Lindy & Grundy Host Lamb Butchering Demo at Terroni

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Erika Nakamura, aka Grundy, wielded a saw while Lindy & Grundy partner Amelia Posada provided commentary.

Amelia Posada and Erika Nakamura, the Los Angeles butchers better known as Lindy & Grundy, hosted a butchering demo on March 28 in Terroni‘s back room. Posada provided commentary while Nakamura and an assistant broke down an eight-month-old, 55-pound, grass-fed lamb from Ritz Guggiana at Sonoma Direct in Petaluma. Debbie Rocker from nearby Rocker Bros. Meat, another important cog in the supply chain, also took part in the event.

Guggiana was at Terroni and explained that Sonoma Direct sources lamb from Sonoma County, mostly in Bodega Bay. The hormone-free, antibiotic-free lamb we got to know better is a Dorset breed and came from Wyland Ranch.


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Erika Nakamura and Tim Havidic wore chainmail so butchering tools wouldn’t puncture them.

Butchers Los Angeles

Erika Nakamura carved lamb in front of mesmerized onlookers while she and Posada spoke about the benefits of whole animal butchery.

Nakamura explained, “We really want to stress having chefs be on board with us in terms of using the entire animal. Aside from it being more economical for a lot of chefs, I think it really does put a cap on things like factory farming, and we’re able to really support our small family farmers that way.”

Rizzo stressed how whole animal butchery is sustainable. “There are a lot of cuts that need to be used, and they’re not as expensive, and you have to be a little more creative, but it makes sense, and more and more, we’re selling the whole animal to restaurants, and they’re breaking down the whole animal and they’re making their own sausages. They’re curing their own meats. They’re literally willing now to start saying, “Well, we don’t have this cut of meat anymore because we ate it, we served it. This is what’s left.” And that’s what’s on the menu. That’s what really needs to start happening for us to be able to become a sustainable and to buy from farms, because these farms can’t survive if the only thing we order for them is racks.”

Posada added, “We’re trying to move people away from the tenderloin, away from boneless, skinless chicken breast and explore the rest of the animal. We’ll be giving recipe suggestions out to people, and if they’re not intimidated to buy these cuts if they see how we’re using them. At our shop, we take all our bones and make lamb stock, beef stock, chicken stock, pork stock. We render our lard, we make lard and sell it frozen. We make chilis and soups and actually, here’s an interesting little tidbit, one of our farmer friends came by the other day, and the limited amount of waste that we do have, the exterior of the animal that we can’t use, that’s inedible waste, our farmers are going to be taking that from us – and this may not be appetizing – they’re farming maggots and grubs that they then feed to their chickens. So we almost have zero waste now, so that’s really awesome.”

Nakamura started by removing the sheep’s neck at the Atlas bone with a handsaw and worked her way south. She and Posada did a great job of explaining what she was doing, why, and even suggested uses for the different cuts of meat. For instance, lamb neck goes great in “peasant” dishes like cassoulet, and hind shank is a natural for osso bucco.

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An invaluable bone scraper joined halved lamb on a wood butcher block.

Butcher Los Angeles

Erika Nakamura continued to cut lamb framed by freshly butchered meat.

Butcher Los Angeles

Erika Nakamura systematically dismantled lamb ribs.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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