At the beginning of the month, I attended a symposium at UC Berkeley sponsored by the Society for Food and Agricultural Ecology entitled “The Art of Butchering.” The panel was moderated by Marissa Guggiana (Sonoma Direct, Secret Eating Society) and featured chef Ryan Farr (Ivy Elegance, CHEFS Program), chef Nate Appleman (A16, Urbino), butchers Melanie Eisemann and David Budworth (Avedano’s) and Mark Pasternak (Devil's Gulch Ranch). After a panel discussion revolving around the craft of butchering and the relationship between ranchers, butchers, chefs and consumers, came the highlight of the evening as Ryan Carr broke down a whole pig into various cuts. The standing room only crowd attested to the East Bay’s fascination with the sources of its meat.

That Nate Appleman’s A16 sells out of stuffed pork trotters indicates that even the denizens of the Marina appreciate skillfully prepared meats other than rib eyes and pork tenderloins. However, what stops the home cook from more frequently preparing these cuts isn’t necessarily ignorance of how they should be prepared or even squeamishness at the thought of eating what amounts to a pig’s foot and ankle, but rather the daunting time factor. Standing at the meat counter, after work or on the weekend, the enthusiasm we felt reading about braised beef cheeks or pork hocks agrodolce often dims under the glare of the butcher shop’s fluorescent lights and the weight of non—cooking responsibilities. It’s much easier to buy steaks and chops for dinner instead of the chuck roast when the former can be cooked in five to ten minutes and the latter will take three hours. Even if the harried home cook goes for the chuck, freshly ground beef is going to be ready as a burger in minutes that night while the whole chuck roast for a beef burgundy will take a day to marinade before it is even ready to braise (please do not buy ground sirloin unless you already have heart disease). There’s a reason the New York Times food writer Mark Bittman bills himself as “The Minimalist."

As with many things in life, the way to make our cooking ambitions come true, is to introduce a bit of economic necessity into the mix. If the freezer is filled with high quality meat from the full breadth of an animal, we are much more likely to actually make the time to cook those tougher cuts rather than opt for burgers or chops again. If you don’t hunt or raise your own meat a la Ghost Town Farms’ Novella Carpenter, then your best bet to fill the freezer with a range of meat cuts is to sign up with the Bay Area Meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The Bay Area Meat CSA began as a traditional CSA in which members signed up for regular periodic delivery from a farm but running a meat CSA presents far more difficulties than the more familiar produce CSAs. In its current form, the BAMCSA operates as social networking site. You sign up (for free) and then connect with people in the forums who are interested in purchasing shares of whole animal from a range of local ranchers. Beef, pork, lamb, goats and chickens are all available. The website includes a variety of tools to help you through the process of contacting ranchers and arranging for processing of your animal and subsequent pick-up. Few of us have freezer space for the 200 pounds of a half a steer or a whole hog, but purchased with a big enough group, one can bring home a manageable sized quantity of 15 to 25 lbs of meat. Not only will you save some money off the price at the butcher and support sustainable local ranches, but you will have braising and end cuts staring out at you from the freezer.

Whether you get your meat from the butcher, a CSA or a farmer’s market vendor, someone else has turned the whole carcass into individual cuts for you. If the idea of breaking down an entire animal has appeal then don’t shy away. While the butchers and chefs at “Art of Butchering” spoke of the hard-earned skills needed to professionally break down an entire carcass, Ryan Farr noted that he was self taught and said at one point that if you can butcher a chicken then you can butcher a hog. I would agree. If you know how to take a part a whole chicken or rabbit, and want try a larger animal get a lamb or a goat and go from there before trying a pig which is a bigger proposition. The internet is your friend for finding butchering diagrams. Besides a sharp knife, you’ll need a big table or countertop, a meatsaw, and freezer paper or a vacuum sealer to wrap the meat. Access to a meat grinder for ground meat would also be helpful. Plan on a full afternoon for this project and don’t expect professional results, but don’t be afraid of the whole carcass.

There was a certain irony in listening to the folks from the excellent butcher shop Avendano’s in Bernal Heights encourage East Bay audiences to support local butcher shops, but certainly Ver Brugge on College, Housewives Market in downtown, Piedmont Grocery and any number of Chinatown and Fruitvale butchers are available for Oaklanders who prefer not to buy shrink wrapped meat. Quality butcher shops are also located in Berkeley at the Star Market, Café Rouge, and the Berkeley Bowl. Baron’s Meat and Poultry in Alameda carries Mark Pasternak’s Devil’s Gulch Ranch meat.