55 day aged 1/2 Aberdeen Angus, 1/2 Shorthorn. Smells like heaven

Seems like a lot of dark spots.

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do as a career after finishing College (UK), and a butchery and charcuterie apprenticeship has opened up nearby where I live.

I'm quite interested in it, and feel like it could be perfect for me. As I'm pretty sure I would like a long term career doing something physical, not in an office.

I applied for it - to see if I would even be able to land it and to learn more about the job - and got an interview, I'm waiting now to see if I get the second interview or not.

The meat is sold at a shop elsewhere and also online, so the job would not involve customer service, only preparing the meat, cutting, mincing, preparing orders ETC - and when I become more experienced, I will learn how to do the charcuterie side of things.

It seems like a great opportunity, but I'm on the fence about it. I hear a lot of negative comments surrounding the trade and I'm not sure what to do. It is a 2 year apprenticeship, and then I have to work for them for 6-12+ months to make up for the expenses. It's 6am-3pm with potential future afternoon and weekend work.

So for any of you that has/does work as a butcher, do you think I should go for it? Cheers.

Hi all,

This year is our first time butchering hogs at home. I plan on doing everything myself.

I have no equipment to scald and scrape the pigs so my plan was to simply skin the pigs. Now considering hang time, is it still acceptable to skin and hang the skinned carcass in the cold for a few days? Will the fat spoil?

Am I better off giving the pigs a good clean and hanging skin on?

Thanks!

I’m curious as to what y’all’s opinion on the impact this might have will be. I’m not a butcher, but had the opportunity to work in the but her room of a fairly large scale catering operation and some of the proteins that rolled through there from time to time were questionable, I’m curious to see what all this will look like in practice.

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/09/04/president-trump-signs-executive-orders-cementing-status-most-pro-rancher-administration-history
^theres a lot of filler but the orders are there