On November 2, fifty students from Introduction to Culinary, Advanced Culinary, and Animal Science took part in processing two pigs in the Family Consumer Science kitchen. The pigs were donated by Art teacher Michael Trotter. In the Animal Science class, the students prepared for this activity by researching and watching multiple videos on how to identify primal and subprime cuts.  “Students in FCS courses prepared for this experience by first learning knife skills at the beginning of the year,” Cole Martinez, Schuyler Central High School Family Consumer Science teacher, explained. The Culinary students also explored different recipes for making sausages, in addition to studying the different cuts of pork the week prior. 

“This experience greatly benefitted students in both Ag and FCS classes by giving them the chance to have hands-on experience with butchering meat,” Mr. Martinez explained. One way that the students benefited from this experience is that they were able to have the opportunity to grind up the meat and make it into sausages. According to Mr. Martinez, “Meat processing is a field that is greatly in demand in Schuyler so by giving students this experience it provided them with skills they can use in future careers.”  One of the students who participated was Jacquelyn Perez, a senior and Culinary Arts student. “How I benefited from the activity was I learned how to cut the different parts of meat and what each part was,”  explained Jacquelyn.