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Post Info TOPIC: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Club Graphic Artist

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"Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I was wondering, is there a difference in the job title designation "butcher" and "meat cutter"? Some forms ask for job title, and I once had a meatcutter jump down my throat for calling him a butcher. Also on tax forms what do I put down. I only cut meat from retail cuts. I don't break down quarters or anything, so I think that would be the difference.



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Music and meat, that's my life.


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I glass myself as a Butcher,I have worked in the manufacturing side also different meat processing plants,I often saw things they did in these places that made me walk ,I saw terrible practices being carryed out daily.
I am passionate about oI do ,so I didn't want any part of that so I left.

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Founder of The Meat Cutter's Club

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Jetplane you are a retail meat cutter

it use to be clean cut, a Slaughterhouse man was a butcher in the USA

A grocery meat cutter was a retail meat cutter, then about 10 years ago the Culinary Chefs found they could be called a butcher because they use the whole beef.

So now adays in the USA a Chef is also a butcher  and they upgraded it to make the big big bucks with promoting the whole beef thing.

A Master butcher is one that has about two years of sausage making to his trade



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Leon Wildberger

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


There was a study done a few years back that revealed the most trusted people in the grocery store.

#1 was the pharmacist
#2 was the Butcher

When did the name Butcher become a bad thing???
I remember my fellow meat guys correcting customers all the time when they called them butcher

I am proud to be a butcher


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Joe Parajecki

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Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild

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Guru

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


well i don't mind being called a butcher so much but i would prefer to be called a meat cutter because a slaughter house butcher and a retail meat cutter are very very different things and people are getting that confused. i really get irritated when a slaughter house butcher with no retail experience joins my meat dept and thinks he knows what he is doing but his cuts just aren't eye appealing. so i guess thats why i prefer to keep the names seperate. but its useless to keep correcting people so if they want to call me a butcher fine with me at least i know the difference.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


the old man that trained me all was told me that a butcher cuts meat to git it out and not care what it looks like, and a meat cutter takes time to perfect every peace of meat that comes across his block.



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HUNK IT AND CHUNK IT



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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Well as a Chef, I also cosider myself a Meat Cutter as well. I was trained in meat fabrication in Culinary school to cut Poultry, Fish, Wild Game, Lamb, Veal, Beef and even Gator. I agree with most of the board that a butcher in a Slaughter house can break carcasses into primals, but it takes a lot of detail work to be able to take primals and maximize the end product that our customers see. When your start doing yeild costs and waste usage sheets to make sure your getting the most out of the products, then it's a whole other ball game. I see more and more Chefs wanting to cut as much as they can to sasve money in there restaurants. I, myself saved $50,000 dollars a year by cutting my own steaks for a steak house. It was pure economics that drove me to be more efficiant and cutting meat to save money for my bosses. Now that I have made it to work as a Protein Specialist for a broadliner, I'm glad I have that knowledge and can pass it on to my customers who are looking for the education.

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Tia


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


To me, a butcher is one who works in a slaughterhouse. I ran a kill floor, so therefor I am a butcher first, and NO where I worked we did not just put out ugly cuts of meat...we ran a clean shop and our meats looked just as good as a retail shop. When I went to the retail side of the fence, I just could not imagine a man in his late 50's cuttin boxed meat, calling himself a butcher when he did not know how to break down a cow into the primals. Cutting boxed meat to me is a meatcutter. Just my 2 cents.
Tia

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


My two cents worth. To me a butcher is a cutter who can handle breaking down the qtrs of beef and pork and do all of the cutting for the meatcases. A meatcutter just cuts for the cases. Thats my 2 cents worth. Or in todays economy, 10cents.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Irish the government just regulated and taxed your 2 cents, it is now $2 dollars worth!

Meat cutter works retail and works with primals preparing them for sale to a customer.

Butcher works breaking down a whole carcass.

I've worked with butchers turned meat cutter that have been some of the best cutters. So to jump to conclusions that because you a butcher means you can't cut retail ready meat is false. There is a little bit of a learning curve perfecting your skills, but not nearly as bad as starting fresh.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


To me a butcher is able to slaughter, dress and skin the animal and then is able to fabricate the carcass into retail cuts, daily. A meat cutter in a strictly retail setting doesn't slaughter, dress or skin.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I consider my self a meat cutter....I think a butcher can do it all...kill, slaughter, ect


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I agree!!! I consider myself a butcher.

At one time in the USA and still in some countries the village butcher is an important and respected man.



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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


To me a butcher is a person who can do all aspects of the trade.From breaking carcasses,to pumping corned beef.Skining to bleeding a animal.

when I learned the trade 35 years ago,You still had to start from bottom up.Clean up person than to offal and curing meats.

than a counter man and hamburger and suasage maker.

Than they put you on a block for specialty work ,such as ,chop person(lamb,veal,pork) than roast counter.than steak counter.

mean while on our own time learned the breaking of carcasses as you went.

Times sure did change on us(meat industry)

more later

 



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For all that it is worth, I am indeed a meatcutter. Boxed beef and pork is my medium, but I can do hanging meat. I do Veal and lamb better than the beef. I've done enough ice box chicken to never want to see it again. Making sausage for the store was a treat, as it was a break from the daily routine. It got to the point of me being the only one doing it. So I guess I am a meatcutter,which is fine by me. P.s. doing seafood and fish blow

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Butcher... cause it sounds way cooler!



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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


WE ARE MEATCUTTERS- I ALWAYS SAY I'M A MEATCUTTER, CAUSE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. A BUTCHER DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, THEREFORE THEY JUST KACK IT UP! REALLY, a BUTCHER TO ME IS ONE WHO SLAUGHTERS AND BREAKS DOWN, A MEATCUTTER CUTS FOR THE CASE.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


In communist russia meat cuts you.


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


a chain store meat cutter is my game, but I join here to see if I could learn more about our trade then what i've been taught.



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Newbie

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Im a journeyman meat cutter. I plan on learning how to butcher from start to finish if i get a chance to. Your videos on beef carcass break down are very informative. we do make our own hamburger and sausage fresh from our meat we cut.

 



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jeffrey d. wilkey


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I agree with most on here- a butcher works in a process center-slaughterhouse
A retail Meatcutter does the finer finished cuts

some butchers have an attitude to todays meatcutters because they cut only boxed beef and no boning or breaking down-however, I look at a really good retail cutter-like a finished carpenter-they are the end of the line-to cut with finesse-they have to SELL the final product with eye-appeal and consistency-also a retail meatcutter needs a better skill set than a butcher in a slaughterhouse- you have to be a team-player, but more importantly, you have to have excellent customer service skills, and work for a company.

If you step back and look at the whole picture-the meat-cutters are the most important part of the food-chain, because they are the end-users- from the ranches, to processing plants, to warehouses, to truckers, many hands are in the product when it reaches your cooler-but what you do-cutting for the customers, is like "show-time" for all the people behind the scenes


I survey many friends and family this question- and surpisingly, many responses like the reference as butcher, because it was used years ago, and because some stores dont even have meatcutters-like walmart-they think the name butcher really drives it home,,,that your store does


when i was younger, I use to have a problem with "chef's" calling themselves a meatcutter or butcher when the ones Ive worked with didnt have much of a clue what to do with chucks or rounds- many chef's seem to have quite the arrogant attitude, and start bossing everyone else in the dept. around- I wouldnt tolerate that.
But i've also met some chef's who ask for help and have become very good meat managers


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Having been a chef for the first half of my professional food manufacturing career 1990 - 2000 in industry. 2000 - 2010 as a professional culinary educator that taught an intro meatcutting class and consultant
2009- current opening a USDA facility and founding a professional intro butchery program.

About 8 years ago a very dear butcher friend (retail meat market owner/sausage maker) said to me about 10 years ago "you cut like a chef" I jokingly and friendly replied "I might cut like a chef but at least I don't cook like a butcher"
I still think fondly of that and as I have transformed myself from chef, that mindfully had portion cutting programs in place in the hotels, resorts and clubs I worked at I found I could lower my food cost tremendously. During those years I didn't consider myself a butcher for no other reason than I was a chef in a white toque doing what was smart business.
Having transcended into education 2000-2010 and now my own USDA facility I immersed myself into the processing side of the trade back in 2003 from working with small ranchers, processing plants, working with the American Lamb Board and NAMP etc etc.
I consider myself after my "transformation" to be both a butcher and a meatcutter:
-a butcher when I do whole animal classes and/or disassembly dinners with local chefs/restaurants.
-a meatcutter when we are running 1000 - 2000lbs in a production shift of dry sausage and/or coppa (capicola) or fresh sausages or other whole muscle products fresh and or dry products. I might be slow by some standards of "large plant cutters" but my average busting down boneless butts is about 250lbs every 13 minutes for sausage chunks and seaming out the center cut (chuck eye) from the butts for coppa.

Either or I think both are highly respected positions that take skilled individuals that are efficient.


Great question and thank you for the opportunity to provide my 2 pennies.
Ciao!

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Doc


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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


Can some one who breaks cattle make a crown of pork /lamb with training yes but i refer to myself as a meat cutter.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I'm a meat cutter, and proud of it. In my experience a butcher is someone who can break down an animal into primals, but when it comes to turning primals into cuts of sellable, edible meat every "butcher" I've ever worked with is clueless. Not trying to bash the butchers, they have their place and we meat cutters have ours.

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RE: "Butcher" or "Meat Cutter"?


I'm a Meat Cutter with many butchering skills. I've never broken down a whole steer - but I have broken down whole lamb and deer - and really all quadrapeds are the same just different sizes. It's like breaking down a chicken vs a turkey. Meat Cutter's know how to make a piece of meat PERFECT for customers. Butchers know primal breakdowns as far as I understand. I agree with chefs being butchers - that's one of the guys I have - he's a butcher... doesn't care how it looks, just pumps out product like a maniac. He's no meat cutter.

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Rob Maglione
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