The Family Pig II
*December 4th-6th class is OPEN*
The yield of the pig is so expansive and diverse that we lack the time to cover it all in our original Family Pig class. The Family Pig II is a three-day harvest of completely new material. It is not merely adding recipes to the list, but conferring competency in traditional processes to establish the well-off frugality of the family table.
Using antique cutlery and your hands, this extensive class transforms a heritage breed pig into fresh, fermented, and preserved pork. Among the many techniques, we will make and learn to use a preservation brine. We will make rillettes, preserving meat with fat in the confit pot. The intestines will be treated artfully, beguiling their customary baseness. We will transform the head into headcheese, and the trotters into a meal that has become a favorite at the Sheard table.
Though it is a “part II” to The Family Pig series, no prior experience is required. The Family Pig II is simultaneously another way to harvest a pig, and a way for those who have been to The Family Pig to broaden the human power of artful nourishment.
The Family Beef
*October 3rd-4th & October 24th-25th classes are open*
Using your hands and antique cutlery, we will harvest two grass finished Dexters. We will transform one aged carcass into kitchen-sized cuts for the home’s pots, pans, and ovens. We will unknit the carcass without creating any waste. Our yield will be 100% of hanging weight in resolute distinction from the convention of wasting over half the harvest. The silhouette of the magnanimous bovine is our only parameter.
The smaller-framed Dexter allows for a better meat-to-bone ratio. All the harvesting is identical to tall, heavy breeds. Go home equipped to repeat the harvest on your own with any beef you raise.
This class is for the beginner and the experienced alike. In two days, you will have gained enough hands-on experience to artfully harvest cattle at home. The Dexter is small enough to fit your backyard grazing regimen and your home kitchen. These Dexters have been fattening on grass alone, so in addition to the slaughter and butchery, we will cover the range of grass fed beef cooking. These means that we will eat extremely well throughout both days.
These Dexters are artfully rotated on the cross timber prairie grasses of Oklahoma and never fed grain.
Martinmas Goose and Duck Harvest
*Our only poultry class of 2025 is November 7th-8th*
The goose is the noblest bird of the farmyard. As grazing waterfowl, it supplies the home kitchen with utterly unique provender. Starting with living geese, we will transform them into undiluted goods for the family table through the culinary traditions of the premodern peasant.
“The confit pot is one of the most useful storage items in the French farmhouse kitchen.” -Elisabeth Luard
With the convenience of refrigeration so widely available, we can easily ward off spoilage, at least for a little while. But this ease comes at the cost of flavor. The freezer cannot improve the meat it contains; it can only delay its inevitable demise. Older methods of preservation not only keep meat from going bad, but help it to go good. The traditions of our fathers in preserving the harvest evince thrift and extravagance in equal measure. One of these methods is confit.
The Family Pig I
*The only 2025 class is October 16th-18th*
The Family Pig I is an earnest and winsome course in domestic pig raising, harvesting and eating. Inspired by the pig, we go deep and wide in the preservation of pork, the salting of bacon, the harvesting of innards, the carving of flesh and the unreproved indulgence in fat and salt.
You take with you not only a package of educational material and sausage of your own making, but the working knowledge of harvesting two pigs from the field to the two-year-old prosciutto hanging in your kitchen.
Tools
This is a 6 page annotated list of all the tools you need to process pork, lamb and goat from home in the old-school way. It is a PDF that you download after purchase. It includes sources, prices and purchasing tips and represents the summation of our huge and costly education in what works and what doesn’t. Once you have the right tools (also meaning you don’t have the wrong ones) the meat nearly processes itself. (Not really, you wouldn’t want that anyway.)
The necessary tools for cutlery, slaughter, butchery and basic curing are covered in this digital download.
Stock
This precept equips you with the knowledge to make and use stock. It is no exaggeration to say that a successful kitchen makes use of stock at least everyday. It is the ingenious method of turning even bones into food.
This is a 10 page digital download.
Soap
In this precept, Lauren conveys instructions for making soap from animal fat. In addition to holding up the galaxy and being the brains behind Farmstead Meatsmith, she has managed to create the only soap I know of that simultaneously moisturizes and cleanses.
This is a 6 page digital download.
Pig Slaughter
This is the lengthiest precept at 41 pages. In writing it, I assumed you wanted to know everything about how to kill a pig in your backyard proficiently, beautifully and without waste. Each step is detailed, including the kill, dehairing, offal harvest, splitting, cold storage and more. This is where nose-to-tail eating is made possible.
This is a digital download.
Journal
I wrote this over the course of a kickstarter campaign for our backers. Each day I made an entry for the thirty-three days of the campaign. They pertain to the limitless art of meatsmithery. As such, they range widely from deglazing, whole-animal spit roasting, broccoli and BBQ to name a few.
This is a 20 page digital download.
Lard
This precept relates the simple process of making, storing and using the leaf fat of a pig to great culinary affect. This internal body fat is found in cows, lambs and goats so these instructions apply to them as well. Pork leaf lard, however, simply is the best and original shortening.
This is a 6 page digital download.
Meat Cookery
There is a rationale to cooking meat. The proliferation of recipes disguises the fact that you only need to know three things to cook any cut to perfection, no matter how obscure.
This is a 14 page digital download.
Cutlery
Knives have a significant impact on my quality of life as a butcher. Having agonized over this topic for years, it is my pleasure to spare you needless suffering by offering this precept. It details my path to scary sharpness so that you can come too. Good meat economy is impossible with dull cutlery.
This is a 19 page digital download.
Meatsmith Bibliography
This is an annotated list of the books that I found most useful and inspiring. They taught me how to be a meatsmith and they will carry you down the same path if you let them.
This is a 5 page digital download.
Bacon
This precept marks a huge departure from mainstream curing conventions in the US. It will equip you to make, store and eat bacon without nitrites, freezers or fear. There is nothing simpler and more essential to kitchen thrift. The principles conveyed here apply to prosciutto, guanciale, pancetta and lomo in their original glory.
This is a 16 page digital download.
Meatsmithery Hat
(Ships within the US only) This is a hat. It is designed to shade the eyes from four threats: the sun, the rain, flying feathers and scalding water dripping from a hanging pig.
Our Meatsmithery patch hat is navy blue with ‘Farmstead Meatsmith’ stitched on the side in light blue. The red patch features the triumvirate of Meatsmith tools: a rifle, a cleaver, and a scary sharp knife.
It is made with a cotton front and a poly/nylon mesh back. This means that it is light-weight. Consequently, it is not necessary to cinch it around your mazard with a tie-down to prevent it from flying off while you swiftly harvest your pig. It therefore epitomizes the elusive ideal by which all clothing designed to adorn the human form is judged: the simultaneous achievement of comfort and security. The visor has been slightly pre-curved. The size is one-size-fits-most and has an adjustable snapback. It is a medium rise hat, somewhere between the lofty trucker and the snug skull-hugger.
Price includes shipping to anywhere in the (lower 48) United States. Domestic orders only, please. If ordering from outside the US, email us for shipping costs at community@farmsteadmeatsmith.com.