"It takes skill to make a good sausage"

1. What’s the best thing about your job?

"The variety: I not only cut meat and stuff sausages, but also make spice mixes and actively work on the development of new meat products. For example, I developed a pizza and curry bratwurst sausage."

2. What prejudices do you have to contend with?

"Many people still have the image of the butcher wearing a bloody apron and holding a meat cleaver. But that's an outdated image. Today we wear clean white clothes. In addition to meat processing, the job also includes production planning, quality assurance and training apprentices."

3. Is your job an issue in your private life?

"Yes. The fact that I’m a butcher comes up a lot. Even at school, my classmates couldn’t understand why I wanted to learn this profession. My mother-in-law always told my wife not to marry a butcher. But she did anyway. My 14-year-old son now also wants to train as a butcher. Just like me, he's very interested in the craft."

4. What’s the biggest challenge in your job?

"Ensuring that all parts of an animal are utilised as well as possible and minimising waste. When processing pieces of meat, it's also important to take special care to ensure that the most popular cuts, like the fillet, remain intact. In this way, we ensure that only the highest quality cuts go on sale."

5. How do you cope with the smell at work?

"Good meat doesn’t smell bad. In addition, our production area is always refrigerated so that the meat retains its quality. As a result, it doesn’t smell much."

6. What’s your favourite type of meat to eat?

"To be honest, sausage! You can’t go far wrong with a good piece of meat, but it takes skill to make a good sausage. I also love trying the sausage creations of other butchers."

7. What type of meat don't many people not know, but is particularly good?

"Many people no longer know how to cook ragouts or stews. Or they simply don’t have the time to prepare them. Both dishes are very tasty if they're made properly. I often cook ragout at home, and my children love it."

8. What do you think of vegetarianism and veganism?

"Everyone should decide for themselves. There's no right or wrong. If I don’t want to eat meat, I go for vegetables and cheese instead."

9. How do you deal with the fact that you work with dead animals?

"It’s part of being a butcher. I last slaughtered an animal about 15 years ago. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but if we want to eat meat, someone has to do it."

10. What do you think about animal welfare?

"I think it’s very important. They're living beings that we need to look after. In addition to being kept in a species-appropriate manner, animals must also be transported carefully and over the shortest possible distance before being slaughtered prudently and professionally."

11. Why did you choose this profession?

"My great-uncle had a butcher’s shop. As a child, I used to fry sausages there every Friday to earn some pocket money. That’s when I developed my passion for meat. I wanted to know where it comes from and how meat is processed properly. As a teenager, I did an apprenticeship as a butcher."

12. Can you feel whether raw meat is tender or tough?

"Yes, I can quickly tell by touch whether a piece of meat contains a lot of fat and whether it's tender. At Micarna, every cut is checked before being processed. That’s why the quality is always right."

13. Is red meat really red or does it turn red?

"Beef is naturally red. That's because the animals eat grass and hay, which contain iron and darken the colour of the meat. The meat of calves is pink because they only drink milk."

14. Can you tell the difference between good and bad meat in the shop?

"I can tell the quality of meat by its colour. The darker a piece of meat is, the older it is and the more often it has been exposed to differences in temperature and light. Because I work with meat every day, I can recognise this and only buy very fresh meat. For example, if beef has a dark brown colour, I don’t buy it."