Our Classes
General Booking now open for January & February 2022
Welcome back to our butchery classes. We look forward to having you in one of our sessions soon.
Please read the below messages before proceeding with your booking.
If your original class was cancelled due to COVID please contact Indre at butcheryclasses@thegingerpig.co.uk
Any vouchers with an expiration date between March 2020 and September 2021 will be honoured until 1st September 2022. You will need to email us with your booking request and voucher number. If your voucher has expired you cannot book online.
A short introduction to Butchery classes
A fabulous gift experience for those who would like a hands-on lesson in meat and traditional butchery skills. This is an opportunity for our guests to try their hand at light butchery and learn more about where their meat comes from, pick up a new skill and get the most from each cut. We can promise a fun and relaxed evening hosted by some of our most experienced and charming butchers. Plus, there’s a two-course informal meal at the end and you get to take the substantial joint you have prepped or plentiful sausages you have made to feast on at home. Scroll down for more information on our classes.
All classes now run at our Moxon Street shop Monday - Saturday 7-10.30pm, and Sundays 4-7.30pm, Sausage-Making classes take place at Borough Market on selected Saturdays from 4-7.30pm. Please see our bookings calendar for accurate availability. Buy a voucher online or in any of our eight shops.
*Please note - we release butchery class dates one month in advance (eg, August's dates will be released in late June). If you cannot see the date you want in the future, email us, or check back with us in a few weeks. You can also sign newsletter at the bottom of our homepage or follow us on social media (Instagram or Twitter) to be reminded of future booking releases.
For corporate or group bookings
Please call 0203 869 7804. We can accommodate 12-16* people in Moxon Street, Marylebone and 10-12* people in Borough Market. Unfortunately we cannot book out a class exclusively for less than the aforementioned numbers.
Our BBQ Cuts classes are now done for the season. We'll be back with more in May of 2022! You can read all about our BBQ Cuts class here. For more on our other classes please scroll down.
Pork
The humble pig is a hugely versatile animal; generous to the cook, a celebration of fat, flesh and flavour. It’s said that you can eat everything on a pig except for it’s squeak, and our butchers can certainly demonstrate as they take you through all the cuts. You’ll discover where your morning bacon comes from, what goes into our sausages, and which cuts will give you the best crackling. The class will centre around boning, rolling and tying a piece of pork loin, with whatever you create going home with you.
Locations: Marylebone
Beef
You’ll learn about dry-ageing and what to look for when buying beef. Then, it’s down to the butchery. Cattle provide the largest carcass that our butchers handle, so the focus is on the hefty, valuable central part of the animal where we find the sirloin, rump, rib eye and fillet. You’ll get stuck into a bit of butchery of your own, preparing a côte de boeuf joint from the rib to take home at the end of the class.
Locations: Marylebone
Lamb
Aside from game, lamb is perhaps the most seasonal meat we sell, ranging from the delicate new season animals at Easter-time to the rich and robust hogget we sell from January to April. You’ll learn about the different breeds we sell, and how the move from mother’s milk to grass and moorland grazing alters the flavour of the meat. Our butchers will demonstrate breaking down a whole carcass, explaining the cuts and how to cook them as they go. The butchery segment of the class will see you rolling and tying your own shoulder of lamb to take away to enjoy at home.
Locations: Marylebone
Poultry
Whereas it’s quite tricky to practice your beef, pork or lamb butchery at home, poultry is completely open to the home cook. This class covers how to use the whole of the bird from breast to carcass, focusing on chicken, duck and guinea fowl, and the difference between French and English poultry. As well as lots of cooking tips, our butchers will show you how to prepare a proper chicken kiev, bone and roll a duck and spatchcock a French chicken.
Locations: Marylebone
Game
Our game classes are a choice of two depending on the season and availability of game. Our fur game (venison and rabbit) usually runs from February until September, whilst our class on feathered game (grouse, partridge and pheasant) takes the schedule from October to January. You’ll learn about the provenance of our game, how best to cook and prepare it as well as which seasonal ingredients and flavours are best with the meats. You’ll then do some butchery of your own, working either with a selection of game birds or preparing bones and rolled venison shoulder to enjoy at home.
Locations: Marylebone
Sausages
Our sausage-making class is probably the most hands on (and potentially messy!) of our classes. Our butchers will tell you exactly what goes into a good sausage, as well as a number of nifty cooking tips. You’ll prepare various meats for the mincer as well as the perfect ingredient combinations for added flavour, before the fun part – handling the (often challenging) sausage filler, finishing up by linking the bangers like a pro. All the sausages you make will go home with you – enough for a summer full of barbecues or a winter of stews.
Locations: Borough Market