Current Sessions Available

May 2nd, 2026

Tickets: $775; limit 8 students. 

Starting at 8 AM, we will slaughter one beef in the morning, then break for a butcher’s lunch of fresh offal and hanger steak.  In the afternoon, will will cut and cure an aged carcass Brandon slaughtered a few weeks in advance.  The day will be fittingly consummated with a feast.  Hot coffee and Jersey cream with flow magnanimously.

Learning how to cook every part is integral to butchery. We will carve and portion a dry-aged carcass as an assertion of the well-off frugality of the domestic kitchen. We will cover continental, British, and American styles of butchery, but focus invariably on the pot, the pan, and the oven of the family kitchen.

We will cover beef preservation using the simple and pure methods of our pre-industrial forbearers.  All of which will happen on the domestic scale, so you can replicate the process at your homestead without any industrial-grade apparatus.  By the end of the day, we will have not only artfully harvested a grass-finished dexter, but cooked the flesh to perfection.  Cooking grass-fed beef is no mystery, but a simple and pure art that you will take home with you.

This grass finished Dexter beef is mature and therefore eminently flavorful.  In due regard for this quality, we will be aging the carcasses to concentrate flavor and maximize tenderness.  Healthy beef can age indefinitely given a good walk-in with low humidity.  Being raised on rotational grazing, allowed to reach maturity and then aged sufficiently, this Dexter will forever dispel the myth that grass-finished beef is difficult to cook.  The hard work of husbandry has been done; it is up to us to harvest well and thus ensure that all 100% of hanging weight is effortlessly delicious.

The class will continue until everything is artfully harvested and treated for the family table.  This will take us into the evening when we share dinner over the fruits of our labor.  In any case, we work at your pace. We cap the class at just eight students to keep the hands-on learning undiluted.  You’re welcome to make extensive notes and film the whole process.

My family and I learned so much from the in-person, hands-on beef class. My teen boys were able to get right in there with the rest of us to slaughter, skin and eviscerate the carcass. Brandon takes the art and craft of butchery at home, which can seem very intimidating, and makes it doable. From handy tips and tricks for backyard slaughter techniques, to fabrication of meat cuts and preparing a feast in the kitchen, we were brought along for the entire process. He kept reminding us that if we keep our end goal in mind (how we’ll prepare it in the kitchen), the cutting of the carcass will make much more sense. With that in mind, we were reminded that WE get to make the decisions about how to cut and prepare the carcass and that it doesn’t have to match with ordinary retail meat cuts. Both Brandon and Lauren were so hospitable and we greatly enjoyed the fellowship around the table. It’s definitely worth the trip to take an in-person class.

―Christie, Illinois

“The utility of this information will have immediate and long-term use. As a home chef, I expect to use it regularly for my domestic culinary investigations and pleasure. The long term impact of the class will continue to reveal itself with age. So much of the material (and the experience) is detailed, inter-disciplinary, bloody, emotional and tasty! It is one of the those experiences that will always be a culinary, social, emotional reference point to tie to other experiences. This is one of the principal values of the class in my mind.”

―John, Alaska

“I’ve flown halfway across the country to attend a class of yours and watched your videos numerous times. The desire was already there for me to take on the life of sustainability, self-reliance, and kitchen economy. You all just provided the direction and spark… I’m all in because of you folks!”

―Jay, Arizona

“I’ve participated in two hog processing classes. The classes and videos gave me the courage to raise my own hogs. We partnered with the Meatsmiths to host a class and harvest two of the 5 hogs. With the help of friends we processed three hogs on our own, cured three prosciutto, smoked and cured our own bacon, and made head cheese. In all that, the best part of all the learning is the growth of my family and friends. I can’t tell you how many wonderful people we call friends because of the porcine adventure.”

―Jon; Shelton, WA

“You guys have a played a major role in our farm/homestead development of which pigs are the driving factor. Definitely have empowered me and my family. we have done some butchery since watching your videos. I hope to reference you for future marketing development for our farm. And one day get you to do a workshop (fingers crossed) I’m in west Tennessee in case you needed a gage of how far your outreach is. Thanks a million.”

―Justin, Tennessee