🇫🇷Cuts in French

French butchery is among the most codified meat traditions in the world — a vocabulary of precisely named cuts standardised since the 19th century, taught in trade schools, and reflected in CAP boucher certifications. The boucher's separation of muscles is finer than the Anglo-American primal system: paleron, onglet, bavette, hampe, araignée, aiguillette baronne, poire, merlan — each named, each with its preparation.

French names are the lingua franca of professional kitchens worldwide; restaurant menus from Tokyo to São Paulo borrow filet, entrecôte, faux-filet, and côte de bœuf without translation. The tradition runs deep: the slow braises (bœuf bourguignon, daube), the quick grills (steak-frites, onglet aux échalotes), the offal canon (rognons, ris de veau, foie). The French butcher's reputation for revealing 'hidden' tender muscles inside heavily-worked primals — the boucher's secret cuts — is the single biggest contribution to modern butchery vocabulary.