Warning: That new apprentice almost cost me a whole shoulder yesterday

I let the new kid try to bone out a pork shoulder on his own after watching me do it twice. He got about 15 minutes in before I heard the knife hit bone in a way that made my stomach drop. Turns out he was trying to follow the scapula backwards and was about to cut through the tenderloin. Had to stop him and redo the whole thing. Has anyone else had a helper that just couldn't grasp basic seam butchery without mangling something?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice99121d ago

Three times watching before touching sounds a little overkill to me.

wilson.jesse22d ago

Let him find the seam with his fingers first before picking up a knife. Tell him to trace the natural separation between muscles with his fingertips, then follow that line with the tip of the blade. I make all my new guys spend a whole shift just feeling up different cuts of meat before they're allowed to touch a knife.