Active Vocabulary

Slaughter – забій (худоби)

poultry – свійська птиця

retail – роздрібний продаж

wholesale – оптова торгівля

livestock – поголів'я худоби

purveyor – постачальник

wrap – загортати

weigh – зважувати

exsanguinations – знекровлення

stun – оглушати

carcasse – туша

wastage – виробничий брак

hygiene – гігієна

aware – обізнаний; що усвідомлює

refrigeration – охолоджування; заморожування

faggots – в'язка сосисок

competition – конкуренція

overwhelming – незліченний, незчисленний

lamb –м'ясо молодого барана

apprenticeship – навчання; практика

Task 1

Answer the questions to the text

1. What are the main duties of a butcher?

2. Where the butcher may be employed nowadays?

3. Do butchers only serve as purveyors of cuts of meat or they also deal with chicken and fish?

4. Butcher is an ancient trade, isn’t it?

5. Do butchers serve the customer, selecting the meat or discussing the cut the customer would like?

6. What skills and qualities should a good butcher have?

7. What is primary and secondary butchery?

8. Do butchers produce fresh and cooked meat products such as sausages, hams, pies and others?

9. Why are butcher shops becoming less common in the United States&

10. Do you need special professional training or apprenticeship to become a butcher?

Task 2

Fill in the gaps using the words in box

date back dress disassembly line guilds coordination traditional wholesale industrialized meat qualities

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, ₁₎_____ their flesh, sell their ₂₎_____ or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish for sale in retail or ₃₎_____ food establishments. An ancient trade, whose duties may ­₄₎______ to the domestication of livestock, butchers formed ­­­­₅₎_____ in England as far back as 1272. Butchery is a ₆₎______ work. In the ₇₎______ world, slaughterhouses use butchers to slaughter the animals, performing one or a few of the steps repeatedly as specialists on a semi-automated ₈₎_______. It goes without saying that butchers will need to possess the following skills and ₉₎______: safety-conscious approach, good practical butchery skills and hand-eye ₁₀₎ _______, mental arithmetic skills, excellent personal hygiene and cleanliness, customer service skills, creativity and general awareness of how to present and display meat. In the rest of the world, where refrigeration is less common, these skills are required to sell the meat of slaughtered animals.

Text 2

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal. In commerce, meat is generally used by the meat packing industry in a more restrictive sense – the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, lambs, etc.) raised and prepared for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish, poultry, and other animals. Usage varies worldwide by culture, and some countries such as India have large populations that avoid the consumption of all or most kinds of meat.

The consumption of meat has various traditions and rituals associated with it in different cultures such as kosher and halal and its production is generally regulated by state authorities as well.

While meat is a common generic term meaning flesh, to chefs it refers specifically to four-legged domesticated animals. This includes mainly beef, lamb, and pork. Lamb is just now becoming popular in America, and pork is gaining in popularity as a lean meat option. But by far, the favorite meat in the United States is beef. Historically, the cow’s size made it more valuable as a draft animal than a source of food. The logistics of slaughtering such a large animal were daunting. Preservation methods revolved around salting, and such methods were not very sophisticated.

Unless there was a real crowd to feed, lamb was a more popular choice. But modern Americans love cows. They no longer harness the strength of the cow, but the meat and milk, easily make it the world’s most important domesticated animal.

Beef and veal are readily available in modern supermarkets, and for the most part, quality is high. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades meat for consumption based on muscle-to-bone and fat-to-muscle ratios. Beef grades, from best to worse, are prime, choice, and select. Lesser grades, used mainly for processed meat products, include standard, commercial, and utility. Grades are stamped in purple on the outer carcass of the animal, and are usually prominently advertised by retailers, especially when the grade is high.

Beef cows are taken to market at between 18 and 24 months of age. Before that time it is considered veal. Veal is a male dairy cow between 16 and 18 months of age. Veal grades, from best to worse, are prime, choice, good, standard, and utility.

Meat is generally considered a high-fat protein choice. Of course, usually fat means flavor. In today’s world people appreciate, and even expect, a high level of flavor in their meat, despite full knowledge that saturated fat contributes to coronary artery disease and elevated cholesterol levels.

There are lean cuts available, but even if you cannot see the fat marbled throughout a particular cut, the saturated fat is still present within the muscle cells. When meat is heated, the fat melts and penetrates the muscle. So even if you do not eat the visible fat on a steak, you are consuming saturated fat.

This appetite for fatty beef has drastically changed the landscape of modern agriculture. Today cattle is bred and raised to provide the most meat with the least cost. According to the USDA, the average American consumes 67 pounds of beef every year.