A BUTCHER is hoping to make a sizzling success with a series of courses.
Michael Lord has served the people of Caterham for the past 14 years from the High Street shop in his name.
With 30 years' experience behind him, the recession, coupled with wanting to expand his repertoire, has spurred him to branch out.
Mr Lord, 48, is launching a range of classes in sausage-making, basic butchery and hog roasts.
He told the Mirror: "In the first three days since I advertised the classes, on a blackboard outside the shop, I've had several inquiries, particularly about sausage-making.
"I want to get in small groups of up to four people and teach them some of the tricks of the trade.
"They have a bit of fun learning a new skill over a few drinks, and then enjoy eating the cooked efforts of their labours."
Mr Lord said the economic downturn had prompted him to expand his business in this way: "The bad weather we have suffered over the last few summers has really hit us.
"Our barbecue trade, with people buying steaks and the like, has fallen away for us."
Sausage-making is an art form best left in the hands of an experienced practitioner.
He showed on Friday how to prepare sausage meat, putting it through a mincer and adding the right blend of water.
Using a knee-operated treadle, he carefully fed lengths of sausage meat into an animal skin, before tying the product into strings of sausage skin at such bewildering speed that he was almost too fast for the Mirror photographer.
Mr Lord creates more than 20 varieties of sausage.
They range from the conventional Cumberland sausage to the unconventional-sounding pork, chilli, chocolate and orange sausage.
He said: "That combination sounds wrong but it works really well.
"It sounds a bit Marmite – you'd either love it or hate it – but we started making it in November, and it's selling quite well."
The basic butchery class includes how to prepare and cook various meats, ranging from mince to fillet steak, and how to fillet chickens.
He devotes about six days a week to his business, trying to leave Mondays free as a day off.
Mr Lord added: "If I wasn't working here, I might be down the pub spending money.
"At least with these classes I'm having an enjoyable evening with a few customers, while earning a few bob."
