c/butchers

My uncle told me to stop using a boning knife on pork shoulders

He said a stiff 8-inch breaking knife would give cleaner cuts through the joint. I tried it on a whole shoulder last week and the blade got stuck in the gristle twice. Now I'm back to my flexible boning knife and it feels faster. Anyone think the tool choice really matters that much for primal cuts?

Appreciation post: My mentor in Boise showed me the right way to break down a shoulder clod

I keep seeing new folks at the counter sawing across the grain on clods, which just wrecks the texture. He taught me to follow the seams and separate the flat iron and top blade first, which keeps everything tender. Do you have a specific cut that people always seem to butcher wrong?

A guy at the farmers market in Asheville asked me a question about pork shoulder that made me stop and think.

He was holding a 12 pound shoulder and asked if I could explain the difference between a Boston butt and a picnic cut, not just point them out. I gave my usual spiel about bone structure and fat cap, but he kept asking 'why' until I had to really break down the muscle groups and cooking times. How do you guys handle customers who want the deep cut science, not just the basic info?

I spent $300 on a new boning knife and it completely changed my speed on pork shoulders.

The thinner blade and better grip let me get into those tight joints way faster, so I can break down a case in almost half the time now, but does anyone have a good sharpening routine for a blade that gets used this hard?

Talking to a new guy from a big box store made me see our local beef differently

I was chatting with a young guy, Mark, who just left a major grocery chain's meat department. He said their grind for ground chuck always came from trimmings frozen for over 90 days before they even got it. It hit me that our shop's grind from fresh local primals that morning is a totally different product, even if the label says the same thing. How do you explain that value difference to a customer who just sees the price?

Shoutout to the guy in Omaha who said our shop's dry aging was just a gimmick

Honestly, he came in last fall and argued we were just letting meat rot to charge more. I showed him the humidity logs and temp charts for our 45-day ribeyes, but he just shook his head. Has anyone else had to defend the whole dry aging process to a customer who just doesn't get it?

Switched from a standard boning knife to a curved blade for breaking down hogs

For years I used a 6 inch straight boning knife on whole hogs. Last month I got a 5 inch curved blade, the kind with a slight belly. The difference in speed and clean cuts is huge. The curve lets you follow the bone structure way easier, especially around the shoulder and ribs. I cut my breakdown time by about 15 minutes per animal because I'm not fighting the shape. Has anyone else made a specific knife switch that changed their game?

Just realized I was wasting a whole pork shoulder on sausage

For about five years, I'd grind the entire shoulder, fat and all, into sausage. Then I watched a guy in Kansas City break one down on a video. He saved the coppa muscle whole for a roast and just used the trim. I tried it last month. That coppa roast fed my family for two nights, and the trim still made three pounds of sausage. Why did I ever grind that beautiful cut? Anyone else save specific muscles from primals for other uses?

I just cut my 1000th brisket flat at the shop this morning and it hit me how much muscle memory I've built.

The knife felt like it was moving on its own, and I realized I've trimmed over 15,000 pounds of brisket in the last three years without even thinking about it.

Hot take: I think the push for 'nose-to-tail' butchery is getting a bit silly.

Had a customer in Portland insist I save the trachea from a lamb for her dog, which added 45 minutes to a simple break. Has anyone else had a request that just wasn't worth the labor?

A customer in my shop asked for a 'soft cut' on a pork shoulder.

This was about two months ago at my counter in Spokane. He was an older guy, maybe in his seventies, and he said his wife's arthritis made it hard for her to chew anything tough. He asked if I could cut the shoulder so it would 'fall apart like a promise.' I've been cutting meat for fifteen years and never heard that phrase before. Has anyone else gotten a request that made you think about the meat in a different way?

PSA: My freezer went out during a heatwave and I saved a whole side of beef with a kiddie pool and 40 pounds of ice

Unpopular opinion: I was over-trimming my ribeyes for a decade before a chef in Denver called my steaks 'skinny'.

He pointed at the cap I'd been cutting off and said, 'That's the best part, you're throwing away flavor and charging the same price.'

Spent 3 hours trying to get a clean cut on a full pork belly for bacon, turns out my band saw blade was just dull.

Vent: A customer in Seattle asked me to cut a pork shoulder into steaks

Had a guy come into the shop last month and ask for a whole bone-in pork shoulder, but he wanted it sliced into one-inch steaks, like a roast. I started to explain how the muscle groups and connective tissue make it better for slow cooking, but he cut me off. He said, 'My dad always did it this way, and it was fine.' I did the cut for him, but it got me thinking. We get so stuck on the 'right' way to break down an animal that we forget some folks just want to cook the food they remember from home. It's not always about the perfect braise or the ideal grind. Sometimes it's about a memory. Has anyone else had a request that made you question a hard rule you had about cuts?

Warning: I thought dry aging at home was a waste of time and space.

For years, I told customers to leave it to the pros. Then my buddy, who runs a small farm, gave me a whole rib section and dared me to try it. I set up a mini fridge with a small fan and a salt block, aiming for 28 days. The cost to run it was maybe $15 extra on the power bill. The transformation was insane. The flavor was so deep and nutty, nothing like the wet-aged stuff I usually sell. It convinced me there's a real market for small-batch, properly aged cuts if you control the environment. What's the longest you've successfully dry-aged something in a home setup without losing too much yield?

I had a huge order for a wedding in Austin go sideways

The bride wanted a whole hog roast, but the farm delivery was a day late and the animal was 30 pounds under spec. I had to call three other suppliers on a Tuesday morning to piece together enough pork shoulder and belly to make it work. Ended up working 16 hours straight just to get the prep done. Has anyone else had a big catering job almost fall apart like that?

Watching a guy in Boise break down a whole hog with a boning knife changed my whole approach.

He used one tool for everything, no fancy gear, and it made me realize we overcomplicate the basics, so what's the one knife you'd keep if you could only have one?

Finally got my sausage recipe dialed in after a year of tweaks

Turns out I was using way too much salt, about 2% more than needed, which made the whole batch taste off. What's your go-to ratio for a basic pork sausage?

Got told my pork shoulder trim was too rough by a regular customer

He said the fat cap looked 'hacked at' instead of clean, which made his smoking times way off. I started using a thinner boning knife and taking an extra three minutes per shoulder to really smooth it out. Has anyone else had a simple comment make you change a whole step in your process?

Question about breaking down pork shoulders. I used to just go straight for the bone with a cleaver, but after a demo at the Kansas City Meat Expo last fall, I switched to using a boning knife to follow the seam first. The yield is way better.

Had a customer's custom cut order go sideways at the shop in Boise

They wanted a 3-inch thick tomahawk steak, but my band saw blade snapped halfway through the ribeye. I had to finish it by hand with a breaking knife, which took an extra 20 minutes. Do you guys keep a backup saw ready or just push through with hand tools when this happens?

A customer in my shop pointed out my pork chop cuts were too thick for quick cooking, said they were 'like little steaks'.

I was sharpening my knives wrong for a solid year and didn't know it

I was working on a big batch of pork shoulders last week and my main boning knife just kept tearing instead of slicing. My coworker, Mark, watched me for a minute and asked to see my sharpening stone. I showed him my 1000-grit stone and he just shook his head. He pointed out I was holding the blade at a 30-degree angle the whole time, which is way too steep for that steel. He showed me how to find the factory bevel and match it, which was closer to 20 degrees. The difference was instant. Has anyone else had a sharpening angle wake-up call like that?

Tried a 3% salt brine on some pork shoulder for charcuterie and it turned out way too firm

I was experimenting with a new dry-cure recipe for a coppa last month and decided to bump the salt from my usual 2.5% to 3% by weight. After the 3-week cure and a 2-month hang, the texture was almost leathery, not the nice, sliceable firmness I wanted. Learned that half a percent makes a huge difference in moisture loss. Anyone have a good target for a softer, more traditional coppa?