Venison butchery course now available - Scotland

[jcampbellsmith]

I came across this training opportunity this morning in an e-mail sent out by ADMG.
I intend to e-mail them and see what is available near Edinburgh.
Regards
JCS

Venison butchery course now available
A new venison butchery course adapted from the National Occupational Standard (NOS) course is now available for DMGs, estate stalkers and butchers. This course has been developed by Scottish Craft Butchers, Craft Skills Scotland and the Scottish Venison Association. Its objective is to give stalkers and butchers an understanding of the cuts that come from venison and where they come from, explain their use, and how to add value.

The one-day course covers, among other topics, breaking down the carcase into primals; the various cuts; removing damaged meat; temperatures and food safety; yield and waste; demonstrating use of cuts to make value added products, burgers and sausages; slicing and packing.

There is a multiple choice exam to finish based on the NOS ‘Carry out Game Butchery’ test with certificates awarded by Scottish Craft Butchers and SVA.

For more information contact mail@scottish-venison.info

 

[Dave31]

Will you post the details on here?

 

[roaring_stag]

Thanks for the heads up. Have sent them an emailz do you happen to know where/when this course will be held?

 

[alasdair]

I'm not very far from Edinburgh and am interested in attending a one day course locally and have stalking buddies who might also be interested.

Alasdair.

 

[Dave31]

Has anyone heard back? I haven't yet.

 

[RescueMe0007]

I wish we had something similar available here, sounds excellent.

 

[roaring_stag]

Has anyone heard back? I haven't yet.

No not a peep….

 

[jaffa]

Hi
Any more info ? I would be interested

 

[Pedro]

I suspect there'll be no word coming back to you anyway over the Easter bank holiday period folks!

 

[Freeforester]

My only observation would be to consider carefully quite ‘how much’ added value there may be in making sausages and even burgers, both of which are time-consuming products, and which will require external inputs (entailing traceability record keeping), supply chain considerations and additional machinery, all of which latter also has to be cleaned. It is not as if there is much in the way of waste fat in a carcass (which anyway is unsuitable for human consumption for pleasure) to ‘get rid’ of, unlike much domestic stock which butchers are obliged to use up in order to maximise yield.

For those inclined to ask to buy burgers, I had a printed recipe/method label which I carried on the A4 sheets of same, and when a customer enquired whether I had any available, I’d tell them that there were four quarter pounders in that there (pound weight) bag of mince just dying to get out! A little explanation and provision of a recipe label stuck on the back of the mince pack was usually sufficient to encourage them to make burgers for themselves with total confidence in the provenance of what they were eating, and saved a lot of time and work for what in the end is never going to be a higher-return product. If that did not work, I would point them towards the steaks which cost less than the pack of mince. It mattered little to me, as I found that I almost always sold out of mince every time anyway.

Culturally speaking, the mince was always extremely popular up here as is, for anything from basic mince and tatties to lasagne, chilli con bambi, etc, can be upgraded/value increased as a product to ragu by using a kidney plate& knife as opposed to a standard mincing plate & knife, giving a lovely texture to the minced product. The scraps all went for mince, better shoulder and neck meat for ragu (at a better return rate for me), and so on.

The philosophical and practical differences between one’s approach to butchering venison and domestic stock should be considered carefully.

 

[@theroedeerguy]

Anyone had any replies yet?

Nothing received from my enquiry yet.

 

[Dave31]

Anyone had any replies yet?

Nothing received from my enquiry yet.

Nope

 

[roaring_stag]

I chased them the other day and got a reply from Dick Playfair to say that they are in the process of confirming some dates and the location of courses. I guess will just have to wait to hear more from them.

ATB,

RS