Butcher Bio: Tom Mylan
Welcome to the first in our new series: Butcher Bios — a few questions for our favorite meat jockeys (unless they object to being called that, then we’ll stick to butcher). Our goal is to cast about far and wide and collect a staggering database of butchery knowledge. Failing that, we’d like to have a little fun and find out what beer you all drink with your burgers.
To lead off the series, we have none other than Mr. Tom Mylan of the Meat Hook in Brooklyn, which, in addition to being one of the only places in the city where you can find chorizo-stuffed duck hearts, is also a swell place to take classes. Some of them — all classes are in partnership with the Brooklyn Kitchen — aren’t even about meat, though the best ones (sample: “Gin and charcuterie pairing“), of course, are.
Hails from: Orange County, California
Based: The Meat Hook, Brooklyn, NY
Ethos: Local, Sustainable, Whole Animal, Hard Working, Hard Drinking, Awesome, Fun
Favorite cut: Bone-in Beef Pin Bone Sirloin
Most under-rated cut: Pork Shanks
Favorite preparation: Beef Sashimi
Something he really thought would be good but wasn’t: Anal
Favorite side dish: Caesar Salad, preferably tableside.
Best offal: Heart, any kind. It’s the gateway drug to offal: Looks wierd, tastes amazing!
Worst offal: Beef Liver, dogs love it. I don’t.
Favorite meat/beverage pairing: Cannibal Sandwich (steak tartare on a burger set-up) and a Pepsi Throwback
Favorite Bands: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Moth Super Rainbow
Favorite Book: Fargo Rock City
Favorite Meat Book: The Beef by Moriyasu Tsuneyoshi
Favorite Cookbook: The River Cottage Cookbook
Favorite Movie: Jaws
Favorite TV show: CSI Miami
Favorite whiskey: Wild Turkey Rye
Favorite beer in a can: Busch
A knife should be sharp. Beyond that it should be cheap, good quality and have a comfortable wooden handle. Plastic [handled] knives make me crazy: they’re ugly and dangerous.
The best part of a pig is the skin. You can make so many great things out of it: Ragu, Cotechino, Scrapple, Members Only jackets, Footballs…
A hamburger should be made from mature (25-29 month old) hanging weight (never cryo-ed box beef) 70-30, ground twice through a medium plate and grilled rare. Grinding a little lamb in there is never a bad idea either.
A butcher should be friendly, happy, helpful and excited to sell you something great. That whole surly, condescending butcher thing makes people scared of cooking, afraid of buying meat and leads them right back to getting the crap at the supermarket. If you’re not excited to get out of bed every morning to work hard and love people you should hang up your knives and go work at the Post Office.
A good customer should keep an open mind, not be a recipe slave and listen to their butcher: it’s in his (or her) best interest to make your dinner the best it can possibly be.
A steak should be expensive. Cheap steaks taste weak. Steak should be a special treat, a cellebration, a good time. Get a good one, cook it right and share it with the people who make your life worth living.
You can never have too many meat hooks. Wanna hang a country ham? Meat hook. Wanna hang a plate? Meat hook. Beef Leg? Meat hook. Get that 6-pack of Busch out of the way? Meat hook. It’s not like we named our shop the Meat Hook by accident.
Everyone should read Little House in the Big Woods. The hog butchering section is amazing, it’s like a nose-to-tail how-to book from the days before refrigeration!
A farm I like working with is Kinderhook Farm because Lee cares, he’s the best and he listens.
The best advice I ever received was “There is a reason why they call it a bone saw” -Aaron Lenz
The best advice I ever gave was “Stop cutting towards yourself!”
