Whole Beast Butchery: The Complete Visual Guide to Beef, Lamb, and Pork

by Ryan Farr, Brigit Binns, Ed Anderson (Photographer)

DIY fever + quality meat mania = old-school butchery revival! Artisan cooks who are familiar with their farmers market are now buying small farm raised meat in butcher-sized portions. Dubbed a rock star butcher by the New York Times, San Francisco chef and self-taught meat expert Ryan Farr demystifies the butchery process with 500 step-by-step photographs, master recipes for key cuts, and a primer on tools, techniques, and meat handling. This visual manual is the first to teach by showing exactly what butchers know, whether cooks want to learn how to turn a primal into familiar and special cuts or to simply identify everything in the case at the market.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Reference, Nonfiction, Ebooks

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ryan Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good introduction to butcher especially for beef, pork, and lamb. A little different from the formal education I'm getting mostly due to Farr using hand saws instead of band saws and Farr using the entire animal.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Research for a book. A great guide.

[Bill Scheidegger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book when you need to cut up larger pieces of meat.

[Elizabeth S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best picture book I've ever encountered.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having resolved to become a more conscientious carnivore in 2014, I found Western Daughters, a recently opened butcher in the Highlands which sells pasture raised meat from within 250 miles of Denver cut from whole animals there in the shop. On my first visit, Josh Curtiss brought out half a pig from the back and cut out a bone-in loin roast. I watched him work for about 15 minutes and when I walked out with my five-pound package wrapped in butcher paper I felt hightly satisfied with the whole experience. But not entirely satisfied. I realized that what I had witnessed was the work of a skilled craftsman and that if I could increase my knowledge and vocabulary I could deal with him on a higher level. Here was a place where it would be worth the time to elevate one's self from mere customer to knowledgable customer. I started to look for resources.

What I found was Whole Beast Butchery, which I checked out from the library. It covers beef, lamb, and pork in intricate, well-photographed detail. It contains good information for cooks who care about honoring the animal by better understanding it and the food it provides. It also has all sorts of information for people who want to buy whole animals and portion them out themselves.

I have learned many things from this book so far, such as the difference between a t-bone and a porterhouse, the existance of a cut of beef called "the spider" and "the flintstone chop", and the concept of "primal cuts." This book is best as reference book for your kitchen bookshelf and I plan on buying a copy. It is also bizarrly beautiful and would serve as a conversation piece on any coffee table or as a kind of talisman to ward off vegans.

I now feel equipped with some intelligent questions and tidbits of obscure information to strike up a good conversation with my new butcher the next time I visit. Thanks Ryan Farr.

[Karen M Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures and descriptions in this book are so beautiful it could be called an art book. I developed a strong interest in learning how to butcher after observing a master butcher and thus became curious about the process. Years later, as an archaeologist, I was looking at some cut marks found on animal bones from a site well over a thousand years old and this book greatly helped me in visualising what the ancient hunter was thinking and doing, and his/her motivations for determining how to dissect the carcass.

[Chriskolak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what it says, great clear pictures, nice instructions, and some good sounding recipes.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best resource I've seen with step-by-step photos for butchering lambs, pigs, and cows. Will come in really handy when purchasing whole sides! Would love to see a 2nd version with game.

[Bridget Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

In-depth, teeming with detailed pictures of the breakdowns of the 3 major carcasses (beef, pork, lamb), and written well. Love this book, love Ryan Farr. Get it, dude.