Overview

Butchering is a skill often associated with the ancient trade profession of butcher, but it can extend beyond the job position. Those with the Butchering skill are able to slaughter animals, and handle, cut, and sort body parts with the intention for cooking, tanning, or practical uses. Similar to the skill of Hunting, Butchering usually pertains to animals. Also like Hunting, this can include humanoids depending on specialized character knowledge. Every city in Idalos depends on the local butchers to provide prepared meats that are safe to eat.

Characters who progress in butchering often study how bodies work, what holds them together and how, in order to more effectively take those bodies apart. They understand anatomy, especially of muscle groups, skeletal structures, and internal organs.

Types of Meat

Butchers almost always work with meat, regardless if hobby or profession. Butchery is not meant for plants.

White Meat: These are the meats often white in color that remain pale, though sometimes "dark meat" can be harvested from the cooked meat. Examples include poultry, chicken, turkey, duck, and goose.

Red Meat: These are the meats that are red before and sometimes after cooking. High in protein and iron-rich. Examples include beef, lamb, venison, goat, rabbit, and pork.

Seafood: A separate category of meat, requiring specialization, is how to handle various types of fish and sea creatures.

Organ Meat: The most nutrient dense of all meat. Organ meat can be harvested from all above types of meat, but are considered in their own category.

Specialty Harvesting: Unique to the fantasy world of Idalos, certain types of creatures might have specialized handling and harvesting that a butcher would learn to provide as a service to potential customers or for themselves (e.g. poison sacs, multiple hearts, different types of bones, etc.).

Processing

Whether acting as Hunter, or receiving the animal from a customer, butchers usually start the focus of the Butchering skill after the animal is already captured and/or dead.

Slaughter

How the animal was killed. For domesticated livestock, this usually includes some sort of stunning technique. For wild game, it is usually done during the hunt unless captive traps are used instead. There are also cultural and traditional rituals to the act of slaughter for certain types of meat that the butcher might work with.

Dressing

Whether field or back in a workroom, dressing comes immediately after the initial slaughter and involves preparation of the carcass. This usually includes exsanguination (severing the carotid or brachial arteries to facilitate blood removal), cleaning and skinning the hide or pelt, and evisceration (removing the viscera). It can also have other steps specific to the type of creature being dressed such as removal of hair before removal of hide, or even removal of specific unwanted glands.

After skinning, and during evisceration/gutting, certain organs (such as hearts, livers, etc.) can be separated out and saved during this process for storage and later eating. Proper dressing is important to get the carcass clean and avoid potential contamination of the meat.

Splitting or Quartering

Done immediately after dressing, splitting (also known as Halving) is the process of vertically dividing the carcass in half. Hooks are used for stability. The actual splitting can sometimes take a great deal of force and power, using tools like saws or large cleavers, depending on the size of the creature. For larger animals, vertical can be difficult enough to set-up that horizontal splitting through the middle is often used first and then halving occurs.

Quartering (or "Ribbing Down") is a good way to avoid bone fragments getting into the meat while sawing to split. Usually combined with field dressing, it involves just a hunter's knife (often a fixed-blade) and an understanding of anatomy, specifically the skeletal structure, to separate the body through the ball and socket joints of the creature. However it is done, it usually refers to the division between the twelfth and thirteenth ribs into fore-and hindquarters.

Storing

Unless going directly from dressing to butchering, the carcass has to be stored in the meantime. This is also where the technique of Aging (see below) comes in and why hooks are an important tool of the butcher's trade. Hanging the carcass in a dry, cool environment is the most common method of storage. It is common to have the head, hide, internal organs, lower shank bones, and discarded waste already removed. Sometimes the head and organs are left intact. Most common organs to be left inside are the liver, heart, and kidneys with the surrounding fat included.

Cutting

The break-down of a body into cuts is what a Butcher tends to be most known for. A lot of different methods exist for cutting, often to do with how the muscle and bone are handled. Techniques and tools can vary, be combined and experimented with. See below for types of cuts. A common technique for cutting is to go between the spaces of bone whenever possible rather than cutting through bone. Angles of different perspectives while cutting (and trimming) inevitably helps perfect technique as the butcher progresses, flipping and rotating the meat on the surface to get at parts of it.

It is important to keep in mind the possibility of bone fragments and bone dust which can ruin a cut of meat. Removing membranes is also something to keep in mind for pieces like ribs. Also, depending on storage, it can be crucial to look for any mold on the outer layers of the meat to cut and waste the spoiled meat.

The initial breakdown will be the largest pieces. As Cutting progresses, the larger primal cuts are narrowed down into subprimal cuts, then into specialty and prime cuts. Every phase of cutting removes wasted or trimmed portions of the carcass to focus on smaller and smaller pieces of meat. The smallest cuts are usually cubes for stew or strips made for jerky.

Trimming

Removing fat or unwanted meat from finished cuts, which can depend on the intended use of the meat and the aim for the flavor profile. A sharp, flexible knife must be used while trimming so that it glides through the meat. Dull knives can be forced through, but at risk of slicing or even severing the butcher's fingers. If the knife is flexible then it can also dig any bones out, rather than a stiff knife. A boning hook can also help with this technique to speed it up.

Trimming often prepares otherwise unused meat to be made into ground meat by removing tubular veins, tough sinew, and unwanted glands and fat. It is also a catch-all for any meat that won't be processed into cuts. With both cutting and trimming, it is important for the butcher to work with the meat rather than against the grain, sinew, or bones.

This phase also prepares the bones for uses as well (see A Note on Bone Marrow below). Trimming can often take a great deal of time, if the butcher is not mindful, for larger animals that have a lot of potential meat on bones that wasn't part of the cuts.

Techniques

There are many, many techniques for Butchering but here are some examples of those that can be used with varying proficiency as the character progresses through Butchering.

Boning

Removing bones is an important technique, especially for meat intended for gourmet meals. This technique can be improved as the character progresses in proficiency and learns the little tricks for the different types of animals that they work with (e.g. it is important to scrape away possible bone dust from the cuts after separating them). This is how boneless cuts are prepared and requires specialized tools like the boning knife, filleting knife (for fish), meat saws, etc. It requires understanding the shape and structure of the carcass being processed. For the novice and competent butcher, it can also be a dangerous and frustrating technique when done improperly, leading to accidental injuries from excess force or wayward blades; and wasted products and ruined flavor due to poor butchering, respectively.

Aging

A storage and processing technique that is meant to improve the flavor and tenderness of the meat. Especially with meat, it also serves to let time break down the connective tissue within the meat. Most Aging is Dry-Aging, unless proper precautions are taken to accomplish wet-aging. Dry-aging is the reason for hooked racks that hang up carcasses between the stages of slaughter and cuts.

Both sub-techniques require careful monitoring of temperature and humidity in the environment. There are also different ways to incorporate salt, rice, and other approaches. Common time takes anywhere from 15 to 30 trials for Dry-Aging, but the outer layer of the meat will need to be wasted as mold will grow on the outside during the process and create a "crust". Some swear that this fungal crust improves the flavor profile of the meat.

Tying

Butcher String or Kitchen Twine can be used for this technique that helps along meat intended for cooking in flame. It keeps the shape of the meat as it is, but allows for it to cook evenly. Another reason can be for stuffing so that when the meat expands while cooking, and becomes juicer, the stuffing is kept inside.

Grinding

For the trimmed and cut-away meats, grinding is a common way to put it all together for edible use. Depending on the butcher's preference (or their customer's), the fat content will depend on how much fat was included in the trimmings. Most grinding will also combine the skill of Cooking because seasoning often is included in the process. It requires the equipment of a hand-crank meat grinder and similar tools.

Cuts

There are many types of "cuts", or pieces of meat separated from the carcass during butchering. The divisions of butchered meat can range depending on regions, traditions, cultures, preferences, and more. For this reason, only general categories are provided as specific diagrams can and should vary depending on character background, mentorship, and location.

Primal Cuts: Large cuts separated from the animal body. These are usually the first cuts made and often separate major pieces that are large such as legs, the loins, the ribs, round and chuck, and minor divisions such as brisket and flanks. Subprimal cuts are when these larger groups get broken down into specific, smaller cuts but are not considered prime or specialty cuts.

Offal or Organ Meats: Meats that are from the viscera (internal organs) and entrails of the butchered animal. This ranges a lot, but includes most internal organs while excluding muscle and bone. Some cultures treat offal as taboo food, but others treat it as everyday food. Others treat offal dishes as gourmet delicacies and some are considered traditional cuisine. The most common use for offal is in the use of casing for sausages.

Trimmings: The fat that is trimmed off the cuts of meat. Used for higher fat content mixes of meat, usually ground up or put through specific machines to make specialized foods like sausages which often use intestines to act as the encasing for prepared sausage. Trimmings can also be used to make lard.

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Prime Cuts: High-quality rare cuts that usually come from less than 10% of the body. Often especially tender. Filet Mignon is a prime example of this cut.

Specialty Cuts: These can range and depend on the intent of the cuts and who will be receiving them. Especially for unique animals that might not be usual livestock that a butcher works with. Just like any cut, this can be divided between meat on the bone cuts and boneless cuts.

A Note on Marbled Meat An observational technique usually applied to red meat, marbling is the appearance of the fat distribution within the meat. The higher fat distribution, the more marbled it appears. It is commonly considered that the more marbling, the higher quality the meat will be in flavor, juiciness, and tenderness.

A Note on Bone Marrow While most bones are discarded after trimming (if not kept in the meat cuts), some are kept to be used for broths, soup stocks, or even just to eat the marrow itself. Bone marrow can come from various types of bones, but the femur is best for marrow specifically.

Preservation

Storing cut meats requires some sort of preservation if the meat is going to last more than a handful of trials. Moisture causes bacterial growth, which butchers and cooks understand on a fundamental level through their work with food. Neither need to understand the chemistry to know that when food is wet and left in the open, it expires quickly.

Cured Meats

Salt is the most common way of preserving meats, getting rid of bacteria through drawing out the moisture. Often used with other methods such as drying and smoking. Placing raw meats in barrels of dry salt, in containers (kegs, etc.) to completely surround the piece could last for arcs especially when preserved in cold weather. Another method is soaking the meat in salt brine, which keeps it edible for about a season or two after butchering. Important to note that when using meats preserved through salt that it is best to soak it in fresh water to remove that salt before preparing it to cook with.

Dried Meats

If being wet causes meats to go bad quickly, then drying meats is a basic solution to that observation. Depending on the environment of location, colder places can get away with placing some meats (such as fish) outside in the cold air to dry. Similarly, in hot regions, meat can be dried in the direct sun. Common procedure is to cut the meat into thin strips, lightly salt, then hang to dry outside or in a place sheltered from the elements and bugs.

Smoked Meats

Most common to preserve fish and pork, smoked meat is usually prepared by cutting it into thin, lean strips. These strips are then soaked in a salt solution for a brief time, then hung over a fire. The smoke absorbs into the slowly drying meat. Depending on the wood used in the fire, sometimes the salt is not needed but salt discourages bugs, bacteria, and moisture.

Confits

Essentially, potted meats usually of fowl (especially duck or goose) or pork. The meat is salted and cooked for a very long time, allowed to cool, and then sealed up all in its own fat. Once done, it is stored in a cool place where it can last for a couple seasons.

Frozen Meats

While not a commonly available option for the hotter and temperate regions of Idalos; For the colder regions, this is a possibility. Cities like Viden find it easy to create ice-rooms or ice-boxes, or simply use the natural cold outside. In these areas that have colder seasons, cellars and underground rooms can be packed with ice to keep cool arc-round if necessary. This can be a hassle to maintain, though, and if for any reason the ice melts or the temperature unexpectedly warms, the meat is soon in danger of spoiling.

Equipment

Hooks

Various types of hooks can be involved with butchering from hanging meat to boning hooks to drag hooks, to even more specialized hooks for different types of cuts or preserved meats. Gambrels (wide dual hooks) can also be included in this for the purpose of hanging the carcass. Boning hooks are necessary to help protect fingers and hands, for stability as a guide for a knife, to help remove membranes, and to generally remove bones with little mess.

Knives

A butcher would be nowhere without their knives. Boning knives, breaking knives, butcher/steak knives, trimming knives, all sorts of knives of many different lengths and for specific uses. There are a lot of specialty blades made for the various butchering of different types of creatures too. Various metals could be used, and the keen Butcher might even design their own type of knife to be crafted if they are specialized enough. It is incredibly important to keep all the blades sharp!

Saws

Equally important as knives are saws. Hacksaws, bone saws, and meat saws are necessary to help break apart large sections of the body. Used for a range of applications, but mostly to split carcasses and help break down the sections of body for cuts.

Cleavers

The wider blades that a butcher uses, while one could consider them knives, deserve their own category due to how important they are. Cleavers hack apart through bone. Usually rectangular in the blade's shape, sometimes resembling a hatchet, they can range in size from one-hand to even two-handed depending on what is needed.

Sharpeners

Steel Rod: With all the blades, a butcher must have something to quickly sharpen the blades and that is what a "Butcher's Steel" is for. Other knife sharpening tools are useful, but the steel is quick to use and easy to transport. Whenever a knife starts to dull, the rod is used to sharpen the edge.

Sharpening Stone: Oil or water sharpening stones. Whetstones can also be used for when there is more time to sharpen blades between butchering rather than during like the sharpening steel.

Cutting Surfaces

In order to help preserve knives and get clean primal cuts, it is important to have the right kind of surface underneath while cutting. Wood blocks tend to be the best, and wooden boards can make do. A solid cutting table that is kept to avoid wood splinters, dirt, or grain getting into the meat is important.

Attire

Aprons and frocks are common due to the viscera often created while in the process of butchering. Heavy-duty aprons usually provide the best protective coverage. Aprons that can be easily cleaned off between stages of the process are also useful. An apron that is both heavy-duty and easily cleaned off is one of the butcher's prized equipment pieces.

Steel chainmail is common for aprons, frocks, and gloves to help protect the butcher during the cutting phase. Other attire could include clean gloves, resilient non-slip boots, and a butcher's belt to keep the butcher's favorite tools at the ready. If not a belt, then some sort of nearby tool holder.

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Work Space

Most butchers require a work space that at least consists of a flat surface, to store tools, and a place to dump the refuse. Containers such as bins and buckets are essential to keeping a clean butchering space. Racks to keep tools off the ground and at ease for ready use are often also part of the butcher's work space.

Miscellaneous

Many other tools can come into play depending on the specialties of the butcher and how they are using butchery, from specialized tools to do with different types of harvesting to things like meat tenderizers and hammers. Packaging and storage papers, twine, etc. for wrapping can help transport the meat. A separate surface (table, counter, etc.) for wrapping, tying, and smaller cuts is also very useful.

Related Skills

This depends on the type of Butcher, but anything that increases their knowledge of meat, bodies, anatomy, their tools, and how to preserve food could be beneficial. A couple general skills that could be beneficial to the act of efficient butchering might be Strength and Endurance.

Cooking - A Butcher who treats meat for meals, or to sell to kitchens and chefs, will want to have understanding of this skill themselves. Things like preparing sausages, tenderizing meat, using specific types of herbs and seasonings during processing or preservation will often overlap with this skill.

Baking - Less common than cooking, but still has the possibility of being involved for the butcher who specializes in customers who work in kitchens or even for restaurants. Meat pies, sweet meats, and candied meats could have overlap.

Hunting, Fishing, and Field Craft - On the other side of Butchery, with Processing, it can be common to overlap with the skills of a Hunter in knowledge of how to hang, dress, skin, and store the animal body of wild game.

Surgery - In terms of anatomy, cuts, and knowledge of meat, bone, organs and the location of these things, the Butcher might have overlap with the Surgery skill because of it.

Animal Husbandry - A Butcher might specialize in raising their own domestic livestock to butcher later.

Skill Ranks

Novice (0-25)

The Novice Butcher is capable of basic assistance to butchery. Learning the tools and equipment involved is common at this stage, as is the basic cuts and handling of bodies during the processing stage. Certain techniques might be completely unknown to the novice, though, as they are just getting the understanding that butchery is not simply swinging a cleaver about and hacking apart a body. Even that, without strength or endurance, they will find difficult.

Without guidance from a more advanced butcher, the Novice will find this out the hard way when running into portions of bone, or accidental corruption of the meat through improper removal of innards, or any number of things that can go wrong from start to finish. It is possible they may also hurt themselves on the very tools meant to aid, or might find themselves with a dull blade but no sharpening rod, and realize how important maintenance of the butcher's knives and workspace can be.

Cuts tend to be kept to primal, are crude. Hides and skins cannot be used for tanning, leather working, or sale as they are usually destroyed due to inexperience in the processing. Organs and specialty harvesting are out of reach for the novice butcher as a technique. Wasted byproduct is at its highest, with most of the animal getting ruined in the process. Preservation via smoking is often also just above novice, unless the novice is assisting a more experienced butcher. The Novice Butcher cannot easily process an entire average animal from slaughter to table alone, it can take them anywhere from one to three trials to manage. Even with guidance or a manual, a Novice Butcher can only process one animal per two trials at most.

Competent (26-75)

At Competent, the butcher has realized how important preparation of tools and workspace is. The butcher keeps their knives ready, with a sharpening tool nearby for quick use. They are less likely to ruin the finished product and can now go through the entire process of butchering with reasonable success.

Specialization starts to happen at this point, and the butcher's personal track starts to become clear with what they focus their attention on as they gain experience and study the trade. There will be moderate failures when it comes to more advanced techniques, such as harvesting tricky items. Given practice, though, things that were impossible for the Novice are now just difficult for the Competent Butcher.

Primal cuts start to gain expediency, efficient in how to cut them, and other types of cuts are available to practice with varying success. Hides and skins can be used for tanning, leatherworking, or sale as they are no longer destroyed but it does require close attention and patience of the butcher to achieve. Organs and specialty harvesting are possible to start to explore as a technique. Wasted byproduct is moderate, with a good amount of the animal ruined or discarded in the process. Preservation techniques also are available to explore. A Competent Butcher can process an average animal from slaughter to table within several breaks, and can process up to two animals within the same trial.

Expert (76-150)

The Expert Butcher doesn't have to rely on anyone else, unless they choose to have assistants to their trade. Tools and workspace tend to be impeccable, for easier processing. By this point, the butcher has experience with numerous animal carcasses and how to take them apart and cut them into pieces. Advanced techniques of trimming arise at this stage, such as going further and making sausage which won't get other people sick.

Specialties are common depending on what kind of creatures that the butcher has studied, and the other skills the character has developed alongside Butchering. Certain techniques to sweeten or salt or otherwise influence the flavor or texture of the meat (such as aging) appears at this level. The Expert Butcher have specific understandings special to them about blood loss, muscle and fat, bones and anatomy.

Any type of cut can be explored, with primal cuts being so easy that they feel almost automatic to the butcher and look effortless for anyone watching. Hides and skins can be used for any kind of interest and can be removed perfectly without error in quick, similarly automatic manner. Organs and specialty harvesting can go into advanced techniques, as can preservation techniques. Wasted byproduct is minimal to moderate, with most of the animal able to be used however the Butcher wants after the process. An Expert Butcher can process an average-sized animal from slaughter to table within a few breaks of time, and can process up to four animals within the same trial.

Master (151-250)

The Master Butcher is beyond any of this profession. Local butchers through Idalos tend to be Experts in the craft but Master Butchers are the artisans of the lot. They have taken Butchering to a completely new level. Whether through their meticulous preparation, or their masterful grasp on advanced techniques, or even pioneering a new approach or specialty meat, none can compare to the cuts and finished products that a Master Butcher has created.

Meats cut by master butchers tend to be in high demand between chefs, elites, and connoisseurs of dining. It is also said that there is no one on Idalos who understands meat more than a Master Butcher. All that remained difficult for the previous levels is now as easy as the Master Butcher wishes it to be. Instead, their focus turns to personal flourish and pride in their work. Wasted byproduct is almost unheard of, as minimal as can be, as the Butcher can figure ways to use most parts of the animal.

Unique cuts can be developed, specific to the Master. Hides and skins are easily removed and repurposed. Preservation is a simple task. Specialties can be all that the Master Butcher spends their time on, at this point. A Master Butcher is only held back by their own endurance, and their willingness to employ assistants to expand their processing as they can oversee lower level butchers to get through as many animals in a trial that they need to. The time required for a Master Butcher to process an average-sized animal can be less than a few breaks (unless the butcher chooses to focus on the art of a certain part of the process), with no limit to how many can be processed within the same trial other than the mentioned endurance of the butcher.

Credit: Carver

Progressing Butchering

• Capstones
• Grandmasters
• Tier 2 PCs