The craft of butchering is a lost art, and this Baton Rouge butcher has not only preserved the craft but has trained both employees and the public on how to process meat.
Iverstine Butcher, a whole-animal butcher shop and restaurant at 7731 Perkins Road, got its start in 2009 as a farm. Now closed, Iverstine Family Farms was located in Kentwood, Louisiana. Today, the business does things the old-fashioned way, said owner Galen Iverstine, by finding creative ways to use the whole animal and feature both desirable and undesirable cuts of meat.
“We have this abundance of bones because we’re always working with whole animals,” Iverstine said. “So, we’re able to make a lot of bone stocks, which really builds flavor depth in all of our dishes.”
The business also renders fats off the animals to create tallow and lard, which they can use in fryers, and snack sticks/jerkies are a good solution to using extra trims of meat. It’s a no shortcuts mentality, he said.
Meat camp
Iverstine doesn’t expect many applicants to have butcher skills. instead, he hires people with culinary experience and then trains them in the craft…