Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Ethical Meat: Sourcing & Cooking
- Regular price
- £148.50
- Sale price
- £148.50
- Regular price
-
Tax included.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage's Executive Chef Gelf Alderson combine to show you how to source sustainable and ethical meat and cook all types of meat cuts - to make the most of every piece of meat you eat.
Having written The River Cottage Meat Book (one of the most important tomes on the ethics of rearing, sourcing, cooking and eating meat), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall takes the bull by the horns once again in this thoughtful course on animal protein and its role in modern diets.
Having moved to a mostly plant-based diet himself, he still eats meat – but most of his consumption comes from animals he rears himself, or those reared locally by farms that have the highest animal welfare and sustainability standards.
This course extols the virtue of eating less and better meat, both for the sake of our health and also for the planet. Hugh takes you through the various meat choices in the mainstream market and leads you towards the higher welfare end of the market through a well-informed critique of the devastating effects of modern factory farming and British supermarket practices.
By the end of this course you’ll gain new insight into how you can source the best possible meat, from local farms and make the most of every morsel.
You will get a further perspective from one of Hugh’s favourite local butchers and also River Cottage’s neighbouring farm and organic meat supplier, Harry Boglione.
The principles of ethical meat follow through from sourcing into the kitchen, and Executive Chef Gelf Alderson will take you step-by-step through recipes that will help you make the most of your meat, helping you to understand the “nose to tail” whole carcass approach that is the cornerstone of ethical meat cooking.
You’ll learn how to cook and enjoy offal and some of the thriftier cuts of beef, lamb and pork.
You'll learn:
- the difference you can make by buying your meat from ethical sources
- new recipes to cook different meat cuts
- the impact of supermarket meats and factory farming on the food industry, animals and environment
- where to source meat from and what questions to ask about your meat before you buy it
The course includes:
- 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gelf Alderson
- lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
- flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
- downloadable lesson notes
- practical meat sourcing and cooking assignments and recipes (with tutor feedback available)
- access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
- small interactive online classroom - chat online to students from around the world and share your creative ideas
Independent Cookery Schools Association approved
This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.
Time to complete the ethical meat course:
Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 16 hours to complete including:
- Video lessons: 4 hours in total
- Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
- Your ethical meat sourcing and cooking recipe assignments: at least 2 hours per lesson
- Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
- Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson
You'll need:
Your lesson notes will include the full details of the ingredients you'll need, but you will be sourcing sustainable meat for your recipes, and learning new meat recipes to make the most of all the meat you buy, so you will need standard kitchen equipment..
Ready to get started?
Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Hugh and Gelf on your meat sourcing and cooking assignments.
If you know someone who'd love this course then give it as a gift - just tick "This is a gift" at the checkout.
Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.
Lessons
What You’ll Learn
Explore the lessons and topics covered across the course.
Hugh starts by explaining his views on ethical meat, including understanding animal welfare and how to make the best choices when you source your meat.
You'll visit a farm to see how cows, pigs and chickens can be raised ethically. A butcher will show you what he looks for in ethical meat and suppliers.
Hugh starts on the “front line” of animal welfare with the world’s most popular meat (and arguably most abused farm animal) - chicken.
Venturing back to the territory of his Channel 4’s series, Hugh’s Chicken Run, Hugh pulls no punches in explaining the miserable life of an intensively reared chicken. Hugh continues his campaign in this course to encourage more consumers to demand ethically-sourced, free range and organic chicken.
By explaining the “welfare ladder” and raising the veil on often misleading labels, he’ll show you how to make choices that not only support better farming practices but bring a better tasting chicken into your kitchen.
Once you’ve understood how to source the best chicken you can buy, Gelf will show you how to make it last across several meals.
Hugh will take you to meet the River Cottage pigs in person, showing how small scale farming in outdoor systems encourages them to root and forage and socialise, keeping the animals content and improving the quality of their meat.
Hugh discusses the various labels for both fresh and cured pork and also points out the visual differences in the meat quality from the different systems. He urges you always to source pork from contented animals reared in a humane way.
Executive chef at River Cottage - Gelf Alderson will bring you some of his best recipes for making the most of the thriftier cuts of pork.
You'll make slow braised pork and look at the best ways to use leftovers from a roast chicken.
Sheep are thankfully not reared as intensively as pigs and chickens, and there are many opportunities to buy locally reared lamb of good quality in the UK.
However, there are still welfare and sustainability issues to be addressed with lamb, and Hugh explains the problem with the “spring lamb” market, usually involving meat from lambs over-wintered indoors. He goes on to demystify the terms Hogget and Mutton – meat from older animals which often also turn out to be the best choice for quality and sustainability.
Our farmer Harry will give you further insight into organic sheep rearing and then Gelf will take you into the kitchen to show you excellent recipes from cuts you may not have used before.
Beef has rightly been identified as one of the most problematic meats from a climate point of view, and so Hugh explains the difference between extensive and intensive beef farming, and the welfare and sustainability issues around each.
Once again he interprets the often misleading labels on beef in the supermarket, and explains the often misunderstood connection between the dairy industry and the beef industry. He also explains his preference for organic beef and introduces the useful new certification for pasture reared beef.
You’ll get to meet the local “suckler herd” of North Devon cattle, which supplies beef to River Cottage.
We'll be joining Gelf in the kitchen for a session with one of his favourite cuts of beef.
He'll demonstrate how to cook slow cooked neck of beef, and hogget neck.
Hugh will look at the ethics behind sourcing and eating wild and game meat.
He'll move onto look at offal - and how you can embrace nose to tail eating and respect the life of the animal.
Gelf will show you some liver and kidney recipes to make you love cooking with offal.
Learning options
Choose How You Want to Learn
Recommended
Expert
£148.50
A guided learning experience with expert support, feedback and recognised outcomes.
Peer
£49.50
Learn alongside others with a collaborative, flexible learning experience.
COURSE TUTOR
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
SUCCESS
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Common Questions
Answers to the most common questions about learning with us.
Our online classroom is designed to help you learn from experts in a collaborative, social environment alongside a small group of learners.
Each lesson combines expert-led videos with optional assignments, giving you the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned and share your work with others. You can take part in ongoing discussions, ask questions, exchange feedback, and learn from a community of like-minded people from around the world.
By learning together in a small, supportive group, you benefit not only from expert guidance but also from shared ideas, perspectives, and experiences—helping you stay engaged and retain what you learn.
You can start your course at any time within 12 months of purchase. Once you begin, you’ll have lifetime access, so you can revisit lesson videos and notes whenever you like.
Courses are designed to fit around your schedule, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Each lesson video is typically 30–40 minutes, and we recommend around an hour for each assignment.
Both Peer and Expert options give you full access to the course content, including lesson videos, downloadable notes, assignments, and a collaborative online classroom with up to 20 learners. You’ll also have lifetime access to revisit the material at any time.
The Expert option includes everything in Peer, plus personalised assignment feedback, direct messaging with your expert tutor, and a certificate of completion.
With the Expert option, you can interact directly with your tutor throughout the course. You’ll typically have one week per lesson to ask questions and receive feedback on your assignments, with as much interaction as you need during that time.
Your tutor access begins when you enter the classroom and follows the course schedule (for example, a four-lesson course usually runs over four weeks). If you need more time or support, our team is here to help.