# The Butcher post



## steeley (May 12, 2012)

An ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock, butchers formed guilds in England as far back as 1272.[3] Today, many jurisdictions offer trade certifications for butchers. Some areas expect a three-year apprenticeship followed by the option of becoming a master butcher.





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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

1885



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1901




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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

1945



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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

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look at the cleaver on the bench.


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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

french he is doing it right.



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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

my kind of girl.



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and pie for everyone.



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notice the tin cooker in front .


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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

Tin cooker



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## WildBoar (May 12, 2012)

Thans for doing this! I love seeing all the old pics, and hope more vendors get back to the old ways. It's hard to find stores around here that will cut meat for you; most arrives already cut up, and only with certain parts/ pieces.


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## Dave Martell (May 12, 2012)

Awhile ago my friend Jim (our Admin) sent me this picture that he came across on the internet. He told me to Google the man's name shown and read his story. 

*FULL Size Image - CLICK HERE*






I was fascinated with the story as well as how eerily similar his appearance is to our Chef Niloc (Colin). 





I forwarded the picture to Colin who couldn't deny the similarities and responded that he was going to grow that same mustache. Funny thing is that those of us who know Colin can see even more similarities than just the look they share. 





I thought that maybe you guys/gals might be interested in hearing the story of M.F. Mullins, "The Champion Beef Dresser of the World". 

Thanks to Jim for sharing this with me. 



 






> The King of Butchers.
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If you'd like to read more on the details of how the Union Stockyards operated in the 19th century you can check out http://www.archive.org/stream/tript... which is where I obtained the above information on M.F. Mullins. There's some very interesting reading there for sure.


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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

Thanks for sharing that Dave . 
the stock yards.



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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

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then came ..




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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

(e) Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act  Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in early 1906, a hard-hitting expose of working and living conditions in the packinghouses and their environs in Chicago. That part of the book received very little notice, however; as Sinclair himself described it, I aimed for peoples hearts, and hit their stomachs. His descriptions of sausage making (combining putrid meat, rat ****, the occasional part of an extremity from a worker, and a blend of original spices) stirred TR and Congress into action.



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## knyfeknerd (May 12, 2012)

I'll bet all those places smelled wonderful.


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## steeley (May 12, 2012)

little febreze no problem.



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that guy i would not mess with.:scared4:


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## kalaeb (May 12, 2012)

Dang that is freaky, it looks like the guy on the right has a guy between his arms while he is swinging? 

"Hey, would you mind holding this half pig down while I swing a 2 foot cleaver at it."


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## Crothcipt (May 13, 2012)

Working in a slaughter/packing plant is extremely stinky. If ever in Greeley Co. you can drive right by one. Make sure your windows are up, it slows down the stink for about 5 sec.


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## steeley (May 13, 2012)

the rendering of the fat pig or cow that would do me in. if you can read the bottom of the photo those vats render 300,000 lbs




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## mr drinky (May 13, 2012)

steeley said:


> my kind of girl.
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Isn't that April Bloomfield?

k.


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## mr drinky (May 13, 2012)

steeley said:


> [/IMG] 1875



I like to imagine that all my knives are made by a person wearing a hat like this. 

k.


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## tgraypots (May 13, 2012)

Lots of cattle raised in this part of NC, most totally on pasture. A few friends and I bought a cow last year that had been raised on pasture and butchered at a local packing house. 1/4 of a cow is a lot of meat for a family of 2! It's priced per pound, not by the cut.....$4/lb. They will also butcher hogs and deer that you bring in.


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## steeley (May 13, 2012)

A place i worked at use to buy cows from the 4-H club the kids would auction off there live stock .




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## steeley (May 13, 2012)

The sprawling Swift meatpacking plant sits abandonded at 400 E. Exchange Ave, alongside the Armour Company plant on the east side of the Fort Worth Stockyards. Opened in 1903, it once represented the economic boom times of Fort Worth.

It was major news in 1901 when Armour and Swift, America's two largest meatpacking companies, agreed to build regional plants in the Stockyards. Construction began in 1902, and by 1909, the plants were processing 1.2 million cattle and 870,000 hogs per year as well as sheep, horses and mules. By 1910, the Stockyards were the nation's third-largest livestock market, behind Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri, employing most of what was then north Fort Worth. People came from all over the world to work here,

The Stockyards hit its heyday during World War II, but the rise of the trucking industry after the war spelled the demise of railroad-centered packing plants. Armour closed its plant in 1962; Swift lasted until 1971.

Since then, the abandoned proerty has been host to an Old Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant and the filming location for the television programs, "Prison Break" and Chuck Norris "Walker Texas Ranger". Today, it is a fabulous multi-hued palette of graffiti some of it reflected beautifully. Urban decay at its finest




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## sachem allison (May 13, 2012)

my father worked one summer for Armour meat comp as a sticker, he would walk down the line and slit their throats the blood would be collected and sent off for whatever they used it four. He said he worked with 4 very large African American guys and every time he would be near them they would grab a coffee cup and hold it out to catch the blood and then drink it down while it was still hot. One day they brought him his own cup and waited to see what the Indian kid would do. He filled the cup and chugged it down, no problems. He got respect then and nobody bothered him any more. He said the blood wasn't the disgusting part. The disgusting part was that the guys hung their cups on a fly ridden board and never rinsed them out. He said that some of the cups had so much old caked blood in them that they only held a tablespoon or so. He said that is what made him gag more then anything else.


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## steeley (May 13, 2012)

Gustavus Franklin Swift founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and even abroad, which ushered in the "era of cheap beef." Swift pioneered the use of animal by-products for the manufacture of soap, glue, fertilizer, various types of sundries, and even medical products




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## mdale13 (May 23, 2012)

Do any other KF members besides myself work as butchers? Actual, full animal butchers? (you'd be surprised by the amount of "butchers" who actually aren't)


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## VoodooMajik (May 23, 2012)

Awsome post! I'm going to Banff to learn to work with Caribou. Would rather work with the whole animal, but can't have everything


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## El Pescador (May 23, 2012)

did you work for Tiptop?



steeley said:


> A place i worked at use to buy cows from the 4-H club the kids would auction off there live stock .
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## Still-edo (May 23, 2012)

mr drinky said:


> I like to imagine that all my knives are made by a person wearing a hat like this.
> 
> k.



Yeah I gotta get a top hat. Thats just a whole different level of looking like a boss.

BTW: THANKS for making this thread! I love history. Black and white pics make my day!


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## steeley (May 24, 2012)

I've heard of Tip Top meats but my bringing in 4H stock was in Wyoming.
We had a full butcher shop .


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## steeley (May 24, 2012)

I have been looking through old books and found this one .




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## DwarvenChef (May 24, 2012)

Working in the meat dept has been interesting and I'm always looking for more info on whats going on. We only get primals and we break them down for the custom case and special orders. It's nice to be able to have customers come to the counter and ask for something spacific that they don't see in the case and one of us can just pick up the primal and cut it to the customers wishes. I miss that from my younger years while living near a full butcher shop. While we don't deal with full animals I am still happy to have the full attention of the customers as we do our bit to help bring back the small town butcher shop experience. 

Looking for books and all on Hog Butchery  I'm even more addicted to pork than I was before getting this job lol


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## Eamon Burke (May 24, 2012)

The beginning of the end.


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## tgraypots (May 24, 2012)

Amen, Eamon. I'm fortunate to line in an area that has 3 pack houses within 30 min of my home, and all cater to local livestock growers and hunters.


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## mr drinky (May 24, 2012)

steeley said:


> [/IMG] 1875



Btw, just put two and two together. At that new site ,The Butcher and Baker, they sell a t-shirt with this image on it.

k.


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## SpikeC (May 24, 2012)

I was looking at the meat case at New Seasons market a couple of days ago and asked for a chunk of pork shoulder. As the guy was wrapping it up I asked him why they never had bone in available, and he said that they just always did the boneless, but there was some unwrapped in the back if I wanted bone in, so he went back and got a big chunk and cut me one of the size that I wanted! It is in the BGE right now, up to about 160 so far. 
Sometimes you just gotta ask!


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## steeley (May 24, 2012)

That butcher tin type photo notice that the knife is a drawing on the apron.


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## steeley (May 24, 2012)

what would a post like this be without a recipe for headcheese . 1898 




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or haggis 




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all from Meat Man friend book.


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## steeley (May 25, 2012)

I have been going through a publication called the Butcher's Advocate from 1904 it came out every week in Chicago for the trade 
well i still have about 500 pages to go but here is a few things.

here are the wanted ads ,



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and a good knife page



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## steeley (May 25, 2012)

even then trying to put the sharpener out of business.



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## mr drinky (May 25, 2012)

Steely, you must be getting a higher degree in history or something and writing a dissertation. I had to do primary research for my history degree and your historical finds seem very familiar. Maybe I'm wrong.

k.


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## steeley (May 25, 2012)

well now I am looking in different digital library and trade catalogs for knife info .


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## sashae (Jul 4, 2012)

"Cutting Up" -- video from 1919 sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, showing hog butchering in detail. Very cool.


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## SpikeC (Jul 4, 2012)

How strange! Mr. Ford had his fingers into all sorts of things, eh?


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## SpikeC (Jul 4, 2012)

How come it won't play??


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 4, 2012)

steeley said:


> even then trying to put the sharpener out of business.
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Ha! The origins of the problem, right down the road from Dave. I suppose it's only just.


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## sashae (Jul 4, 2012)

SpikeC said:


> How come it won't play??



SpikeC -- click the link in my description rather than the photos -- those are just screenshots I took.


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## sashae (Jul 4, 2012)

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675030037_pork-packing_pigs-in-stockyard_man-trims-ham_split-hogs-with-cleaver


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