Pig in a Day
Duration:
Timings:
Course start dates:
09 Oct 2026
19 Mar 2027
09 May 2027
12 Jun 2027
11 Jul 2027
19 Mar 2027
09 May 2027
12 Jun 2027
11 Jul 2027
Hourly Schedule
Time
- 9:00
- Arrival & welcome
- Tea, coffee and warm pastries from the kitchen.
- 09:30
- Course Start
- 13:00
- Lunch
- Seasonal lunch prepared by our catering team.
- 16.30
- Course End
- Course ID PgDayAS
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What’s included
- Learn from expert tutors and technicians with demonstrations, guidance, and support throughout the day.
- Enjoy a seasonal artisan buffet lunch showcasing ingredients sourced from the Welbeck Estate and the surrounding local food community.
- Access our state-of-the-art facilities, with all ingredients and specialist equipment provided.
- Help yourself to unlimited refreshments, including tea, coffee, and cordials throughout the day.
- Wear a School of Artisan Food apron in class, with the option to purchase one to take home after your course.
On this hands-on one-day course, you’ll work alongside experienced butcher and meat expert Andrew Sharp.
Drawing on decades of experience in both the meat trade and farming, Andrew will guide you through the process of butchering a side of pork, helping you understand the different cuts, their uses and the techniques needed to prepare them.
Throughout the day, you’ll develop practical knife skills and butchery techniques while gaining insight into the journey of a pig from farm to table. From roasting joints to sausage making, you’ll leave with the confidence to select, prepare and use a range of pork cuts at home or in a professional setting.
What You’ll Learn
Through a combination of demonstrations and hands-on butchery, you will:
- Learn how to choose quality pork based on source, appearance and breed
- Understand the different cuts of pork and their culinary uses
- Develop practical knife skills and butchery techniques
- Learn how to break down and prepare a side of pork
- Gain confidence in matching cuts to different cooking methods
- Explore traditional sausage-making techniques
Topics Covered
During the course, you’ll explore:
- Diverse cuts of fresh pork and their culinary uses
- Primary cuts and secondary joints
- Simple butchery techniques and knife skills
- Hand cutting, mincing, stuffing and tying techniques for sausages
- How to stuff and tie a joint for roasting
- Working with offal and understanding the use of the pluck
What You’ll Make
As this is a practical hands-on course, you’ll produce a selection of products to take home, which may include:
- Traditional British sausages
- Traditional Italian sausages
- A selection of pork joints
Who Is This Course For?
This course is ideal for home cooks, food enthusiasts and anyone interested in learning more about traditional butchery and meat preparation. It is also well suited to professional chefs, butchers and food producers looking to refine their knife skills and deepen their understanding of pork butchery.
No previous butchery experience is required, just an enthusiasm for learning and a willingness to get hands-on.
Please Note:
Whilst we make every effort to adhere to best practices regarding allergen control and cross-contamination at The School of Artisan Food, we sincerely regret that we are unable to cater for severe food allergies or coeliac disease. This is due to the continuous and varied use of our teaching spaces, common areas and food preparation areas.
If in any doubt, please contact us to discuss your individual circumstances prior to making a booking, as this will then enable us to produce a personalised Risk Assessment based on your own specific circumstances and better judge if we can safely accommodate you on site.
Your Tutors
Tutor
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Andrew SharpAndrew ‘Farmer Sharp’ was brought up on a mixed farm in Cumbria.
At the age of 13 he went to work in a butchers’ shop, which had its own farm and abattoir. At that time they were one of the few butchers’ shops selling lambs and pigs from the local area and a full range of game; plucked, dressed and prepared in the shop. They were also hanging and maturing its beef, the old fashioned way, which has now become all the rage in the artisanal butchery sector.
For 15 years Andrew ran his own medium sized, British Retail Consortium approved cutting plant selling herdwick lamb, herdwick mutton, galloway beef, naturally reared pink veal and air dried mutton from Cumbria to all over the UK, to the EU and even Hong Kong.
He is a founding member of the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, inspired by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and run day to day by the Academy of Culinary Arts.
Andrew has made several media appearances including the Radio 4 Food program, Kill it Cook it Eat it to Turn Back Time The High Street and Hugh’s 3 Good Things, to name but a few.
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