Guides
Before you book, or before you sell
Six guides, each built on the official sources with a link to every fact and the date we checked it.
How to become a butcher
Most working butchers learn on the job through an apprenticeship, a few through college, and a growing number through the short courses on this site before they commit.
What a beginner's butchery course covers
Three hours with a knife, a whole shoulder or a half pig, a butcher at your elbow, and a bag of your own cuts to take home.
Deer and game butchery
Venison and wild game bring their own rules: the seasons, the hygiene requirements for wild game meat, and the Deer Stalking Certificates that most stalkers take.
Home butchery and the law
Butchering an animal for your own table and selling meat to anyone else are treated very differently in UK law.
Charcuterie and curing
Curing is the part of butchery where the science matters most: salt, nitrites, time, temperature and the bacteria you are trying to keep out.
Butchery course gift vouchers
A butchery class is a good present because it is a thing to do rather than a thing to own.