View source for Butcher

{{Short description|Craftsperson responsible for the preparation and sale of meat}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|The Butcher|the New Zealand canoeist|Finn Butcher}}
{{Infobox Occupation
| name               = Butcher
| image              =  {{multiple image
|border                   = infobox
|total_width              = 300
|image_style              = border:1;
|caption_align            = center
|perrow                   = 1/2/2/2
|image1                   = Wiki Loves Mett P1020898.JPG
|caption1                 = Butcher separating the ribs into scallops and thick ribs
|image2                   = Chinese butcher.jpg
|caption2                 = Butcher in [[Meizhou]], China
|image3                   = Prémices d'un succulent civet.jpg
|caption3                 = Butcher in [[Blois]], France 
|image4                   = Algerian Butcher.jpg
|caption4                = An [[Berbers|Amazigh]] Algerian butcher
|image5                   = Female Butcher.jpg
|caption5                 = Butcher at Ikot Nakanda Market, [[Akpabuyo]], Nigeria}}

<!------------Details------------------->
| type               = [[Vocation]]
| activity_sector    = [[Manufacturing]]
| competencies       = 
| formation          = 
| employment_field   = [[Retail]]
| related_occupation = [[Animal husbandry]]
}}
A '''butcher''' is a person who may [[Animal slaughter|slaughter animals]], dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks.<ref name="mw">{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/butcher |title=Merriam-Webster's Dictionary's definition of "butcher" |access-date=2010-04-25 |archive-date=2013-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512161559/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/butcher |url-status=live }}</ref> They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by [[supermarkets]], [[grocery stores]], [[butcher shops]] and [[fish market]]s, [[slaughter house]]s, or may be [[Self-employment|self-employed]].<ref name="gov">{{cite web |url=http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/QuickSearch.aspx?val65=6251 |title=Employment information for butchers |access-date=2010-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100405003310/http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/QuickSearch.aspx?val65=6251 |archive-date=2010-04-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Butchery is an ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the [[domestication]] of [[livestock]]; its practitioners formed [[guilds]] in [[England]] as far back as 1272.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yorkbutchersgild.com/pages/history.html |title=York Butchers' Guild |publisher=Yorkbutchersgild.com |access-date=2012-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308184834/http://www.yorkbutchersgild.com/pages/history.html |archive-date=2012-03-08 }}</ref> Since the 20th century, many countries and local jurisdictions offer [[Professional certification|trade certifications]] for butchers in order to ensure quality, safety, and health standards but not all butchers have formal certification or training. Trade qualification in English-speaking countries is often earned through an [[apprenticeship]] although some training organisations also certify their students. In Canada, once a butcher is trade qualified, they can learn to become a master butcher (Fleishmaster).<ref name="gov2">{{cite web |url=http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/6251.shtml |title=Job futures statistics |publisher=Servicecanada.gc.ca |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807182133/http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/6251.shtml |archive-date=2009-08-07 }}</ref><ref name="shaw">{{cite web|url=http://members.shaw.ca/masterbutcher/butcher.html |title=Master Butcher's Guide |publisher=Members.shaw.ca |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060923043724/http://members.shaw.ca/masterbutcher/butcher.html |archive-date=2006-09-23 }}</ref>

Standards and practices of butchery differ between countries, regions and ethnic groups. Variation with respect to the types of animals that are butchered as well as the cuts and parts of the animal that are sold depends on the types of foods that are prepared by the butcher's customers.

==Duties==
{{multiple image
 | total_width = 400
 | align=right
 | image1=Cattle cutting up - Kagemni Mastaba.jpg|Fish Meat Sushi store| alt1=Artwork of butcher
 | image2=11-alimenti,carni ovine,Taccuino Sanitatis, Casanatense 4182.jpg| alt2=Stone relief
 | footer = Left: Relief of cutting up cattle, [[Saqqara]], Egypt, 24th century BC; Right: A butcher (14th century)
}}
Butchery is a traditional line of work. In the industrialized world, slaughterhouses use butchers to slaughter the animals, performing one or a few of the steps repeatedly as specialists on a semi-automated disassembly line. The steps include stunning (rendering the animal incapacitated), [[exsanguination]] (severing the [[carotid]] or [[brachial artery|brachial arteries]] to facilitate blood removal), skinning (removing the hide or pelt) or scalding and dehairing (pork), evisceration (removing the [[viscera]]) and splitting (dividing the carcass in half [[Sagittal plane|longitudinally]]).

After the carcasses are [[Refrigeration|chilled]] (unless "hot-boned"), primary butchery consists of selecting carcasses, sides, or quarters from which [[primal cut]]s can be produced with the minimum of wastage; separating the primal cuts from the carcass; trimming primal cuts and preparing them for secondary butchery or sale; and storing cut meats. Secondary butchery involves boning, trimming and value-adding of primal cuts in preparation for sale. Historically, primary and secondary butchery were performed in the same establishment, but the advent of methods of preservation ([[vacuum packing]]) and low cost transportation has largely separated them.

In parts of the world, it is common for butchers to perform many or all of the butcher's duties. Where refrigeration is less common, these skills are required to sell the meat of slaughtered animals.

==Butcher shop==<!-- Please do NOT change this title. [[Butcher shop]] and [[Butcher shops]] redirect to this section -->
{{redirect-multi|3|Butcher's shop|Butchery|boucherie|the 1583 painting|Butcher's Shop|the landform|Mount Boucherie}}
[[File:Florenz-66-Metzgerei-1983-gje.jpg|left|thumb|Interior of a butcher shop in [[Florence]], 1983. Florence in the ancient times was famous for these shops.]]
Butchers sell their goods in specialized stores, commonly termed a butcher shop ([[American English]]), butchery ([[South African English]]) or butchers ([[British English]]). Butchers at a butcher shop may perform primary butchery, but will typically perform secondary butchery to prepare fresh cuts of meat for sale. These shops may also sell related products, such as [[Charcuterie]], hot food (using their own meat products), food preparation supplies, baked goods and grocery items. Butcher shops can have a wider variety of animal types, meat cuts and quality of cuts. Additionally, butcher shops may focus on a particular [[culture]], or [[nationality]], of meat production. Some butcher shops, termed "meat delis", may also include a [[delicatessen]].[[File:Boucherie du Bac, Paris 10 April 2013.jpg|thumb|left|Boucherie du Bac, 82 [[Rue du Bac, Paris|Rue du Bac]], [[Paris]]]]{{multiple image
 | total_width = 400
 | align=right
 | image1=110303 CNPP LSC 0161 (13065169773).jpg | alt1=Long and large grocery meat case
 | image2=Fish Meat Sushi store.jpg|thumb|Fish Meat Sushi store| alt2=Exterior of building
 | footer = Left: Shoppers at the meat poultry department of a grocery store; Right: Fish Meat Sushi store in New York City, New York
}}In the United States and Canada, butcher shops have become less common because of the increasing popularity of [[supermarket]]s and warehouse clubs. Many remaining ones are aimed at Hispanic and other immigrants or, more recently, those looking for organic offerings.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.startribune.com/small-butcher-shops-are-in-a-renaissance-how-did-they-survive-the-supermarket-offensive/488151291/ | title=Small butcher shops are in 'a renaissance.' How did they survive the supermarket offensive? | website=[[Star Tribune]] | access-date=2019-06-03 | archive-date=2019-06-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603145907/http://www.startribune.com/small-butcher-shops-are-in-a-renaissance-how-did-they-survive-the-supermarket-offensive/488151291/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Supermarkets employ butchers for secondary butchery, but in the United States even that role is diminished with the advent of "case-ready" meat, where the product is packaged for retail sale at the packinghouse or specialized central processing plants. {{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

==Primal cut==
{{Main|Primal cut}}
{{See also|Cut of beef|Cut of lamb|Cut of pork}}
[[File:Tagli bovino.svg|thumb|Cuts of beef in Italy]]
A primal cut is a piece of meat initially separated from the carcass during butchering. Different countries and cultures make these cuts in different ways, and primal cuts also differ between type of carcass. The British, American and French primal cuts all differ in some respects. One notable example with pork is [[fatback]], which in Europe is an important [[cut of pork|primal cut of pork]], but in North America is regarded as trimmings to be used in sausage or rendered into [[lard]]. The primal cuts may be sold complete or cut further.

==Metaphorical use==
:''See also [[Butcher (disambiguation)]]''
[[File:The blood of the murdered crying for vengeance (BM 1868,0808.6277).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|"...revenge the blood of a Monarch most I undeservedly '''butchered''',..."
]]In various periods and cultures, the term "butcher" has been applied to people who act cruelly to other human beings or slaughter them. For example, [[Pompey]], a prominent [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] general and politician of the first century BC, got the [[Latin]] nickname ''adulescentulus carnifex'', translated as "The Teenage Butcher" or "The Butcher Boy", due to brutal treatment of political opponents in the early part of his career.  More recently, the Bosnian Serb war criminal [[Ratko Mladić]] was nicknamed "the Butcher of [[the Balkans]]". 

The term can also be used in a semi-humorous or metaphorical way to describe someone whose actions resemble the various skills and methods of a butcher (chopping, cutting, slicing, stabbing etc.) Spanish footballer [[Andoni Goikoetxea]] was popularly ascribed the epithet "The Butcher of Bilbao" in recognition of his perceived aggressive style of play and frequent, sometimes injurious, challenges on opposing players.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Butcher's shop at Moroccan bazar.JPG|A butcher's display in [[Morocco]]
File:Andahuaylas Peru- pig head at meat sellers in mercado.jpg|Meat sellers at market, [[Andahuaylas]], Peru
File:Syrian butcher in Aleppo1.JPG|A butcher at work in [[Aleppo]], Syria
File:Leg-changing-system-1.jpg|alt=slaughterhouses machinery|Leg changing system in a slaughterhouse
File:Peddling. A Butcher's Stall WDL10734.png|A Butcher's Stall, [[Turkestan]], between 1865 and 1872
File:Pork packing in Cincinnati 1873.jpg|Primary butchery in a [[meat packing]] plant, 1873
File:Gary Hoover, Butcher-Beckwith Meat Co., Minneapolis, MN 1955.jpg|Butcher in [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota, 1955
File:Butcher at Tekka market.jpg|Butcher at [[Tekka Centre]] [[wet market]], Singapore
File:Meat Market.jpg|Butchers cutting chicken in Kenya
File:Adeolu segun 11 bike man, boxer seller, insecticide seller.jpg|Butcher stall in Nigeria
File:ECOLEKALABANCOROADEKEN (7).jpg|Butcher in Mali
File:2015-05-01 meat vendors at the Shueisian Temple Market (Tainan).jpg|Butcher stall in Shueisian Temple Market, Taiwan
File:Charcutier de hergla.jpg|Butcher in Tunisia
</gallery>

== Notable butchers and butcher shops ==

* [[Dario Cecchini]]
* [[Lobel's of New York]]
* [[Tom Mylan]]
* [[Omaha Steaks]]
* [[Arthur Orton]]
* [[Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors]]

==See also==
*[[Charcuterie]]
*[[Meat cutter]]
*[[Meat price]]
*[[Qassab]]
*[[Qureshi]]
*[[Sausage making]]
*[[Victualler]]
*[[Butcher block]]
*[[Butcher knife]]
*[[Butcher soup]]
*[[Bœuf Gras|Boeuf gras]]
*[[World Butchers Challenge]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|d=Q329737|wikt=butcher|c=Category:Butchers|q=Butchers|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|s=no}}

{{Retail}}
{{Restaurant staff}}

[[Category:Meat industry]]
[[Category:Food services occupations]]
[[Category:Culinary terminology]]
[[Category:Retailers by type of merchandise sold]]