What does a Butcher buy and sell?

It buys raw chicken, raw porkchop, raw rabbit, coal, raw mutton, raw beef, dried kelp block, sweet berries, and sells rabbit stew, cooked porkchop, cooked chicken. That is 8 things it wants against only 3 it hands back, spread across all five of its ranks.

Which block does a Butcher need to do its job?

A Smoker. Place one next to an unemployed adult villager and it becomes a Butcher; break the smoker before any trade closes and it drops the job again.

Is the meat a Butcher wants the same meat a breeding pen produces?

Yes, for 5 of its 8 buy offers: raw chicken, raw porkchop, raw rabbit, raw mutton, raw beef. Every one of those is the same surplus a working animal pen already hands you once it grows past the size you are keeping it at.

What food can only a Butcher sell?

Rabbit Stew, at Novice, for 1 emerald. No other profession in the trade tables carries it.

How do you unlock every Butcher trade?

By trading with it, which is the only thing that pays career XP. It reaches Apprentice at 10 cumulative XP, Journeyman at 70, Expert at 150, and Master at 250.

What is the cheapest way to get emeralds from a Butcher?

Selling 4 raw rabbit for one emerald, the best rate on its whole list. That slot holds 16 uses before it needs a restock at the smoker.

How many trades does it take to walk a Butcher from Novice to Master?

25, on the single highest-paying offer available at each rank. The climb ends 1 emeralds ahead, and every trade in it stays inside what the slots hold before a restock is needed.

Does a Butcher sell cooked meat for every raw meat it buys?

No. It buys five kinds of raw meat but only turns two of them into a cooked sale, cooked porkchop and cooked chicken; cooked beef and cooked mutton are not on any villager's list at all, which keeps a smoker or campfire useful even next to a Butcher.

BUTCHER

Workstation: Smoker|11 trades across 5 levels

Buys raw meats and sells cooked foods. Great for converting animal farm products into emeralds.

Last checked: 26 September 2026
Java Edition: 26.3, 11 of 11 rows found
Bedrock Edition: 1.26.50.4, 11 of 11 matching
Edition differences: 1 pays different villager XP

What is the Butcher?

Anyone keeping a breeding pen already ends up with a pile of raw meat, because breeding animals means feeding them until the herd outgrows the pen and the surplus gets culled. The Butcher is the villager built to take that pile off your hands: 5 of its 8 buy offers are raw meat, the exact thing an active cow, pig, or rabbit pen hands you whether you were trading for it or not.

It claims its job the moment an unemployed adult villager reaches a Smoker, the block that both cooks and marks the profession. Bring one within range and the villager changes into butcher clothing and opens its novicelist; pull the smoker away before a trade closes and the job is undone.

What comes back across the counter is narrower than what goes in: only 3 sell offers against 8 buy offers, so this villager leans toward being an emerald sink for farm surplus rather than a shop. One of those 3 is worth calling out on its own: Rabbit Stew at novice is not sold by any other profession in the game, which makes the Butcher the only villager anywhere that will hand you a bowl of it.

For raw emerald income the quickest single trade is 4 raw rabbit at novice, cheaper per item than any other meat on this villager's list, though it still costs an animal killed rather than a crop pulled, the difference that sets this profession apart from the Farmer.

Butcher trades at Novice level
Input	Output	Uses	Villager XP	Java 26.3	Bedrock 1.26.50.4
Raw Chicken		16	2same in Bedrock	verified	verified
Raw Porkchop		16	2same in Bedrock	verified	verified
Raw Rabbit		16	2same in Bedrock	verified	verified
	Rabbit Stew	12	1not in the Bedrock table	verified	verified

4 trades at Novice level

The game draws 2 of the 4 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 50% of novice butchers, and a specific one takes about 2 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 3 and 1 of 1, so there the same offer is on 33% or 100% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.

Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 3 on the raw rabbit (4 to 1) up to 6 on the raw porkchop (7 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.

The raw chicken offer pays the villager 2 XP a use and the rabbit stew offer pays 1, so the 10 XP from Novice to Apprentice is 5 trades one way and 10 the other. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.

All 4 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on 26 September 2026 against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.

Butcher trades at Apprentice level
Output	Uses	Villager XP	Java 26.3	Bedrock 1.26.50.4
	16	2Bedrock 10	verified	verified
Cooked Porkchop	16	5same in Bedrock	verified	verified
Cooked Chicken	16	5same in Bedrock	verified	verified

3 trades at Apprentice level

The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of apprentice butchers, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 100% or 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.

Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the coal goes from 15 to 9. No cost ever drops below one.

The cooked porkchop offer pays the villager 5 XP a use and the coal offer pays 2, so the 60 XP from Apprentice to Journeyman is 12 trades one way and 30 the other. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Bedrock pays 10 on the coal offer rather than 2. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.

All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on 26 September 2026 against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.

Butcher trades at Journeyman level
Input		Output	Emeralds	Uses	Villager XP	Java 26.3	Bedrock 1.26.50.4	Notes
Raw Mutton				16	20same in Bedrock	verified	verified
Raw Beef				16	20same in Bedrock	verified	verified

2 trades at Journeyman level

The game draws 2 of the 2 offers this tier holds, which is all of them, so every journeyman butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock builds this tier out of 1 group and draws 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.

Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the raw mutton goes from 7 to 1. No cost ever drops below one.

Every offer here pays the villager 20 XP a use, so the 80 XP from Journeyman to Expert is 4 trades whichever one you use. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.

All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on 26 September 2026 against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.

Butcher trades at Expert level
Input		Output	Emeralds	Uses	Villager XP	Java 26.3	Bedrock 1.26.50.4	Notes
Dried Kelp Block				12	30same in Bedrock	verified	verified

1 trade at Expert level

This tier holds one offer and every villager gets it, so every expert butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.

Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the dried kelp block goes from 10 to 4. No cost ever drops below one.

Every offer here pays the villager 30 XP a use, so the 100 XP from Expert to Master is 4 trades whichever one you use. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.

The 1 trade on this page was read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.3 ships in its own data, checked on 26 September 2026 against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.50.4 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.

Butcher trades at Master level
Input		Output	Emeralds	Uses	Villager XP	Java 26.3	Bedrock 1.26.50.4	Notes
Sweet Berries				12	30same in Bedrock	verified	verified

1 trade at Master level

This tier holds one offer and every villager gets it, so every master butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.

Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the sweet berries goes from 10 to 4. No cost ever drops below one.

Master is the top tier. Its offers still pay 30 XP a use, but there is no tier above for that XP to open. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.

Novice to Master: what the climb costs

A Butcher does not level up on time served, it levels up on trading XP, and each of its offers pays a fixed amount of it. That makes the climb a countable thing rather than a chore: 25 trades take one from Novice to Master if you use the offer that pays most at every tier, and the tiers below say which offer that is.

The fewest trades that take a Butcher from Novice to Master, tier by tier
Climb	XP	Offer that pays most	Trades	You hand over	You get back
Novice to Apprentice	10	The raw rabbit offer, 2 XP a useor any of the 2 others that pay 2	5	20 raw rabbit	5 emeralds
Apprentice to Journeyman	60	The cooked porkchop offer, 5 XP a useor the other offer here, which pays 5 too	12	12 emeralds	60 cooked porkchops
Journeyman to Expert	80	The raw mutton offer, 20 XP a useor the other offer here, which pays 20 too	4	28 raw mutton	4 emeralds
Expert to Master	100	The dried kelp block offer, 30 XP a use	4	40 dried kelp blocks	4 emeralds
Novice to Master	250	no restock needed	25	20 raw rabbit, 28 raw mutton, 40 dried kelp blocks and 12 emeralds	13 emeralds and 60 cooked porkchops

The bill for the whole climb is 20 raw rabbit, 28 raw mutton, 40 dried kelp blocks and 12 emeralds. It pays for itself: 1 emerald more than you started with by the time it is Master, plus 60 cooked porkchops. No offer in the route runs past what its slot holds, so a Butcher with full stock can be walked all the way up in one sitting.

Counted, not timed. The XP each offer pays is the xp field of its own trade file, the 10, 60, 80, 100 XP between the tiers is VillagerData.NEXT_LEVEL_XP_THRESHOLDS, and the prices and use counts are the table above. Where a tier has more than one offer paying the top rate, the route takes the one any villager can hold, then the one that pays rather than costs, then the cheapest. XP over the line is not lost, it counts toward the next tier, so no trade in the route is wasted. How that check works.

Odds, groups and price rules for every Butcher trade

Trade	Java odds	Bedrock odds	Bedrock group	Price multiplier	One cure takes off
14Raw Chickenfor1EmeraldButcher, Novice	50%	33%	1	0.05	6 items
7Raw Porkchopfor1EmeraldButcher, Novice	50%	33%	1	0.05	6 items
4Raw Rabbitfor1EmeraldButcher, Novice	50%	33%	1	0.05	6 items
1Emeraldfor1Rabbit StewButcher, Novice	50%	100%	2	0.05	6 items
15Coalfor1EmeraldButcher, Apprentice	67%	100%	1	0.05	6 items
1Emeraldfor5Cooked PorkchopButcher, Apprentice	67%	50%	2	0.05	6 items
1Emeraldfor8Cooked ChickenButcher, Apprentice	67%	50%	2	0.05	6 items
7Raw Muttonfor1EmeraldButcher, Journeyman	100%	50%	1	0.05	6 items
10Raw Beeffor1EmeraldButcher, Journeyman	100%	50%	1	0.05	6 items
10Dried Kelp Blockfor1EmeraldButcher, Expert	100%	100%	1	0.05	6 items
10Sweet Berriesfor1EmeraldButcher, Master	100%	100%	1	0.05	6 items

Butcher trades by tier (Novice to Master)

A Butcher climbs five career ranks, and each rank it reaches adds a fresh batch of offers on top of the ones below it. The experience gates are fixed: the Novice tier opens immediately with 4 offers, 10 more trade-XP points unlock Apprentice (3 offers), 60 more trade-XP points unlock Journeyman (2 offers), 80 more trade-XP points unlock Expert (1 offer), and 100 more trade-XP points unlock Master (1 offer). The full price list for every rank is laid out below; emerald costs marked as a range roll randomly within that band each time the trade is generated or restocked.

Tier 1 · Novice

4 trades · available from the start

Sell to villager: 14 raw chickens for 1 emerald, 7 raw porkchops for 1 emerald, and 4 raw rabbits for 1 emerald.

Buy from villager: rabbit stew for 1 emerald.

Tier 2 · Apprentice

3 trades · 10 cumulative XP

Sell to villager: 15 coals for 1 emerald.

Buy from villager: 5 cooked porkchop for 1 emerald and 8 cooked chicken for 1 emerald.

Tier 3 · Journeyman

2 trades · 70 cumulative XP

Sell to villager: 7 raw muttons for 1 emerald and 10 raw beefs for 1 emerald.

Tier 4 · Expert

1 trade · 150 cumulative XP

Sell to villager: 10 dried kelp blocks for 1 emerald.

Tier 5 · Master

1 trade · 250 cumulative XP

Sell to villager: 10 sweet berriess for 1 emerald.

Butcher trading tips

Let breeding do the sourcing. Feeding two of any animal to make a baby is how most players already keep a pen stocked, and the surplus adults that pen produces are exactly what this villager wants; there is rarely a reason to hunt wild mobs for its trades when a pen you are already running keeps the counter full for free.

Raw Rabbit is the best rate on the list: 4 per emerald, usable 16 times before the slot locks, worth up to 32 emeralds a full villager day once both restocks land. Raw chicken and raw porkchop sell too, just at a worse rate, so route the rabbits here first and let the rest fill in behind them.

Spend some of it back on rabbit stew. It is the one dish in this whole trading system no other profession sells, unlocked from the very first tier for 1 emerald, and it restores more hunger at once than a single plate of cooked porkchop or cooked chicken, both of which this same Butcher also sells once it reaches apprentice.

Leveling only moves through trading. This Butcher needs 10 XP to leave novice, 70 to reach journeyman, 150 for expert, and 250 for master. It has to be able to walk back to its smoker between sessions or none of that XP banks and none of its offers restock.

Cure a permanently pricey one rather than avoid it. Trap this Butcher while infected on Hard difficulty, hit it with a Splash Potion of Weakness, then feed it a golden apple; the cure knocks every price on its sheet down for good, meat and cooked food alike. Our zombie villager discount guide covers the whole process.

The first completed trade locks whatever this particular Butcher rolled for good, so reset it before that first trade if the mix is not one you want: remove the smoker, let the job drop, then place it again for a new novice draw. Our villager rolling guide has the full steps.

Two cooked meats are missing from his list entirely: cooked beef and cooked mutton have no trade in either direction, so a cow or a sheep pays you on the raw side only.

Where the Butcher's trades come from

A villager without a job turns Butcher next to a Smoker, and Villager Professions and Workstations Guide lists the block for every other job. Most of what the Butcher buys comes off animals or out of the sea, and the farms below cover the ones that have a guide.

Raw Chicken, 14 per emerald at Novice: How to Build an Egg Farm in Minecraft
Dried Kelp Block, 10 per emerald at Expert: How to Build a Kelp Farm with Auto Smelter

Butcher trading FAQ

What does a Butcher buy and sell?
It buys raw chicken, raw porkchop, raw rabbit, coal, raw mutton, raw beef, dried kelp block, sweet berries, and sells rabbit stew, cooked porkchop, cooked chicken. That is 8 things it wants against only 3 it hands back, spread across all five of its ranks.
Which block does a Butcher need to do its job?
A Smoker. Place one next to an unemployed adult villager and it becomes a Butcher; break the smoker before any trade closes and it drops the job again.
Is the meat a Butcher wants the same meat a breeding pen produces?
Yes, for 5 of its 8 buy offers: raw chicken, raw porkchop, raw rabbit, raw mutton, raw beef. Every one of those is the same surplus a working animal pen already hands you once it grows past the size you are keeping it at.
What food can only a Butcher sell?
Rabbit Stew, at Novice, for 1 emerald. No other profession in the trade tables carries it.
How do you unlock every Butcher trade?
By trading with it, which is the only thing that pays career XP. It reaches Apprentice at 10 cumulative XP, Journeyman at 70, Expert at 150, and Master at 250.
What is the cheapest way to get emeralds from a Butcher?
Selling 4 raw rabbit for one emerald, the best rate on its whole list. That slot holds 16 uses before it needs a restock at the smoker.
How many trades does it take to walk a Butcher from Novice to Master?
25, on the single highest-paying offer available at each rank. The climb ends 1 emeralds ahead, and every trade in it stays inside what the slots hold before a restock is needed.
Does a Butcher sell cooked meat for every raw meat it buys?
No. It buys five kinds of raw meat but only turns two of them into a cooked sale, cooked porkchop and cooked chicken; cooked beef and cooked mutton are not on any villager's list at all, which keeps a smoker or campfire useful even next to a Butcher.