ButcheryGearGuide.com is for people who process their own meat at home. That means hunters breaking down a deer, elk or hog after the season, and families who buy a half or quarter beef, a whole hog or a bulk chicken order from a local farm and take it from there. We cover four areas: boning and bulk buying, grinding and curing and smoking, freezing and storage, and tools and food safety.
Our approach is the same in every guide. We explain what a cut, a technique or a piece of equipment is actually for before we point you toward a product, so you can judge whether it fits how much meat you process and how often. A grinder or a smoker bought for the wrong volume is a common and expensive mistake, and we would rather you avoided it.
We are also clear about where our guidance stops. Core temperatures, cure ratios and safe storage times are not something we invent. For those, we point to USDA guidance and to the instructions that come with your specific equipment, every time.
We are not a food safety agency and we do not test equipment ourselves. Nothing on this site is a substitute for official USDA food safety guidelines or for the manual that ships with your grinder, smoker or vacuum sealer. If you are ever unsure whether a batch of meat is still safe to eat, the safest choice is not to eat it. We keep prices out of the written guides because they change constantly; the current price is always on the retailer page.