Butcher
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Le Boucher | The Butcher
French butcher ("Le boucher", 1842 drawing by Henry Monnier, Images du travail, http://imagesdutravail.edel.univ-poitiers.fr).
The boucher, or butcher, slaughtered and dismembered animals, especially pigs, for household use.
During the French Regime, the occupation of butcher was uncommon. In Québec City in 1666, for example, there were only 9 butchers for a population of 550 inhabitants. Fifty years later, there were only 4 for a population of 1,574. There were several explanations for this. First, until the end of the 17th century, livestock was rare in New France. Oxen, sheep, pigs and chickens had to be imported from France; it was therefore necessary to wait a few years before they were bred and had enough offspring for butchery. In addition, settlers usually killed their own livestock. Thus, the very first butchers in the colony had little work to do.
By the beginning of the 18th century, the situation improved, and the majority of settlers had several pigs, sheep and horned animals. Cattle were especially numerous, because they often replaced horses as draft animals, which were too expensive for the average peasant. The butcher bought his animals from farmers or placed his own animals under the care of one of them. In some cases, the butcher bred the animals he needed. When it came time to slaughter, the butcher killed his animals by bleeding them, then would rid the carcass of hair or feathers. For cattle, he completely removed the skin that would later be used to make leather. The butcher was typically busier at the end of the autumn season when animals were slaughtered, then salted and preserved for the winter.
Slaughtering a pig ("Dépouille d'un cochon de Tours", c. 1500 painting (artist unknown), Images du travail, http://imagesdutravail.edel.univ-poitiers.fr).
Medieval Italian butchers ("Carni bovine", painting from an unknown artist, Wikimedia Commons).
The butcher sold pieces of meat, sausages and other charcuterie in the marketplace, the only place where he was allowed to do so. In 16th- and 17th-century Montreal, he would set up his stalls on the Place Royale. Many other aspects of the butcher’s work life were governed by official regulations. Since his trade affected public health, it was one of the most regulated professions in New France. The number of butchers was limited, the prices were set, and so was the time between the slaughter and the sale of the meat. Fines were given and the licenses removed from any butcher who sold spoiled meat. Finally, each slaughtered animal had to be inspected by the King's prosecutor before it could be sold.
Over time, butchers in towns were able to set up their own butcher shops, where customers were able to purchase meat. Some butchers also travelled to sell their product, usually to the countryside. They were known as livreurs de viande, or meat delivery men. This butcher generally travelled on Thursdays or Fridays, so that his customers had fresh meat for the weekend. He had a horse-pulled covered wagon, often red in colour, with the meat at the back kept cold with blocks of ice. Once he arrived at this customer’s home, the lady of the house would choose her cuts of meat, and the butcher would cut up the pieces and weigh them.
The preferred meat was beef, as veal was seen with disdain, and it was said that sheep meat tasted like wool. Inhabitants kept lard year-round in their salting tubs. Poultry was eaten, but barnyard animals were normally slaughtered at home. Old chickens and roosters were saved for stews.
During special occasions, like Christmas or Saint-Jean-Baptiste day, the butcher had specialty items for sale, such as tourtières (traditional meat pies), headcheese, as well as raisin bread and other cakes and patties.
Boucher is also a common occupational surname that survives in Canada today.
For an even deeper dive into the history of butchery, check out this article on history.com.
Known persons who had this occupation: Anthony Anderson, Henri Arnaud, Pierre Aufrey, Louis Bardet/Baudet, Joseph Baudouin, Jean-Baptiste Baudreau dit Graveline, Gilles Bolvin, Charles Bouchard, Paul Bouchard, Prospère Boucher, Jacques Boye dit Baguette, Jean-Baptiste Brunet, Jean Brunet dit La Sablonnière, Augustin Cadet, François Cadet, Joseph Cadet, Michel Cadet, Pierre Canard, Jean Caron, Joseph Caron, Dominique Casavant, Henri Catin, Pierre Chabrier dit Plaisant, Jean Chapeau, Ignace Constantinau, Jean Contant, Joseph Contant, David Corbin, Joseph Coutant, Jean Couture, Jacques Damien, Joseph Damien, Thomas Damien, Louis Dechêne dit Mainville, Romain Dolbec, Claude Dorion, François Dorion, Pierre Dorion, Charles Drouin, François Ducarreau, Joseph Dupont, François Dufault, Joseph Dupont, Pierre Duroy, Louis Falardeau, Joseph Gagnon, Jacques Gel(l)y, Joseph Gobert, Charles Guay, Guillaume Guillot dit Larose, Vincent Guillot dit Larose, Joseph Guyon dit Després, Pierre Jourdain dit Bellerose, Guillaume Julien, Germain Langlois, Alexandre Larche, Charles Larche, Alexandre Larchevêque, Charles Larchevêque, Jean-Baptiste Larchevêque dit Grandpré, Séraphin Lauzon, Nicolas Lecomte, Michel Lecours/Lecourt, Nicolas Lecours, Pierre-Simon Leduc, Pierre Lefebvre, Joseph Lemay dit Poudrier, Jacques Lessard, Nicolas Lupien dit Baron, Joseph Marquis, Jean Martin, Louis Martin, Jean Mathieu, John McMurray, Joseph Methot, François Michel, Jacques Moquin, Pierre Montreuil, Jacques Morin dit Beauséjour, Guillaume Nolin, André Parent, Jean Parent, Pierre Parent, Nicolas Pot, Jean Primeau, Joseph Quévillon, Robert Richardson, Claude Robillard, William Robinson, François Rolland, Jean Rolland, Charles Rouillard, Jean Roy, Pierre Roy, Jean-Baptiste Sabaté, Pierre Sédillot dit Montreuil, Jean Serre dit Léveillé, François Trépagny, Guillaume Vacher dit Lacerte
French slaughterhouse and butchers ("Boucher", drawing by Diderot et D'Alembert, Images du travail, http://imagesdutravail.edel.univ-poitiers.fr).
Sources:
“Être boucher en Nouvelle-France” (2006), Maison St-Gabriel (www.maisonsaint-gabriel.qc.ca).
André Lachance, Vivre à la ville en Nouvelle-France (Outremont, Québec: Éditions Libre Expression, 2004), 135.
Jeanne Pomerleau, Métiers ambulants d'autrefois (Montréal, Québec: Guérin, 1990), 399-402.