Hawaii Butchers of the Good old Days
Butcher is a very old occupation that has been around as long as their was a need for meat. A butcher is someone who "slaughters animals", dresses their flesh, suggests and sells their meat at retail, and more. It may seem simple, but their work is being in charge of handling multiple steps of treatment of the animal and its meat. They deal with: animal-incapacitation, offal-removal, skinning, draining, and meat-separation. The way the Hawaii Butchery had started was from peoples homes where people had to do all the work of a butcher without the title. Eating animals brought up in a pen or yard was essential to be a way of eating meat by feeding pigs slop. They were primarily raised for home consumption and were treated as important entities or special from their important meaning of being the greatest gift of sacrifice. In Ancient Hawaii After the Polynesian Voyagers had a strong settlement of starting out their homes they would rely on the canoe plants and a few animals that would help them survive. Those who settled in Hawaii would later be the Hawaiians who would continue relying on produce and freshwater fish. Occasionally they ate ocean fish or meat as it was apart of their diet. Pig would be the meat of choice and was eaten during times of celebration. These initial ingredients would shape Hawaii's food systems and none would become more important than Taro (Kalo). It was a big part of their diet as they would pound taro corns into "Kalo Paiai" and add water for "Kalo Poi". In the later years of the they would store taro corms in a barrel. Foods were separated by classes, genders, and symbolic meanings.They made no distinctions among the times of day that they would eat with no categories of breakfast, lunch or dinner. Continuous work came with continuous eating. This was the time that a chicken or a pig would be cooked often times with coconut milk, leaves, and the underground oven (imu). Many meets would be placed into the underground oven whole without much dismantling or cutting if any. They would use their hands, teeth, and upperbody strength to tear apart some foods like pork after it was cooked and eat it. The Hawaiians would eat meals called 'Aha'aina. Aha meant a meeting or gathering of sort and even party. The word 'Aina is a meal or to eat. In short it would be a gathering meal that was eaten. These meals would be eaten off of lauhala mats that were woven together and set on the floor with flowers lining the middle by the foods. Meats on the Island In the 19th century, the meats they did eat were chickens (1), dogs (2), and pigs (3) as settlement food sources from their initial voyage. Ranches would have Free-Roaming Cattle (4) who ate grass and "Taro Peelings Feed" along with the pigs. Other animals back then were Muscovy Ducks (3) and Pigeons (4) owned by the Chinese landowners who married into Hawaiian families. The Chinese would bring in their Meat Market stalls with their meat-hooks, meat cleavers, smoke-roasting techniques, and roasting marinades. Many who came over from ship had previous experience in cooking, so when they had made Hawaii their home they could use that experience to build upon their businesses. This would begin the structure that would be the starting point for Hawaii's meats. Various wild game would be introduced by wealthy land owners for even more meats including: (5) wild turkey, (6) lamb, (7) quails, (8) axis deer, (9) goats, and (10) pheasants. Meat was for those with lots of money and were stretched very far with starches and cabbages back in the day. Paniolo Meat Standardized Systems In Chinatown there would be many meat markets where the chinese shopped exclusively for their cuts of meat for many years. The meat markets would also prepare their meats to be taken home and already cooked, so many customers came to Chinatown for convenience. Chinese would also have to learn spanish cuts, western cuts, both would help ranchers and the Paniolo. Ranches eventually had employed butchers of their own to become self sufficient, but the techniques were still shared. This added some basic standardized western cuts of meat on top of Chinese cutting techniques as parts of becoming a butcher or to learn the skills of one. Most families would beable to butcher an animal and work part time at ranches for some extra pay if they needed the extra money. As time went on multiple waves of immigrants would bring their skills of cutting meats to the butcher block. Each leaving their mark on the the meat-scene of what we see as Hawaii cuts that are standard in groceries. These started with the demand for particular meat cuts that were used for Hawaii's various residents from other parts of the world. From Home to the Neighborhood Butchery Home butchers had taken their skills from the home to start helping other residents cut their meat. If they were lucky sometimes Paniolo would trade some meat for produce and deliver the meat to peoples ice box. Some would take their home butchering techniques and would start small markets to make a living. An assortment of sausages would be made by various ethnic butchers in different neighborhoods. Okinawan and Japanese meat cuts would be introduced by families as early as the 1900s when many families opened their own Grocery Markets to get away from the plantations and become entrepreneurs. They would sell snacks, toys, drinks, food, and some fruits and vegetables. Later on they would add in limited meat selections that started with western style meat standardized selection to compete in the ever growing market. This selection of local favorites would change as meat became more regularly available to the typical family house hold. A famous grocer butchery was Toyo's Superette on Oahu run by the Toyokazu and Toshio of the Okamura Family in 1918 and started its market in 1968. Where the relationship and service had help define the Hawaii local-style Butchery expectation of talking story with many customers and treating them all as their neighbors. Groceries would be taken to the car or help finding an item was no problem with produce individually wrapped and the butcher paper. At the end of its days Toshio Okamura would run the store with Glenn Okamura, Grant Okamura, Wendy Okamura, and the rest of the staff. After the War with Processed Meats In the 1950s, After the war meat became a lot more available and that brought more demand in Hawaii. This would bring processed meats like Sausages, Spam, Luncheon Meat, Ham, and Corned Beef as some of the most popular consumed meats at that time and still today. Meats use to be a traded as luxury food or it took a long time to raise near the homes or on owned land. But after the war it was much easier to buy meat instead of raising it, slaughtering it, and preparing it, or even saving up to buy some. You could just walk down to a market and buy it at a moderate price. Many immigrants had children that were grown up adults who were children in the plantation. In Hawaii they were raised with plantation local values based on Hawaiian values and had a mixture of tastes growing up with their intermingling camps. This is when multiple groups would start bringing their influence of meat, since they could afford it. They started getting more money and they were able to buy more better equipment and so butchery continued to be a elevated family business. Cuts from Many Places to serve Many Faces Some Japanese knives that were brought over for Butchers was specialized for certain meats. Equipment they would bring over would be the: kawahagi-skinning knife, honesuki-pultry boning knife, and atamatori-curved boning knife. This would add on to the standard usage of: the all purpose chinese cleaver, chinese hanging hooks, hook display cases, western boning hooks, wooden butcher blocks, sauce brushes, and meat grinders. The Koreans brought certain meat cuts that would be standardized in Hawaii's meat sections like Shortribs, marinated Shortribs, and seasoned Shortribs. They would also contribute to the vast amount of sliced cuts of Porkbelly, Thin Sliced Beef, Thin Sliced Pork, Thin Sliced Beef Brisket, Thin Sliced Beef Tongue, and Thick Sliced Black line Pork (aka Korean Bacon). These would be later seen in Hawaii-Korean style Plate Lunch. The portuguese would solidify sausage as a main part of identifying a place selling artisan meat. They would continue their legacy in making numerous sorts of sausage inspired from their home, their friends nations, and the inspiration that came from those visiting ships coming for overseas trade. Many who helped develop the trade of the modern day butchery would be working at or working for companies creating sausages. Locals in general started to purchase cuts like: Oxtail (for Oxtail Stew), Beef Tripe (for Tripe Stew), Chicken Feet, Pigs Feet (for Pigs Feet Soup), Pigs Ear, Hammhocks (for Portuguese Bean Soup), Pork Skin (for Chicharon). They would also still make use of bones as they already had in the past to make stocks using: Pork Bones, Beef Bones, Duck Carcass, Chicken Carcass. There was a growing market of people buying pre-cooked and pre-packaged meats as well. The End of Sustainably Raised & Locally Sourced Until one day in the 70s, it all suddenly disappeared. Island meat that was raised, butchered, and sold locally was no more with many meat producers being displaced with politicians marking those areas as residential building zones. It pushed out prime farming ahupuaa on all the different islands where poulty, piggery, and dairies were located as a strategic move. The landscape of prime farming self-sufficiency would change to prime real estate for whoever would pay the price. Those who survived couldn't survive all the immediately placed restrictions and political changes which made it extremely hard to run a family business back then. Taxes were really increased for businesses so people were buying lower-quality lower cost imported meats, new handling regulations from PETA also made raising meet very different for newcomers, and increased shipping costs, feed costs, and business taxes. Many of the known piggeries, ranches, and butcheries had closed down or made drastic changes. Many Hawaiian families that had their own ways of running dairy farms, meat processing, and chicken farms would fight in a event known as the "Kalama Valley Protests" with Kalani Ohelo of the "Hawaiian Renaissance". It was a protest of resistance by the residents and activists not only for the valley of Kalama but also for meat and poultry sustainability of the main producers on all Hawaiian islands. The government at the time did not listen and built the residential subdivisions and many of the farms owned by multiple ethnic groups all started one by one to disappear into the sunset.
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