How butchering your own meat is better, safer, more food-conscious

The trade of the butcher is an ancient one. In the early Middle Ages and the era of the guilds, butchers were calledbouchierstradesmen who were legally permitted to only slaughter goats and sell their meat. The word bouchier, in fact, was derived from the French word "boc," meaning "he-goat."

Today, however, butchers process all kinds of meats, and the craft and trade of the butcher is busier than ever.

The number of specialty butcher shops has increased, and they have become an important part of our food system. There are even popular butchery courses and demonstrations for the general public to learn about the history, skills and techniques of the butcher, two of which taking place in Waterloo Region.

Why butcher you own meat?

Breaking down a whole chicken at home butchering it yourself as opposed to buying it in pieces can save you a bit of money: it's often the difference between $7-$8 per kilogram.

But I think butchering your own chicken, or watching a butchery demonstration also connects you more closely with your food.

We need to remember that we brought food animals into this world, and we are the ones who take them out of it when we slaughter them. Meat just don't appear out of nowhere on Styrofoam trays in the sanitized setting of the grocery store, after all.

We should all recognize this fact, and each and every time we eat meat we should try to eat only the minimum we need and do our best to buy the best possible product from the best cared for animals that we can purchase.

Get to know your butcher

Buying from a local butcher can help you make those choices. Butchers can give you information about the farm where the beef or the pork came from. A butcher knows the history of the animal, where it came from and what it ate. A local butcher can provide you with meat that travelled a shorter distance from farm to plate and that's good for the animal and the environment.

Do some research into butchers in your city; just about every community has a local butcher shop or two. Waterloo Region alone has a wide range of butchers, each with its own specialty:

• Brady's in Waterloo;
• The Healthy Butcher, Kitchener;
• The Bauer Butcher, Waterloo;
• Stemmler's Meats of St. Clements;
• Victoria Street Market, Kitchener;
• Charles Quality Meats at the St. Jacobs and Kitchener Markets;
• DiPietro's, Cambridge;
• Ammar Halal Meats andKishki World Foods, both in Kitchener.

Where to learn to do it yourself

If you want to learn more about butchery, there are courses and public demonstrations. Each fall, for instance, Kitchener's Joseph Schneider Haus is holding its annual "Butchering Bee," a historical representation of the traditional community ritual for sharing labour and having a feast amongst neighbours.

Old-timey butcher Delford Schultz will discuss and demonstrate the historical perspective where participants in the community all had a role to play and nothing on the animal went to waste. At their founding and for many decades later, the pig was critically important to Pennsylvania Dutch communities like Waterloo Region, where Schneider's Meats was founded. The pig was the most important animal on the farm and had a range of uses from bristles for brushes to fat for soap not to mention the sausage to be made.

• Read more about theButcher Bee here

OnNovember 24, the third pork butchery class will be held at Steckle Heritage Farm in Kitchener. It's a three-hour, hands-on course where you will learn how to break down an entire pig into its various cuts. The class gives in-depth and hands-on understanding of butchery, and participants will share the yield of meat at class end. There will also be time to ask questions and work one-on-one with instructors Jamie Waldron and Joel Knight.

• Steckle Hertiage Farm'spork butchery class

Understanding butchery is important to healthy eating and a healthy food system. It's important to know where your food came from a food security standpoint and from an ethical perspective, I believe.