Comments on: So You Want My Job: Butcher

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 02:54:12 +0000

I am a Butcher for Food 4 Less Its full time 6am-1:30 and I love it. It is a very manly job very Americana and I love that I’m home everyday with my family

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:31:31 +0000

Outstanding article. I remember well, as a child, going to the butcher shop with my father. My uncle would have a calf to slaughter and we would buy half. That’s the place I where I learned where the food on my table came from.
I miss the uniqueness of the meat market.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 02:45:15 +0000

I have spent the last five years working in a butcher shop. I spent the 15 before that working as a professional chef and kitchen manager. I can tell you that the margins in retail meat are way, way higher than in cooked food. Yes, you have customers paying your bartenders and servers, but you also have three times as many employees per customer to pay. Your losses from spoilage are much higher in cooked food. You also have much higher losses from product yields in cooked foods. Look at the steaks in your local butcher shop. They leave as much fat and gristle on there as possible to get every cent out of their customers. You can’t do that with a steak you cut in a restaurant, the customer is going to eat it there and tell you just how it tasted. I can’t believe that Danny would have the gall to say that there are lower margins in retail meats. Your local butcher is probably charging you 40% more than what they pay for each steak. Your local restaurant is charging you at best 20%. Also, all meat contains hormones. Every living creature contains hormones. The USDA (not the FDA) does not allow ‘added hormones’ in almost every meat except for beef. Beef that has been treated with growth hormones is very common and perfectly legal to sell.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:02:57 +0000

Great post!

As a home cook, I have to agree with keeping those knives sharp. It really makes a difference and it makes the slicing of meat more enjoyable. There is that weird high that I get when my sharp knife slices through the meat smoothly.

By: rob

rob — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:28:57 +0000

I’ve worked with animals and vets all my life. There’s no way anyone can tell me that the meat doesn’t contain the principal elements/chemicals found in the hormones they have been treated with.

In addition, it’s not just the hormones that get ‘broken-down’ and added into the mix but all the antibiotics also.

Just because a cow is put in a pen until it’s piss registers ‘clean’ doesn’t mean the by-products of the hormones aren’t still present.

Food literacy indeed.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:32:48 +0000

This was a great article. I love this site as it got me in touch with skills I have forgotten or was never taught. Such as sharpening a knife (believe it or not) I’ve gone to barbershops I haven’t been to since I was 8 and now will probably go meet my local butcher too. This article really brought an appreciation back to a trade that I thought gone due to big store and mega chains. Thank you AOM and everyone one contributes.

By: Harris

Harris — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:20:18 +0000

Great article. And I’m all for supporting local businesses. But as a rancher, I must point a major misconception in Nicholas’ comment. It is illegal to sell meat with hormones in it. Yes, you read that correctly. No meat you buy, no matter whether it came from a small shop or a large grocery chain, is permitted to have hormones in it by the time it is sold, per FDA rules. Support your local businesses, but also support food literacy, not talking points!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 01:12:03 +0000

Awesome to see this article. I dream of being a meat cutter, so the title “So you want my job” is apropos for me. As a big game hunter, I have hired several different butchers in the area to cut up my harvest in the garage. I was amazed at the speed, knowledge and skill and tried to pay attention. After a couple of successful years, I got the courage to try to cut myself. I do OK, but the speed and expertise is necessarily lacking. Butchers are artists. And do they work hard! Shop bacon so outmatches supermarket bacon that like jeff williams, I find it hard to call that stuff bacon. Kudos to Danny!

By: joe

joe — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:25:40 +0000

I’ve been guilty of being a supermarket buyer, but am getting better at supporting local businesses. Theres a few old butcher shops hanging on and some new ones opening up, worth the extra money. Watching the guy make the sausage in front of you and then wrap it and hand it to you is great. Its nice being able to talk to the guy about cuts of meat and other technical things that I wish I new more about. Great to see this profession bouncing back.

By: jeff_williams

jeff_williams — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:15:23 +0000

My family has been using the same local shop since before I was born (I’m 32 now). All local animals and owner operated. I can’t believe that people buy “bacon” in the grocery store. Compare it to a local shop’s product and you’ll never buy from the chain grocer again. I’m proud to be a SLOB.