Meat and butchery skills

This week you will aim to showcase your butchery skills and produce a restaurant-standard dish using meat. You may already be able to joint a chicken, so if you can, challenge yourself to bone out an entire leg (thigh and drumstick together) and create a ballotine. Alternatively, you could produce a stuffed and rolled pork fillet, and use butchers knots to secure it.

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Top Tips

- Butchery requires patience and a very sharp knife. Cooking meat on the bone adds flavour and succulence, and you want to remove as little meat as possible, to prevent wastage.

- Ensure that you choose a recipe that allows enough time for you to do the butchery, as well as complete the recipe.

- If you are tying some knots around a stuffed joint, you will need to factor in more time.

- Meat needs seasoning well before cooking, to add flavour and draw out excess water.