The complete home guide to practical butchering, cuts, and safe meat handling
The Beginner's Guide to Butchering by Arthur C. Sterling Jr
Covers beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry, rabbit, venison and more
Clear step-by-step instruction for dressing, cutting, wrapping and freezing
Includes meat charts, cut diagrams and easy-to-follow techniques
Built for beginners, homesteaders, hunters and self-reliant families
Reduce waste and get more value from every animal you process
The Beginners Guide To Butchering
A Glimpse Of What You'll Learn - The Pages Inside
Clear lessons on field dressing, meat cuts, wrapping, freezing, and safe handling.
Practical guidance for preparing game safely and efficiently in the field.
Learn to identify common cuts and understand where they come from.
Reference notes for handling and preparing smaller animals.
Key considerations for clean handling and quality wild game.
Helpful methods for packaging, freezing, and storing meat.
Prepare your workspace with useful tools and safe practices.

The Author Heading
Practical guidance from veterinarian John J. Mettler
Arthur C. Sterling Jr., DVM, is a retired large-animal veterinarian and former officer in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. After decades of inspecting meat and ensuring food safety for deployed forces, he retired to his family farm to focus on his lifelong passion for self-sufficiency.
He has written on a broad range of livestock and veterinary topics for various agricultural publications, contributing expert columns to farming and homesteading journals for over 20 years. His deep professional background includes longstanding memberships in the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.
Arthur brings a clear, disciplined, and practical approach to home butchering, explaining how to process beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry, rabbit, and venison with complete confidence. Drawing on his military and clinical experience, the book focuses heavily on safe handling without a commercial setup, yielding useful cuts, proper wrapping, freezing, and getting the absolute most value from every animal.
Most meat books skim the hard parts.This one shows the cuts step by step.
Most meat books skim the hard parts.This one shows the cuts step by step.
Beginner's Butchering
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Typical alternative
Other Books
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Covers livestock & wild game
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Step-by-step cutting guidance
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Field dressing explained clearly
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Includes curing, smoking & preserving
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Money-Back Guarantee
Not satisfied? Return it within 30 days for a full refund—no questions asked. Try it completely risk-free!
Secure your copy nowMoney-Back Guarantee
Not satisfied? Return it within 30 days for a full refund—no questions asked. Try it completely risk-free!
Secure your copy nowTrustpilot Reviews
Excellent 4.9/5 based on 14,000+ customer reviews
Helped me stop wasting meat
The biggest value for me was understanding where each cut comes from and what to do with it. It made butchering feel organized instead of overwhelming.
Clear enough for a beginner
I bought this before helping with our first lamb and kept referring back to it. The explanations are direct and the diagrams make the process much easier to follow.
The cut charts finally made sense
I have watched videos for years, but this book made the order of cuts much easier to understand. The instructions are calm, clear, and practical enough to keep beside the work table.
This belongs in every homestead kitchen
It is the kind of book you keep nearby when you need an answer fast. Practical, direct, and useful for livestock, poultry, rabbit, and game.
Exactly what I needed before processing my first deer
I wanted a book that explained the process without making it feel mysterious. The directions are plain, practical, and easy to follow. The sections on cuts and wrapping helped me avoid wasting good meat.
A practical book I keep on the shelf
This is not fluffy theory. It is a working reference for cutting, trimming, wrapping, and freezing meat at home. I already marked several pages to come back to.
Great reference for hunting season
I bought it for the venison section and ended up reading the beef and pork chapters too. The instructions make it easier to plan before the animal is on the table.
No-nonsense and easy to follow
The writing is simple in the best way. It tells you what tools to have ready, what to do next, and how to store the meat properly when you are done.
Made home processing less intimidating
I was nervous about doing this at home, but the book breaks it down into manageable steps. The safety and freezing guidance alone made it worth buying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about our products.
Yes. The book is written as a practical guide, with clear steps for setup, safe handling, dressing, cutting, wrapping, and freezing.
It covers beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry, rabbit, venison, and other game, with guidance for different types of meat and cuts.
You only need the proper basic tools, a clean work area, and safe handling habits. The book explains what to prepare before you start.
Yes. The venison and game sections are especially useful for hunters who want to process meat cleanly and reduce waste.
Yes. It explains wrapping, freezing, and organizing meat so it stays protected and easy to use later.
Not satisfied? Return it within 30 days for a full refund—no questions asked. Try it completely risk-free!





