Forget yoga class — get a peace of mind, literally, at butchery class.
A new series of cooking classes at a Fort Greene restaurant is offering meat-loving Brooklynites a chance to learn to butcher their own animal — from a tiny bird to a large pig — satisfying their need to get their hands dirty and also slowing down the pace of life, with a knife.
Especially since butchering a whole pig is this chef’s ideal form of meditation.
“It’s like clarity for me,” said Kyle McClelland, executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant Prospect that opened last month.
“Some people do yoga — I cut up meat.”
But butchery isn’t just a self-help, it’s also the most considerate way to go about eating at the expense of animal-life. Having a better understanding of where the hip bone’s connected to — is also the best way to make hip stew.
“I want to show people how much of that animal you can use,” he said. “Nothing goes to waste. You can even make head cheese out of the brain.”
Mmm — brains.
Like most do-it-yourself projects, butchering saves money. The class is useful for people who want to learn a useful skill as well as keep the cost of their carnivorous habit low, said the chef.
“It’s a lot cheaper to buy something that is whole than to have your butcher do it for you,” he said.
Sadly, because of liability issues, students will not be allowed to take apart the bigger animals, so they’ll have to just watch McClelland carve the pig and tuna, getting hands-on experience with only smaller animals, like chickens, before graduating to the big knives.
Butchery class at Prospect [773 Fulton St. between S. Portland Avenue and S. Oxford Street in Fort Greene, (718) 596–6826, www.prospectbk.com]. Oct. 29, 7 pm, $90.
