025 Home Butchery and Using the Unusual Bits with Jake Levin

Do you raise and butcher your own livestock? Process the game animals you hunt? This episode is for you. . .

And me! I have very limited butchery experience, but it’s something that fascinates me. There is a definite art to the trade, but at the same time it seems so straight forward and like you would be following basic principles throughout the process.

Regardless, this time of year would have been the traditional butchering season in northern latitudes and just about every rural family would have been processing their yearly meat in addition to putting up their harvest for the winter. Many of us no longer raise, slaughter, or butcher our own animals anymore (something I think keeps us too removed from the reality of what is going on with our food), but I thought that I would like to do an episode that revolves around home butchery and talk about some of the basics.

I also believe that we (Americans at least) let too much of the animal go to waste these days, and that if we truly respected the life we were taking we would utilize more of the parts that often get discarded. Fortunately, Jake is a nose-tail butcher so we also discuss various cuts that often get overlooked and what you can do with them.