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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

 

Butcher... cause it sounds way cooler!

In communist russia meat cuts you.

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.

 

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!

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.