I am both, when u work for a small business like myself, I follow the animals from slaughter to the customers hand. I slaughter, skin, break carcasses, cut finished product, sausage, curing, etc. I prefer butcher.

I am employed as a high-volume retail cutter but I say that I am classical trained as a butcher having had personally harvested and processed 200-head (beef, swine, lamb) during my retail meat-cutting apprenticeship.

I halt at saying that I am butcher or a meat-cutter. I don't think I rate such a title. But, my formation has compelled me to continue learning and developing all of the critical and supporting skills required to some day call myself a butcher.

Hello Great reply Mark, keep up the good work,, question, I was in NYCity and got sick from a charcuterie plate from a restaurant, Do you do any misro testing to see if your products have bacteria or other foodborne illnesses... Alan

In my opinion I may call myself a butcher because we still slaught & debone our own animals for the shop / store.

I think you can call yourself a meatcutter when you don't slaught & debone anymore.

I'd like to know what you all think about my opinion

-- Edited by hendrikschurer on Monday 28th of January 2013 02:59:03 PM

At work im a meatcutter. Been in retail for 38 years from burger kid to meat mgr.At home from Oct. to Jan. Im a butgher and a meet cutter.Processing deer, beer and what ever else the hunters bring me.From skinng,breakdown cut and wrap grind and sausage to freezer. so I guess Im both    

bonjour a tous moi je suis ce qu on appelle un boucher français et je trouve sympa de voir que chez vous on se pose cette question car chez nous avons le même sujet la grande différence entre un boucher et un découpeur de viande c est que le premier choisis sa bete sur pied chez l éleveur la même au abattoir s occupe du depiecage et magnifie ces pieces par quelques preparation bouchere voila un exemple de travail de boucher

 

Hello has all me i am what is called a butcher french and i found nice to see that at home you are asked this question because at home we have the same subject the vast difference between a butcher and a carver of meat c is that the first chosen its bete on foot among the farmer the same to the slaughterhouse s occupies the depecage and magnifies these parts by a few preparation-worm voila an example of work of Boucher

 

But when i was single and on a first date the question so what do you do for a living always came up.
Being a chick.. it was always fun to say.. i'm a butcher.. the look on the guys face was always priceless!

Here at the Holmen locker and meat market we do it all. Slaughter , break down carcasses
We make all our own sausage and smoking best full service meat case around. We are
Butchers

excellent posts!!

I'd like to add another two cents of opinion here

we are in an industry that gets hammered day to day-from the liberal media that props up all things vegan-like meatless mondays
to sensationalizing e-coli recalls, to interviewing folks that dont eat meat anymore-saying a healthier diet is one of less and less meat,,,not to mention the peta wackos and their anti-meat agenda
alot of propaganda in the wind, -and many of our customers listen to it.

wal-mart, the largest grocery retailer in the u.s. has case ready meats, no meatcutters on site

retail meatcutters in the meat industry (retail meat sales) still drives the majority of meat sales-they are the end-users of a huge industry-from the ranchers- to the processors, to the wholesalers and truckers etc, retail meatcutters actually sell the meat- thousands and thousands of people are employed because of this-the end-user makes it happens in the whole pipeline

I've been in this business 30 years, and as in all businesses it has changed significantly- years ago- i use to hear that butchers are the boners and breakers, and meatcutters were at retail- alot will still agree on the definitions
however,
here's some food for thought, if you tell a master carpenter he's a handy-man, he will get offended, if you tell a first rate mechanic, he's a backyard knuckle-buster, its degrading-we cant be dumping on one another within the industry- if one cutter is degrading another one-it hurts all our image-indirectly

although their may be some truths within our industry insights-between processing/breaking/retail box cutters- it harms our whole industry for us to argue this- and point fingers- because it goes to the image of the general public, and it is here that we are in a battle-for public opinion

and this is where the industry is now- walmart is a goliath, while we may ridicule their meat department, less than 1% of the population has our insights- more and more customers are buying case-ready meats because THEY DONT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!!
it is up to us to inform, educate, frame the debate
how many of our flyers -promote "butchers in the store" fresh cut meats everyday, from our professional butchers"
"over 90 years experience with every cut" (combined cutting experience within the department)
if you arent advertising like this- then you should be-WE HAVE TO GET THIS MESSAGE OUT TO THE PUBLIC-THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE OF FRESH CUT MEATS -THAN CASE READY- AND THAT YOU WELCOME SPECIAL ORDERS!!!

this is the most important message for the stores to get out- we all may know this-but its the general public we need to convince-otherwise more and more customers will be shopping places of case ready

im hoping case ready- goes by the wayside- but we all must understand, this is a cut-throat, very competitive industry, many, many of the parent companies of grocery stores have already been consolidated, and owners might be in foreign countries (like food lion) my point being-all it takes is one top exec bean counter accountant to say- we must go case ready beef to cut expenses- in that one decision-if approved, can wipe out all meatcutters in that company

so, to me, as an industry- i think we should all use he word BUTCHER -because the customers seem to like this title better
and we should be fighting the move for case ready beef at ground level- how??
put up signs all over the meatcase "our burger is ground fresh on-site many times a day" our steaks are hand-cut to ensure freshness and quality" - place these value statements in the flyers
we need message signs like these.. and drive it home with customers- reinforce competency, integrity and quality

christmas is just around the corner- how many special orders with walmart get????????????
none!!!
while you may get hundreds- this is the time to drive home these messages

we all hear and see the comments,,, the cutting industry is on a downhill slide... etc-
i challenge all of us- what are we doing about this?? are we allowing others and anti-meat groups to frame the arguements and public opinion??? that threatens our very livelyhood???

do what you can at store level-you are the most important contact in the whole industry when you are talking with a customer.

if we arent our own best cheerleaders- no one else will be