Kraushaar keeps Fort Simpson's carnivores happy
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Jun 01/01) - Patrick Kraushaar slices his way through 450 kilograms of meat every week.
As meat-cutter at the Fort Simpson Northern store for the past six months, Kraushaar is learning how his customers prefer their cuts of meat. As the department manager, he's becoming acquainted with another side of the job.
"It's a whole new set of responsibilities," said Kraush-aar, who was a butcher at Inuvik's Northern store for a year before relocating to Fort Simpson with his wife and daughter.
As a manager, time management becomes more crucial, he said. Making two bulk orders for his department every week, he has to keep two freezers, a cooler and the deli well stocked, something that proved a nearly impossible task during the busy Christmas season, he noted.
He comes in at 8 a.m. every weekday to begin slicing, and tries get as much meat on the shelves as possible before customers arrive two hours later.
"My speed factor has doubled since I've come here," said Kraushaar, who got started as a meat-cutter a few year ago while working at a Budget Foods store in his home town of Kamloops, B.C.
Speed is one thing, safety is another. Kraushaar said he always wears rubber gloves as a precautionary measure. He washes his saw, his knives and his cutting board frequently to prevent bacteria and other microbes associated with food-borne illnesses. Having taken a number of food-safety courses, he's only one step below a full-fledged health inspector, he said.
"The main thing in any food industry is cleanliness ... you want to have the knowledge that you're putting out a good product," he said.
With plenty of media coverage of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease overseas, Kraushaar said he researches where the meat he works with is purchased so he can reassure customers.
"I think the big thing is instilling customer confidence in your product," he said.
There are other nuances to the job that the uninformed observers may not notice. For instance, many cutters hold their knives a particular way to avoid tendinitis, he said.
Chicken is the easiest to work with, he noted. Beef requires the most work because of its sheer size. A hip of beef, which can be carved many different ways, averages around 32 kilograms, he said. That's nothing compared to the way things used to be.
"Everything comes block ready (cut into sections)," he explained.
"It's not like in the old days when you got a whole hanging side of beef."
