Lamb Chop

Inspired by an episode of River Cottage where Hugh Fearnly Whats-His-Face gets a life-long vegetarian to butcher down a whole lamb, I recently visited a meat processing plant in Norfolk with Cousin Matt to attend an amateur butchery course.

Once the novelty of wearing a protective chainmail apron and glove wore off we knuckled down and spent a few closely-supervised hours butchering a whole carcass down into the primal cuts, then into joints and finally preparing them for a real butchers shop display.

We made copious notes on the train home to prepare ourselves for a bit of home butchery later in the year, although after spending a whole day in a meat locker I started to feel a bit queasy about halfway home. No mishaps, but it was a close call... There's some links at the end of this post if you want more info / contact details.


Cousin Matt suiting up into his protective chainmail apron. They're quite heavy although you get used to them pretty quickly.

The first primal cut removed from the carcass.

Skip forward a few hours and the carcass is reduced to a table full of joints and chops. Nom nom.

FL Edge & Son - butchery course
Rhug Estate - butchers stall at Borough Market