That chat with a retired butcher about whole lamb broke my brain

I was at the farmers market last Saturday and ran into this old timer who used to run a shop in Portland back in the 70s. We got to talking about whole lamb butchery and he told me he never bothered with the fancy frenching or tying that everyone does now. He just broke it down into like 8 basic cuts and called it done. Said customers back then knew what they were looking at and didn't need everything to look like a food magazine cover. It hit me different because I've been spending so much time trying to make every leg and rack look perfect for Instagram that I forgot the whole point is just getting good meat to people. He also showed me a trick for separating the shoulder using just the heel of your hand instead of a knife. Has anyone else had a moment where they realized they were overcomplicating things?

3 comments

3 Comments

robert_smith362mo agoMost Upvoted

That old timer sounds like he'd have some wild stories about the 70s butcher shop scene.

jordanhall2mo ago

Saw a similar thing with a old fishmonger in my neighborhood. He just fillets everything the same way, doesn't bother with all those fancy presentation cuts. Honestly it made me realize I was spending way too much time trying to make everything look pretty for photos instead of just getting it portioned and sold. Ngl that hand trick for the shoulder sounds wild though. Gonna try that next time I break down a lamb and see if it actually works as good as he says.

sarahpatel1mo ago

The Instagram angle is real but there's something deeper here... that old timer was talking about a time before meat became so disconnected from where it comes from. Customers had to understand the animal because they couldn't just Google a diagram or watch a video. Makes me wonder if we lost something when we made everything look easy and perfect.