CHAPTER EIGHT

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Meat Preparation and Basic Butchery

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE WORLD, the time has come for you and me to have a cosy chat; please, pull up a chair. This chapter is all about meat, which I understand you’re either into, or you’re not. But what if I told you it’s not that simple.

Actually very little surrounding meat is simple, except maybe the butchery itself, but we’ll get onto that later. For now, while I’ve got you here and you’re nice and comfortable – would you like a biscuit? No? Okay, good – let’s focus on some of the surrounding issues, like why you should butcher in your own home, have you got enough space and why we should move towards a plant-based diet for part of the week.

Butchery is beautiful. It has finesse and style, and with a few tips and tricks outlined in this chapter is very doable, with results that will make you proud. If you’re rearing your own animals for meat, it’s a no-brainer because you’re completing the circle and bringing that animal home from the abattoir, where you can lavish time and care over the processing and waste nothing, not to mention the money saving. If you’re not rearing your own but sourcing from an ethical farmer and buying a carcass in, that joy in providing and producing for your friends and family is still as strong. But – and it is a big but – to butcher an animal it first needs to be killed.

I have rewritten the opening to this chapter more than a dozen times, but each time I do, that sentence still comes out the same way: to butcher an animal it first needs to be killed. So I’m going to run with it because it feels important. Meat is the muscle of an animal, a once living, breathing, thinking animal. I have been rearing animals and taking them to slaughter for more than 20 years, and I can tell you it doesn’t get any easier. And neither should it. But I find as long as I treat the animal with love at every stage, even during the butchery, and they have a fear-free, pain-free end, which is all any of us can hope for, then it feels okay – not great, but okay. And when you live a self-sufficient life and your choices are to have something killed for meat or eat a vegetarian or vegan meal, you’d be amazed how often it’s the latter. The simple truth is we don’t need to eat meat every day. Meat should be special, and when you butcher it yourself that’s exactly what it becomes.

Now let’s bust some myths: butchery is not about strength, some of the best butchers are women, and as for space it doesn’t matter if you’re in a one-bedroom apartment or a mansion, so long as you have access to a table. You don’t even need a whole carcass, you can just as easily buy a half, or even just a back leg.

Very doable, satisfying and creative, butchering in your own home will change your life. It signifies the modern hunter-gatherer and provider; it will give you a whole new level of respect for meat and, quite left field, will very likely send you vegan a day or two a week.

Potassium nitrate

A quick word on potassium nitrate, also known as saltpetre, chemical compound KNO3 or E number E252. It comes in a powder, like tiny crystals, and is harmful if swallowed or inhaled. It’s also an irritant to skin and eyes, so if you are handling it, do be careful to wear protective clothing, and make certain you use a face covering as tests have shown it to be carcinogenic in animals. Uses include fireworks, gunpowder, an additive to fertiliser – oh yeah, and it’s also used in processed meat and food.

More on this in Chapter 9, Curing and Preserving, on page 250 where the rant against potassium nitrate will really come into its own, but for now know that no additives are used in home butchery.

Hanging meat

It is important that meat is allowed to hang before it is butchered. This process improves the taste and tenderness and enables the meat to dry out. Meat should always be hung in a cool, dry environment, such as a refrigerated store. If you don’t have access to one, the abattoir where the animal has been killed will be able to hang it for you. To follow are the ideal minimum and maximum hanging times for lamb, pork, beef and chicken:

Lamb: Minimum 3 days; maximum 7 days.

Pork: Minimum 3 days; maximum 10 days.

Beef: Minimum 10 days; maximum 28 days.

Chicken, dry plucked: Minimum 24 hours; maximum 10 days before ‘drawing’ (see page 238).

Chicken, wet plucked (see opposite): Wet-plucked chickens must be drawn immediately after plucking and should never be hung.

All poultry should be cooked or frozen within 7 days of drawing.

Beef can be hung for longer than lamb or pork as it decomposes from the outside in; pork and lamb decompose from the bone outwards, which means that deterioration cannot be detected easily. A plucked chicken should either be allowed to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours before drawing (see page 238) or hung by the feet according to the times specified above and depending on whether it has been dry plucked or wet plucked (wet plucking is where the bird is dunked in a hot bath of water to help loosen the feathers).

EQUIPMENT

Before butchering your meat it’s advisable to buy a pack of cheap laminate flooring from your local DIY shop. Glue the tiles together so that they form a board that can be placed on top of your kitchen table to protect it from being damaged during the preparation of the meat.

Knives used for butchery need not be expensive, but it is essential that they are razor sharp. To prepare a carcass you need the following:

Butcher’s knife (a stout, sharp knife with a blade about 30cm/12in long)

Boning knife, about half the size of a butcher’s knife, with a thinner, narrower blade

Chopper for chopping the chops

Stanley knife for scoring skin

Hack saw/bone saw

If you are planning on butchering regularly it is worth investing in a bone saw, which will enable you to slide through even the thickest bone very easily. However, the blade of a bone saw will rip flesh rather than cut it – cutting your finger on a hack saw is painful, but cutting it on a bone saw could do serious damage, so take particular care when using.

LAMB: THE PRIMAL CUTS

The primal cuts of a lamb are shoulder, breast, loin and leg. A lamb carcass comes complete from the abattoir. (Anything over a year, such as hogget or mutton, is split in two, so the spinal cord can be removed by the abattoir.) To butcher a lamb to obtain two shoulders, two breasts, two loins and two legs, follow the steps below.

1. The first cut is to separate the shoulders entirely from the carcass. Place the carcass on its side. Count back three ribs from the head end and, using the butcher’s knife, cut down (from the outside of the carcass) between the third and fourth ribs from the bottom of the carcass to the spine. Saw through the spine and continue the knife cut between the corresponding ribs on the other side. The carcass is now in two separate pieces. Starting at the neck and working down, cut lengthwise down the spine, splitting the shoulders so that the torso is divided in two, so now you have two shoulders with the neck attached (with the entire carcass in three pieces). Then cut the neck into half rings by chopping it diagonally through the vertebrae with the chopper or the saw – these cuts are called scrag end of neck and can be used for stewing.

2. Now move to the back legs. The outside of the carcass should be facing upwards. You will see where the waist of the lamb dips in. Mark this with the butcher’s knife and cut through to the backbone. Turn the meat over and do the same on the other side. Saw through the backbone, detaching the two back legs from the loin and the breast. Now saw between the legs to give two legs with the chump end attached.

3. This leaves the loin and breasts. Lay the meat on its back and saw all the way along the spine, splitting the carcass lengthways into two sides. Detach the breasts from the loins by drawing a line (inside the carcass with the butcher’s knife) down the middle of each half and then cutting through with the saw.

Lamb: cuts and joints for cooking

The primal cuts are now complete: two shoulders, two breasts, two loins and two legs. You can then cut the meat down even further, as required: for example, by chopping the chops, boning and rolling part or all of the loin, dividing the shoulder, taking off the chump end for lamb steaks or mini roasting joints, and either leaving the legs whole or cutting through them to make more manageable half legs. The choices are up to you – see the illustration on previous page.

Lamb and parmesan bake

This fragrant dish really brings out the flavour of the lamb. Use some diced shoulder of lamb, or, if you don’t mind the bones, you can use stewing lamb cut into pieces or even cutlets or chops. If you have less meat than I suggest, don’t worry because this recipe can make a little meat go a long way. If the oven is already on at a lower temperature than the one suggested, you can leave the dish in for up to 4 hours.

280g/10oz day-old bread, preferably from an uncut loaf

2 garlic cloves

handful of picked rosemary leaves

1 tsp dried oregano

115g/4oz fresh Parmesan cheese, in chunks

3 tbsp olive oil

1.3kg/3lb new potatoes, unpeeled and halved (or quartered old ones)

1.3kg/3lb lamb

225g/8oz cherry tomatoes, halved (or chopped larger ones)

1 glass white wine

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F/gas 4. In a food processor, whizz the bread into breadcrumbs. Add the garlic, rosemary, oregano and Parmesan and blend the mixture again until it is all in fine breadcrumbs. Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a casserole or roasting tin, add a layer of potatoes and season. Then add a layer of lamb pieces, some tomatoes and a layer of the breadcrumb mixture. Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of the breadcrumbs. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and pour the white wine (and an equal quantity of water) down the side of the casserole – basically you want to cover the first layer of potatoes with liquid. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for at least 2 hours. Uncover for the last 20 minutes to brown and crisp the top. Serve with a Forager’s wild leaf salad (see page 305).

PORK: THE PRIMAL CUTS

The primal cuts of a pig are shoulder, hand and sprig, loin, belly and leg. Pigs come split in two, lengthways, from the abattoir, so they are slightly easier to butcher than lamb as you are only negotiating half the carcass at a time.

1. Lay the half carcass down with the inside of the animal facing the board and the outside facing towards you. The first cut is to take off the head using a butcher’s knife and a saw. (The abattoir splits the head in two with the rest of the carcass, so this cut will remove it from the animal’s shoulders.) Run your index finger around the neck, just behind the ear – this will give you an imaginary line to follow. Starting at the far side of the neck, draw the knife cleanly towards you in a downward motion, cutting right through the meat down to the bone, so that the knife ends the cut parallel to the table and with the handle closest to you. Now take the saw and saw through the back bone. Then remove the cheeks, known as bath chaps, and the ears: the ears should be sliced off at the base with the butcher’s knife; the bath chaps should be removed with the boning knife, by slicing right the way down to the jaw bone and lifting the cheek away.

Pork: the primal cuts

2. Next take off the back leg using the butcher’s knife. The leg is the most expensive and highly prized cut of pork, so care should be taken to get it right! Lay the half-pig on the board, skin side up and with the legs towards you. Using the butcher’s knife, mark the narrowest part of the waist, just before the rump. Cut down with the knife until you reach the backbone, then either chop through with the chopper or, in the case of a larger pig, saw through, detaching the back leg and chump end from the body of the carcass.

3. Now turn the carcass over to expose the inside and the ribs. The next cut is to describe a line with your knife all the way down the centre from the shoulder to the bottom of the carcass. (This line will be going across the bony ribs, so the intention is not to cut the carcass entirely, but to create a guiding line.) Position the carcass so that the shoulder is furthest from you and the waist nearest to you. Allow the carcass to hang over the side of the table so that the body is curving slightly. Using the saw, start cutting along your guiding line through the ribs all the way down until each of the rib bones has been split. Through the same line you have just sawn, finish the cut with the butcher’s knife going all the way through the flesh until the complete carcass has been split in half lengthways.

4. Next, take the side with the trotter attached and, skin-side down, count along three ribs. Cut right through between the third and fourth ribs with your butcher’s knife, transferring to a saw when you reach bone. This cut will separate the hand and the sprig from the belly. Set these to one side and pull the shoulder with the attached loin towards you. Again, count down three ribs and cut between the third and fourth ribs, in just the same way as the belly was separated from the hand and sprig. This now gives the shoulder and the loin and completes the primal cuts (shoulder, hand and sprig, belly, loin and leg) for the first half of your pig. Now that the carcass is in manageable pieces, it can be further subdivided.

5. Repeat cuts 1–4, above, on the other half, or second side, of your carcass.

Pork: cuts and joints for cooking

The primal cuts are basically the same as those of a lamb, but a pig’s carcass is much bigger, so there are more cuts and more options (see illustration on previous page): for example, the hand and sprig can be divided into hand, hock and trotter; the leg can be cut into as many joints as possible and is perfect for turning into gammon (see page 253); the loin can be made into chops, back bacon, spare ribs and tenderloin; and the belly will give streaky bacon and rashers (from the thick end of the belly). Use the Stanley knife to score the skin of the joints for perfect crackling (see page 242).

BEEF: THE PRIMAL CUTS

Cattle are quartered at the abattoir. The method of butchery and the primal cuts are the same as for pig and lamb, even though the names for them are different. In bullocks the primal cuts are ribs, sirloin, rump, brisket and flank. However, the size and weight of a cow or bullock of course present particular challenges in terms of manoeuvrability. After obtaining your primal cuts, it’s simply a matter of preference how you divide them further into the particular joints, steaks and cuts (see the illustrations below and opposite).

Beef: the primal cuts

Beef: cuts, joints and steaks for cooking

POULTRY AND GAME BIRDS

Once you are able to pluck, draw and prepare a chicken for the table, the process is pretty much the same for all poultry and game birds, including duck, turkey, goose, pheasant, partridge and guinea fowl. (Game is seasonal, and can only be shot in certain winter months, when the young have fled the nest. It makes sense to be aware of the different seasons for each bird, as fresh birds will not be available out of season.)

Plucking

For anyone prepared to take on the challenge of plucking chicken and poultry, the financial savings can be immense, especially around Christmas time, when unplucked turkeys and geese sell for a fraction of the price of oven-ready birds. But it’s not all about saving money. Plucking a bird can be incredibly therapeutic and satisfying: the time, trouble and attention to detail that goes into the preparation of a bird for the table allows you to develop a true understanding of the connection between meat and the animal.

Follow the instructions below for plucking and, if possible, pluck while the bird is still warm.

1. Lay the bird on its back and, starting at the breast, use the thumb and forefinger to pinch a few feathers together, ideally no more than six or so. Peel them down and away from the body, working in the opposite direction from the way in which they lie. Plucking the tougher parts of the bird’s skin, such as the legs, back and wings, involves expansive arm movements and usually results in feathers filling the air in a manner reminiscent of a children’s pillow-fight! But for the breast, under arms and top of the thighs – in other words the bits prone to fat – you need a more gentle peeling action, taking out just a few feathers at a time. The temptation to grasp a huge clump of feathers and yank it out is strong, but the chances are that if you do this the skin will rip. So take your time and peel the feathers out gently.

2. Pluck around the middle of the bird until you have a bald band. Then carry on plucking from there down to and including the legs. (There are two forms of plucking: rough plucking, which involves removing the majority of feathers without worrying too much about those that remain, but with the idea of going back over the bird a second time; and smooth plucking; a longer process but with the benefit of only plucking once.) Once the legs and undercarriage (including the parson’s nose) are clean, work down to just slightly below the head, leaving the wings until last.

3. The wings are fiddly and can take as long to complete as the rest of the bird. Some people therefore prefer to snip off the last section of the wing tips with a pair of shears. Even so, it’s a good idea to have some pliers handy for the wing primaries – the long, tough flight feathers – as they can be difficult to pull by hand. When you have finished, the result should be a clean, smooth bird with just a ruff of feathers around the head.

No bird should be eaten fresh as the muscles need time to relax and pass through the period of rigor mortis. Once your bird is plucked, let it rest in the fridge or hang it by the feet (game birds should be hung by the neck), according to the times given on page 226. It can be kept for up to 10 days and still remain perfectly safe to use as long as the skin is unbroken and it has been dry plucked (as advised by the Food Standards Agency). If you are hanging more than one bird at a time, take care not to let the plucked birds touch each other until they are completely cool as this can turn their skin green.

Dressing

Now it’s time to prepare, or ‘dress’, the bird for the table.

1. Start by taking off the head. Using a good, stout, sharp knife, such as a butcher’s knife, cut through the neck, skin and bone, a little way up the neck from the body so that there is no risk of breaking the crop (this is a sack at the base of the neck where food eaten by the chicken is stored temporarily).

2. Take a small, sharp paring knife, such as a boning knife, and cut very carefully around the leg just below the knee joint. Be sure to sever the outside only just deep enough to separate the skin without slicing any deeper. Then snap the leg back at the joint and wiggle it. The foot should be separated but still attached by long, white sinewy tendons. Grasp the foot with one hand, brace the thigh with the other and pull the two apart, bringing the tendons out from inside the leg.

Drawing

‘Drawing’ (short for ‘withdrawing’) a chicken means gutting it, removing the entrails and all the parts that are not edible. It’s worth taking a little extra time and care to do this because if you get it wrong, things can soon become stinky and unpleasant.

1. Start by swivelling the bird until the head end is facing you, breast down. Then with a small sharp knife cut the skin from the neck just enough to see the meat underneath begin to uncover, then stop. Peel the skin open like a pair of curtains and turn the bird over so it is facing breast up.

2. Now you are looking down on the exposed neck. Beside this, on the right, is a small sack, which is the crop. If the bird has been starved for 24 hours (highly recommended if you are processing a chicken or a bird over which you have control of the feed), the crop will be baggy and empty. If not, it’s likely to be taut and full of undigested food. Using the tips of your fingers, gently tease it away from the sides of the inside of the bird at the neck end until it’s loose but still attached at the other end. The reason for this is that you are going to draw the whole of the insides out through the bottom of the bird.

3. Now spin the bird around so that the legs are spread out in front of you. Using your fingers, pinch the bit of skin between the breast bone and the vent (the vent is essentially the anus). The vent is easy to spot and the skin above it often looks crinkled and slightly baggy, not unlike elbow skin. It feels empty when you pinch it. This is the entrance into the body cavity. Pick up your sharpest knife and make a couple of incisions like an upside down V just beneath the breast bone. Don’t worry about being too precise as there are no tubes or innards lurking just inside, you have already pinched it to prove that. Now holding the knife like a pen, so that you are less likely to slash, continue each cut from the upside down V to either side of the vent and stop. Try to be as delicate as possible – you don’t want to slice into the tubes connecting the vent or to go down too far, so just cut either side of the vent.

4. Put the knife down and poke your fingers inside the bird – don’t be tempted to use anything other than your fingers. There may be a membrane to break but it should give way easily. Still with your fingers inside, slide them along the top of the bird and gently take hold of the gizzard, the first major organ you come to (it’s a large, hard, round organ, often surrounded by fat) and tease it out as far as the tubes will allow. It should come fairly easily. Go back in, find the liver (the next large organ after the gizzard) and pull it out to join the gizzard. (This will make a fantastic chicken liver parfait, but always check it for any marks or discolouring, and if in doubt, chuck it out.) The next large organ will be the heart, which should also be withdrawn (but not yet removed).

5. By now you should have created some space inside the bird. Using a very soft scooping action with the tips of your fingers, start drawing out the main, squishy tubes, starting at the back, towards the bird’s neck. Work the tubes towards you, taking care not to break them as they come. Keep going back in and scooping more out. The very dark tube is the bowel tract, so try really hard not to break that. Eventually the crop at the top will come free. Draw it back through the body cavity. The result should be an empty bird with all the innards spilled out the back end, though still attached to the underside of the vent.

6. Turn the bird over and, with the care of a surgeon, cut around the rest of the vent, without nicking the tubes, so that everything falls away. Make one last check that nothing is left inside and that it’s clear and clean. Wash under a tap inside and out and you will have an oven-ready bird!

BUYING WHOLE BODIES OF MEAT

Although the thought of keeping our own animals for meat may be appealing, not everyone has the space or the time to commit to their care. If this is the case, let someone else rear the animal for you and then buy it from them either slaughtered or alive (if the latter, you would need to arrange for its transportation to slaughter). Buying a whole carcass, effectively buying meat in bulk, has a number of benefits: it is cheaper, you can make use of every part of the animal (nose to tail), sample every cut of meat, and you can determine how it was treated when it was alive, what it was fed, whether it was free range, healthy and happy (which makes a big difference to the taste), and the processes it went through after it was killed.

Many farms, homesteads and smallholdings have websites with pictures and descriptions of how and where their animals are kept. It obviously makes sense to look for one that keeps animals the way you would keep them yourself. Always keep an eye out for those that seem to have a passion for what they’re doing and a sense of pride – looking after livestock is more than just a job, it’s a lifestyle, and there’s nothing better than someone who’s passionate about their world. It is also extremely important to support animal welfare. Make sure that the animals are happy, extensively reared and free range – apart from the ethical considerations, contented animals that have lived complete, rounded lives, will always taste better than animals that have been stressed and confined. Don’t be afraid to contact the farmer and chat about the issues that concern you. The distance that has developed between the producer and the consumer can be a source of frustration to farmers. They are often delighted when someone takes an interest in where their meat comes from. Ask if it’s possible to see the animals for yourself or whether the farmer can select a beast for you that he would choose for his own family. Many farmers know and use their local abattoir regularly, and arrangements can be made for your beast to be taken directly to slaughter, so the next time you see the beast is when you collect it or have it sent to you from the abattoir. You have the option of either butchering yourself – the cheapest option – or asking the abattoir to butcher according to your specifications.

Depending on the size of your freezer and your family’s appetite, you may decide to keep the entire carcass yourself. But splitting it with other people is a wonderful way to share the cost and to bring families and friends together.

NOSE-TO-TAIL EATING

Using every bit of the animal by cooking and eating it from nose to tail, being creative and enjoying every single cut, is the perfect way to show respect for the beast and get the most out of what you have. The Victorian country kitchen was a haven of thrift, but the concept of using every part of the animal has waned dramatically over the years. The modern fad for lean meat – boneless, skinless chicken breast, boned and rolled pork joint or reduced-fat beef mince, for example – means that some of the most delicate and delicious cuts are scraped from the butcher’s floor at the end of each day and tossed into the bin. A terrible waste!

Pork is often regarded as the most versatile of all the meats because it can be made into ham, sausages, bacon and so on. But it still only has a carcass–meat percentage of 51–57 per cent. The rest of the animal – fat, offal, head, trotters, blood, and so on – is mostly classed as waste. On a shorn lamb, the ratio is roughly 54 per cent. On a goat, it’s only 44 per cent.

Nose-to-tail eating is about using all the animal, or as close as possible to it. In a pig that’s everything except the oink. The reason to eat this way is not simply because you’re using the rough cuts that nobody else wants, it’s mainly because these cuts are packed full of flavour and taste wonderful.

If you ask your local butcher for pig’s skin they will probably give it to you for peanuts. Take it home, score the outside with a sharp knife, sprinkle generously with sea salt and pop it into the bottom of the oven on full power for 45 minutes. When it’s done, move it on to a wire tray so that the air can cool it thoroughly all over, and there you have homemade pork scratchings – perfect to snap off and crunch with an ice-cold glass of beer or to jazz up a creamy garden soup!

Much of the older style of cooking was based around this idea of using cheaper, secondary cuts, such as the skin, cheeks and offal, because the primary cuts were so expensive. But increased affluence has meant that many of these recipes have been largely forgotten. Although they have moved further into the spotlight in recent years, dishes such as liver and bacon, kidney pilaf and faggots were sadly neglected for many years. But not only do they taste delicious, they’re packed full of goodness. Liver is rich in iron, an essential part of the human diet. Kidneys are high in vitamin A (also known as retinol), which is important for good vision and bone growth. Take these out of the diet and the body needs to search for replacements elsewhere, which these days often come in the form of artificial tablets.

Buying nose to tail means getting the best deal on meat and then making the most of it. Instead of buying pieces of chicken, buy a whole bird, then either joint it into the cuts you need or roast it whole. Many people plump for the breast, but it only has half the flavour of dark meat, which is the muscle that has worked on the legs and wings to keep the bird running and flapping. In free-range birds especially, this meat is rich and dark because of the amount of blood required to keep all the parts of the bird active, and it therefore has much more flavour. Once the majority of the meat has been stripped from the bones of the chicken, simmer the carcass in water with an onion and a carrot. As soon as it has reduced and intensified, drain the liquid into a bowl and use as stock – perfect for a fish or vegetable risotto or delicious chicken gravy. If you don’t need the stock straight away, take an ice cube bag and pour the cooled liquid in. The stock will freeze really well, then wherever you normally use a stock cube, simply pop in a few ice stock cubes.

Secondary cuts, sometimes known as Cinderella cuts, such as brisket, blade or belly, are all versatile, full-on flavour alternatives to the more expensive cuts. Offal is incredibly cheap and can either be coated in flour and flash fried or minced and made into faggots (offal meatballs). Traditionally, many of these poorer cuts would have been used in stews that would have been prepared in the morning and put on the stove to simmer and tenderize all day long. The family would then return in the evening to fill their empty stomachs with a piping hot, nourishing meal.

Faggots

Serve this winter warmer with creamy mashed potato and thick onion gravy – just the thing for cosy nights in front of an open fire.

1 pig’s caul (lacy fat) or 8–10 thinly sliced streaky bacon rashers

225g/8oz day-old bread, preferably from an uncut loaf

900g/2lb pigs’ liver and heart

450g/1lb belly pork

2 large onions, chopped

2 tbsp chopped sage

1 tbsp chopped parsley

sufficient pork or beef stock to form a 2.5cm/1in layer in the roasting tin

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the caul, if using, in a bowl of warm water and let it soften for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Put the bread in a food processor and whizz to form breadcrumbs. Tip them into a bowl. Next whizz the liver, then the heart, then the belly pork, adding them to the bowl in turns, and finally the onions. Add the herbs and seasoning and mix well. Cut the softened caul into roughly 10cm/4in squares. Take a handful of meat and form it into a ball the size of a tennis ball. Place it in the centre of a square of caul and wrap the caul around it. (If using streaky bacon, you will need to stretch each rasher with the back of a knife, then cut in half. The bacon can then be wrapped around the faggot to form a cross with the loose ends underneath.) Repeat until all the mixture has been used up. Place the faggots in a roasting tin with about 2.5cm/1in stock in the bottom and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes to brown lightly and cook through.

For the family that rears its own happy, healthy animals and then eventually takes them to be slaughtered in order to eat their meat, it is crucial that every part of the beast is used and that nothing has been wasted. Waste from an animal that has been in your care since the day it was born can fill you with rage. Careful planning on how to get the best from every part of the animal is essential. Pigs are straightforward because any trimmings can go in the sausage pile. The head can be made into brawn, the skin into crackling or pork scratchings, the cheeks (bath chaps) into a delicious change from chops and steaks, even the blood can be caught and made into blood (black) pudding.

Lamb (up to 12 months old), hogget (12–24 months) and mutton (24 months and over) also have the potential for many more dishes than the standard roasting joints. Lamb belly, or breast of lamb is soft and succulent when slow roasted. Neck makes fantastic stewing meat, and the shank, the lower part of the back leg that was for many years one of the cheapest cuts but recently seems to have won favour with chefs and diners alike, needs to be cooked long and slow until it is beautifully succulent.

Bones are fantastic boiled up for stock (but always roast the bones first to reduce the fat and intensify the flavour). And what about the much-neglected marrowbone? We’re all so used to giving marrow-bone to the dog that we’ve forgotten what a great source of natural minerals and calcium it is. Marrowbone is perfect as a flavouring for soups and stews but absolutely delicious when cooked, spooned out from the centre of the bone and then spread on toast.

Marrowbone on toast

Hearty and good for you – the perfect combination! Serves 1 with a side salad.

4 pieces of marrowbone, roughly 7.5cm/3in long

sea salt

1 slice lightly toasted fresh bread

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Place the marrowbone on a baking tray and sprinkle with sea salt, then roast for about 35 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and, while the marrowbones are still hot, scoop out the soft centre with a narrow spoon and spread on the toast.

If you’re going to eat the marrowbone rather than let the dog have it, here are some canine treats to compensate.

Liver cake

Slice this tasty treat and watch your dog go berserk for it – ideal for training. It also freezes well.

450g/1lb liver

1 egg

1 garlic clove

225g/8oz/1¾ cups self-raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin. Put the liver in a blender or food processor and blend. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend again. Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Light snack for dogs

Using the lights (lungs from a sheep, pig or cow) as a dog treat is a great way to use up any lungs that are not needed for anything else, such as faggots (or ask your butcher for some lights). Slice the lights, place on a baking tray dusted with flour and leave in the bottom of a low oven (150°C/300°F/gas 2) for at least 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave to dry out completely. (You can use the same method for drying a pig’s ears and tail.)