Tools And Equipment That A Butcher Shop Must Have

Are you curious on the tools and equipment used in a butcher shop? If you are a regular customer of a local butcher shop in your area, I’m sure you have come across these items during one of your visits, but haven’t given much importance on where they are used. So, without further delay, here are the basics that every butcher shop must have to provide excellent meat products and services.

Various types of knives

For a butcher to apply his or her meat cutting skills and provide quality cuts to customers, various types of knives must be readily available and may include the following:

·         Boning knife

A boning knife has different lengths ranging from five to six inches. They also have varied flexes, from stiff to being most flexible. For the purpose of meat cutting, the six inches long F dick boning knife, Dexter boning knife or Victorinox boning knife could be an ideal meat cutting tool. Boning knives also differ in their blades, straight or angled.

·         Chef’s knife

Another basic knife that is badly needed in a butcher shop is the non-flexible chef knife, approximately eight to 10 inches long. This type of knife is generally used for trimming large cuts of meat, mincing, chopping as well as portion cutting.

·         Clam knife

When a butcher needs to cut racks of lamb, the clam knife is a useful tool. It’s also used in scraping membranes of meat bones.

·         Scimitar

This is an example of a non-flexible knife with length variations of 10 to 16 inches.  The scimitar is used for smooth trimming of large portions of meat. It can also be used in cutting steaks, cutlets and stew. Since the scimitar has a curved edge, it’s not advisable for mincing and chopping.

Meat cleaver

Cleavers do come in a variety of sizes and weights. Meat cleavers are commonly used for cutting chops. A small size cleaver is used to fabricate poultry or cooked roast. The meat cleaver must only be used on a butcher block and not on ordinary cutting boards.

Meat tray

Among the essential tools that can be found at a butcher shop are different sizes of meat trays where cuts meats are placed and put inside display storage. Plastic made meat tray is more often used because it’s easy to clean and carry from one display storage to another and meat won’t stick on its surface.

Meat grinder

Butcher shops also sell freshly made sausages, hamburgers and forcemeat (mixed minced lean meat and puree ingredients) and in order for a butcher to produce enough supply he or she will need a top quality meat grinder. There are different models of meat grinders, bigger tabletop or floor units that have the capacity to grind bigger quantities of meat. You can also buy the meat netting needed for your choice cuts meat products.

Storage units

Proper storing of meat products is crucial in any butcher shop. In fact, even a start-up butcher shop must invest in reliable storage units to ensure the freshness of meat and other special butcher products.

Butcher outfit

This should never be overlooked when completing the basics of a butcher shop, the outfit of a hired butcher must consist of a butchers belt, butcher knife, butcher mesh gloves and knife pouch.

Knife sharpening device

For a butcher to enjoy the excellent cutting features of various knives and prevent accidents, a knife sharpener is badly needed. A sharpening device can be in the form of a sharpening steel or sharpening stone. Knife sharpening can be manually done by the butcher using the F dick sharpening steel or powered by electric (electric knife sharpener).

The above list of tools and equipment are just some of the basics that a butcher shop must have in order to operate smoothly. There are also other items that can be added eventually such as butcher cleaning products, boning hook, sausage filler and sausage casing and butchers display tickets. In the event you are looking for a one-stop supplier that could provide you only the best butchery equipment products, contact Butcher Paradise.