# Brit Butchers Wearing White Trilby Hats- Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759 "2011-07-29T18:22:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/1 "2011-07-29T18:22:58Z")
This [young man](http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/images/butcher3.jpg) wrapping a gorgeous joint is wearing a hat we here in the States would think a bit fancy for cutting up animals all the day long. I haven’t seen a butcher wear a hat that isn’t a ballcap here in forever; even before it was just a peaked deli hat. What gives, Britischer Butchers? I saw it all over Coronation Street and on the Gordon Ramsay shows where he’s in the UK; they seem to be disposable hats or at least not built to last more than a week but the shape’s that of a ‘nice hat’ over here. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/2 "2011-07-29T19:17:50Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > This [young man](http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/images/butcher3.jpg) wrapping a gorgeous joint is wearing a hat we here in the States would think a bit fancy for cutting up animals all the day long. I haven’t seen a butcher wear a hat that isn’t a ballcap here in forever; even before it was just a peaked deli hat. > What gives, Britischer Butchers? I saw it all over Coronation Street and on the Gordon Ramsay shows where he’s in the UK; they seem to be disposable hats or at least not built to last more than a week but the shape’s that of a ‘nice hat’ over here. These hygiene trilby hats not disposable and they’re meant to last for longer than a week. They’re usually made of a synthetic fabric mesh. They’re fairly standard headgear for UK butchers and those in simalir lines of work who need hygiene hats. I suppose these traditional-style hygine hats are preferred for public-facing workers in the food industry as it suggests the wearer has a trade and some sort of expertise (whetehr or not they do). Though traditionally in the UK buthcer’s wore straw boaters as opposed to trilbies, though I doubt they do any more due to food hygiene regulations. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/3 "2011-07-29T20:56:53Z")
I dont care if my butcher wears a hat or not, I just want that lovely roast he is tying … ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/4 "2011-07-29T23:08:15Z")
Are the hats washable? Does “hygiene hat” means it’s supposed to keep hair out of the food? ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/5 "2011-07-29T23:10:12Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > This [young man](http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/images/butcher3.jpg) wrapping a gorgeous joint is wearing a hat we here in the States would think a bit fancy I thought that picture was going to show show something like [this.](http://media.photobucket.com/image/image%20rolling%20spliff/Jr334/th_bob_rolling-spliff.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/6 "2011-07-29T23:24:27Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > Are the hats washable? Does “hygiene hat” means it’s supposed to keep hair out of the food? Yes they’re washable and yes Ithey’re suppose to keep hair out of food. Though I’m basing this on a part-time job I had about a decade ago in a superrmarket (though it wasn’t me who actually wore the hats) ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/7 "2011-07-30T01:21:26Z")
I would have said he was wearing a pork-pie hat. _Snerk_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/8 "2011-07-30T11:27:35Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I haven’t seen a butcher wear a hat that isn’t a ballcap here in forever; even before it was just a peaked deli hat. Butchers in the US wear baseball caps? From this side of the pond that’s equally as strange! Aren’t those the things young people wear? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/9 "2011-07-30T11:57:08Z")
I don’t see how the hat keeps hair out of food. Does it have something that holds the hair up and in the hat? If not, I’d expect hair to fall as easily as when you put it up in other ways. I mean, I could maybe see wearing a hairnet under that, but then I wouldn’t consider the hat to be the important part–it’d just be cosmetic. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/10 "2011-07-30T12:46:36Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I dont care if my butcher wears a hat or not, I just want that lovely roast he is tying … It’s a stunner, isn’t it? You could feed a household for a few days on that, or a few very happy, overstuffed guests all weekend long. This month I learned about tri-tip roasts, are you familiar? > [@Parenchyma](#): > > I thought that picture was going to show show something like [this.](http://media.photobucket.com/image/image%20rolling%20spliff/Jr334/th_bob_rolling-spliff.jpg) Wrapping, baby, not rolling. Though a rolled one could lead to wanting to eat a wrapped one. > [@BobArrgh](#): > > I would have said he was wearing a pork-pie hat. > > _Snerk_ > 😃 Bob, you earned your Arrrgh w/ tht one, well done to you sir! > [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > Butchers in the US wear baseball caps? From this side of the pond that’s equally as strange! Aren’t those the things young people wear? 😛 Here in the States (and the bits of Canada I’ve seen) people of all ages wear ballcaps. Many supermarkets here have all their employees wear a ballcap w/ their logo on it, and since most people buy their meat at a supermarket rather than a dedicated butcher the meat case workers are in ballcaps. > [@BigT](#): > > I don’t see how the hat keeps hair out of food. Does it have something that holds the hair up and in the hat? If not, I’d expect hair to fall as easily as when you put it up in other ways. > > I mean, I could maybe see wearing a hairnet under that, but then I wouldn’t consider the hat to be the important part–it’d just be cosmetic. My thought too, you’d have to have rather short hair or have it all in a hairnet under the hat for it to keep hair from falling into the meat. But if the goal is to indicate the person wearing the hat has learned something more about the product they’re responsible for (as a tradesman) and is to be relied on in that arena of knowledge I certainly see the purpose of the hat. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/11 "2011-07-30T12:52:27Z")
Don’t baseball caps suffer from the same problem with keeping hair off food though? I mean, if you don’t have short hair, it’s going to stick out like it or not. The man in the picture in the OP seems to have short hair that is concealed entirely by the hat. The difference in efficacy of either style seems negligible. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/12 "2011-07-30T13:58:43Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > Don’t baseball caps suffer from the same problem with keeping hair off food though? I mean, if you don’t have short hair, it’s going to stick out like it or not. The man in the picture in the OP seems to have short hair that is concealed entirely by the hat. > > The difference in efficacy of either style seems negligible. Sorry, I should have been more explicit; hands-on food workers in the supermarket wear a hairnet as far as I’ve seen - meat, deli, bakery. They wear them under the ballcap if they wear a ballcap IME. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/13 "2011-07-30T14:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=Fake Tales of San Francisco] Butchers in the US wear baseball caps? From this side of the pond that’s equally as strange! Aren’t those the things young people wear? 😛 [/QUOTE] Most of the meat cutters I’ve seen around here are wearing hairnets under a bump cap. (eg: a lightweight hard hat) I don’t know the point of the bump cap, unless it’s like the exterminators who wear the same sort of caps to subconsciously make you think “Hey, this bug spray business is dangerous, so I better leave it to the pros.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/14 "2011-07-30T15:02:55Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Most of the meat cutters I’ve seen around here are wearing hairnets under a bump cap. (eg: a lightweight hard hat) > > I don’t know the point of the bump cap, unless it’s like the exterminators who wear the same sort of caps to subconsciously make you think “Hey, this bug spray business is dangerous, so I better leave it to the pros.” Crawling under furniture and in crawl spaces\* (That’s why they call them that!)\* running network cable, I’ve often wished I had something between my head and hard things. 🙂 Maybe butchers wear them to ward off meat hanging in the freezer. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/15 "2011-07-30T18:46:01Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > This month I learned about tri-tip roasts, are you familiar? If you’re new to tri-tip, here’s what you do: First, find one that still has the fat off on, and hasn’t been trimmed to death. (You can cut the fat off after you cook it, if you insist). Put on a dry rub (paprika, garlic powder, onion power, salt, black pepper is all it really needs). Fire up the grill (charcoal, please). Sear both sides to get that relatively dark, crispy outside - about 10 minutes per side with the lid down, depending on how high the heat is. Move the meat off the main heat, put the grill’s lid back on, and cook until 140 degrees F internal temperature. Take as long to get to 140 as possible; 30 minutes is good, but if you control the heat right, you can make it take 45 minutes. Pull the meat off the grill and let it rest 10 minutes under loosely tented tin foil or a dishcloth. 140 degrees is pretty rare, but the resting will carry you to between 145 and 150 for a more medium rare doneness. Because of the odd shape of the meat, you’ll always have a range of doneness in your slices anyway, which makes these great for entertaining. Once the internal temperature stops going up, carve into slices. As far hats… wear whatever feels right. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/16 "2011-07-30T21:48:37Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Fire up the grill (charcoal, please). You a guy or a girl? Do I want to buy you a beer or roses? ---
**Author:** ![rotntoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rotntoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rotntoe)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/17 "2011-07-31T02:57:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Crawling under furniture and in crawl spaces\* (That’s why they call them that!)\* running network cable, I’ve often wished I had something between my head and hard things. 🙂 > Maybe butchers wear them to ward off meat hanging in the freezer. HI, I asked an older fellow who worked in the meat department. He said it was from the times he worked at a meat processing plant that had shut down. When the plant would get sides of hanging meat, they were on large heavy steel hooks. You would grab the large side of meat in a bear hug, push up and take it off the hook. In the process the hook sometimes came off the track, and may hit you in the head. The hooks were removable to be cleaned. that is what he told me. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/18 "2011-07-31T03:11:37Z")
Thanks, rotntoe! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/19 "2011-07-31T05:18:46Z")
I have never seen a butcher, at retail or distributor, wear a baseball cap in NYC. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759/20 "2011-07-31T05:19:00Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Fire up the grill (charcoal, please). Sacrilege! Red oak, thank you very much. (You also need pinquito beans, garlic bread, and salad.) [Some reasonable instructions.](http://lospadrescounty.net/et/smbbq.html) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-butchers-wearing-white-trilby-hats-why/590759.md?page=2)