Last week I cashed in a birthday present given to me by my brother and sister in law. Gifts from them have always been good and generally food-related. This one was no exception and definitely worth a passing comment.

Past

In the last few years, my wife and her sister had got a good thing going in terms of present buying for me and my brother in law. Instead of agonising over presents to buy, we’d simply book a dinner somewhere and have a nice night out. 

In recent years, we have had some excellent meals at places such as Goodmans, Pitt Cue, Noble Rot, Yauatcha and most recently, Temper.

This year required a different approach. With my brother and sister in law having become new parents only weeks before, it was clear that this good run would come to an end.

Present

Instead I was gifted a spot on a butchery course run by the Hampstead Butcher and Providore.

The courses seems to be held every two weeks at one of their three shops. I wasted little time booking my spot which was being run at the Hampstead shop.

I was joined by two others – a lady with a job in advertising who had sought out the course from the depths of East London, presumably as a means of revenge on the 6 vegans she house-shared with; and another chap, resident of Mongolia, who had also been gifted the experience (he was very keen on the pork, apparently a scarce commodity in Ulaanbaatar).

Our teacher for the evening was the head butcher at the Hampstead store, Jason. We were kitted out in a white coat and chainmail glove and set to work over our chopping boards armed with a machete-like cleaver and a more delicate boning knife.

Over the next two hours, we chopped, sliced, bashed, rolled and tied various cuts of meat, ending up with:

1. An Oxtail rosette;
2. Chicken supreme’s (the rather pointless breast portions with half a wing poking out the bottom)
3. Lamb noisettes (from a saddle of lamb)
4. Rolled pork joint and belly ribs (from the enormous slab of pork pictured).

Perfect

I don’t envisage being presented with an oxtail or a belly of pork too many times in the future, but I shall at least know where to start when it next happens. But, for me, the evening was not really about learning skills that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Firstly, it was a lot of fun. Parading round the empty shop (it is a lovely shop), chainmail glove on, wielding a meat cleaver was, in itself, enjoyable. More entertaining was Jason, our teacher for the evening,  a short, stocky, salt of the earth type of guy with a genuine passion for and enviable knowledge of meat. The time flew by in his company.

Best of all was all the loot that we walked away with at the end of the evening. Not only did we get to keep everything we hacked but Jason kindly distributed his exemplar portions among us. He emphasised the good practice of wasting as little as possible so anything that could be used to make stock also came with us. He even marinated the pork ribs.

Our freezer is now fit to bursting with meat – the Limehouse vegans will get quite a surprise next time they reach for their Linda McCartney sausages. Add in a recipe booklet and a nice bottle of Bordeaux, and we left with quite the haul.

Future

I have an eye on a Porchetta recipe for the rolled pork belly, which will, I hope, do it justice. I suspect the chicken pieces will go towards a Cacciatore type stew that I first made on holiday this year and the kids really enjoy (in which case I’ll post a recipe). I’m less certain as to when I might get round to using the oxtail but I’ll look to the Caribbean for inspiration.

Jason’s parting shot was to mention the sausage making course that the Hampstead Butcher offer. But to do that I’ll have to make room for 6.5kg’s worth of sausages in my freezer first.

I reckon I’ve got a year to do it.