36:20Z

Last Friday was my birthday. Hooray! I have a fantastic wife, so she treated me to a pig-butchering class at The Brooklyn Kitchen. I like meat, and I like being educated about what I eat and respecting the animals I consume. So Tom Mylan was a fantastic person to lead the evening: Knowledgeable and passionate about his work as a butcher, and (as his blog demonstrates well) able to articulate that in a way that's approachable even to rank amateurs like me.

Even better, my wife posted a great writeup over on Serious Eats. There's lots more info on other Brooklyn Kitchen classes and on Tom there. And as I've mentioned before, I love displays of true competence, especially in regard to knives. And Tom has a stellar post about choosing knives which shows off exactly that kind of expertise.

There's a lot of cuts of meat in a pig, as the diagram here shows. (That's courtesy of the Wikipedia page on pork.) And if you, like me, want to see more examples of the process of breaking down a sizable animal, Adam Fields has a full photo set, and The Brooklyn Kitchen's Flickr account has a photo set on the making of head cheese. Both of those photo albums are probably not for those squeamish about butchering.

Ask The Meatman offers an Interactive Pork Chart.
Ben Trott went whole-hog as well.
Chris Cosentino butchers a pig's head — with video!

I could ramble on about this forever, but we have about 15 pounds of fresh pork in the kitchen now, so there's work to be done.

Comment from Mark Forman on 2008-09-11

2008-09-11T12:22:45Z

Anil-belated happy Bday! Cool post, you might also like this site http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/ these guys heavily involved in salumi making and butchery.

Comment from Victor Agreda Jr on 2008-09-11

2008-09-11T12:56:12Z

Great title, I had to click. Saw a thing on the Japanese fish markets, and how the best tuna is cut with crazy respect: some guys even "talk" to the fish as they slice it up. The sushi whisperer?

When you consider the care that goes into great sushi, you see there is respect at every level. Very cool.

Thanks for the meat resources, I share your attitudes on food. Enjoy the pork!

Comment from Georgia Choate on 2008-09-11

2008-09-11T23:37:16Z

Happy Birthday Anil! Thanks for sharing. And do share with us how you use all that pork.....

~ G.