Artisan Butcher Demo

Priceless heirloom in a family of butchers

As noted in an earlier post, last week, in preparation for our November Quarterly Chef’s Dinner, Café Presse had a visit from artisan butcher Darron Marsolf, who showed us the proper way to break down a pig.  In addition to being a top-notch butcher, Darron is a affable fellow, and he took the time to tell us about how his family became butchers and how he personally learned the trade. He even brought along a technical butchery manual called “The Meat We Eat” which had been passed down to him by his grandfather.

Here are a few photos of the demonstration.

Darron talks tactics before starting to remove the primal cuts from our half hog

Sharp knives are essential to a clean job

Darron cuts the ham from the carcass at the sirloin

No electric tools here, just the good old fashion knives and saws

The end of the demonstration with our hog broken down into the main primals. The Cafe Presse kitchen team will take it from here.