butcher

A Chinese butcher at work.

A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. Many butchers sell their goods in specialized stores, although in the Western world today most meat is sold through supermarkets.

Duties

A butcher will carry out primary butchery by selecting carcasses, sides, or quarters from which primary cuts can be produced with the minimum of wastage, separate the primal cuts from the carcasses using the appropriate tools and equipment following company procedures, trim primal cuts and prepare for secondary butchery or sale, and store cut meats hygienically and safely. Secondary butchery involves boning and trimming primal cuts in preparation for sale. A butcher will also manufacture meat products for sausages, pies and stir-frys. In the instance of cows, Butchers will normally buy in 'hindquarters' which will be either the left or right side of a cow's back and leg.

Boning

A top

The top consists of four main parts: 'silverside', eye of silverside 'topside', 'feather', and 'hind shin' also the knuckle and rump. These are more commonly boned out: first the 'shin' is removed, then the aitch bone followed by the 'feather', which is 'seamed out' (achieved by cutting the connective tissue between the muscles of the animal, as there is no actual bone removed during this stage), and then the 'Top bone', 'Ham bone' or 'H-Bone' is boned out, and the 'topside' and 'silverside' are separated using the seaming technique earlier described. The excess fat and cuts that are not used as whole cuts are then removed then minced and spiced to produce sausages and mince the whole cuts are usually 'hung' to age or vacuum-packed to age until the required stage is reached, this often determines the quality of a butchers shop, it is then stored or used.

Dependent on where the hindquarter was split the Rump is either left attached to the sirloin or the top. It is taken off to leave a 'Rump' of beef, this has a large flat bone on the inner side of the animal. Cornish butchers will often slap the rump with the back of a knife to break up the fat. This is known as "Slap Rump". This is then followed closely down and thus removed separating the meat from the bone.

The 'sirloin' also consists of two main parts: the 'sirloin' and 'fillet'. These are boned out from the 'striploin', which is in effect the lower back of the animal. the resulting cuts are then trimmed, and cut into steaks. They can also be served 'bone-in' for roasts and T-bone steaks.

Sausage Making

A butcher's, Tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century)

Sausage making was first conceived as a use for leftovers of meat. Originally, the meat was minced, salt was added, and the resulting mixture was filled into intestines. Queen Victoria had her butcher roughly chop the meat so the sausages had more texture. Today, sausages are made with different types of packaged seasonings, fresh herbs and spices, rusks or breadcrumbs, water or ice. A small amount of pork fat is added to chicken sausages to help moisten them during cooking.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Butchers

• Slaughterhouse
• Charcuterie

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