As seen above, there’s tons of good information readily available about the general rules (Standards) of U.S. Beef Grading. This post is intended to go deeper into the why and how of the Beef Grading Standard’s development and practical application. Hopefully this “bigger picture” post will be helpful to some interested people. In current day beef marketing, “needs” are increasingly… Read More »
Rubbing bone-in pork shoulder butts with expensive spices & salt; then later watching much of it drip off the roast’s exterior along with cooking purge is likely the procedure that most often comes to mind when one thinks of home pulled-pork production. In that scenario, raw meat prep is simple because most modern retail pork butts have already been injected with at least a salt-water… Read More »
An old estimation of market beef carcass yields was 25% bone-in trimmed steaks (likely including round steaks), 25% bone-in roasts, 25% stew beef & ground beef (both are boneless) and 25% wastage. More modern cutting techniques, of Yield Grade 3 market beef carcasses, have an average waste loss closer to 29.2%. An average percentage of carcass dressed from a live market… Read More »
Continuing efforts to develop new ways of fabricating retail beef cuts are interesting, but may no longer be worthwhile. As with classic rock & roll music, where there are only so many ear-pleasing rhythmic progressions to be discovered, the vast majority of economically worthwhile beef carcass fabrication techniques have been in common practice for a long time now. To be… Read More »
The advent of vacuum packaged wholesale cuts in the 1960’s was a new way of shipping and storing fresh meat. Prior to that harvested beef and lamb carcasses hung in coolers for an average of 7 to 10 days before moving into local retail stores. Up to a 2 week dry-aging period was/is sufficient time to adequately enhance meat tenderness;… Read More »