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What is the ranking of common grocery store beef cuts?

Wagburgers were good, but not really any better than 70% whitetail/ 30% brisket. There is a cost benefit as the wagyu was only like $15/lb while the deer burger is more like $2800/ lb. :laughing:
 
Roc Doc said:
This thread nearly has it all.

Arguing
Name calling
Tangent topics
Crankiness
Puffy chestiness
Obtusism
Gizm

Just needs
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'Bout some grilled giant broccoli?


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Buncha palm steak rubbers in here. :laughing:


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TatonkaII said:
This is why I say no to costco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hELeD0mPdnE&ab_channel=FlavCitywithBobbyParrish
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I stopped watching when he said “grass fed beef is better than Costco”.

Grass fed is for craft beer drinking hipsters. I’ll take grain fed/grain finished beef over “grass fed” any day, because I care about flavor and texture. I also do not believe all Costco beef labeled as “blade tenderized” is actually blade tenderized. I can promise you that bone-in rib roast was not blade tenderized. You can tell by looking at it. Some of steaks are, and I’ve been buying it in mass quantities and cooking it no more than medium rare for years with zero “E. coli” issues or concerns.

Costco beef is great. I buy a lot, probability $3-$400/month, (pre-covid) there. I also spend a bunch at the local-ish meat markets which have excellent beef and customer service.
 
45acp said:
Because of this thread, we're doing wagyu hamburgers tonight.

Kinda want to compare to my typical deer meet mixed with brisket burger. Will report back..

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because of this thread i just got home from costco with some prime rib eye because i didnt want to settle for the new yorks in the freezer :laughing:
 
300sniper said:
But aren’t you scared of dying from blade tenderized beef?....
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i didnt even know they did it until a couple years ago and since ive been aware i havent changed a thing or even thought about it :laughing: good steak should be salt pepper cooked over charcoal rare to medium rare and im a happy camper :grinpimp:

should i be using a thermometer? :flipoff2:
 
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The only thing that I've come across "blade tenderized" is the cuts of briskets for St. Paddy's Day. I thought the briskets were always deep seasoned in a vat but times have changed due to costs.

For a tough cut of beef, ask your butcher to tenderized it. He/she will use the Hobart commercial tenderizer machine at no cost. Before my time, a heavy hammer-like w/serrated spikes was the tool but the smaller versions for home use is available-
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Aggie06 said:
I prefer deer with pork fat. Need to grind up some with brisket and try it for burgers.
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The only thing I cut into steaks is the backstrap and tenderloin, everything else goes into burger. That gets blended with the average 12-15lb brisket, packaged and vacuum sealed. It's by far the best way I've ever tried. It's good in everything.

I used to do 10lbs bacon... the brisket works better. A local shop here has $$$ prime rib burger and it seems identical.
 
trampas said:
There's a 98% chance every cut of beef you get from a grocery store is in fact cloned beef. Have fun.
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Hmmm is that true? They still use artificial insemination, and it's literally a better system than cloning for a healthy herd. I thought cloning was still in the lab and chinese petting zoos.
 
DuckTape said:
There is, and it takes years before a person is allowed to grade at a slaughter house. I have a friend who was the first woman to achieve this position.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-stan...-and-standards

Edit: I focused on the standards part, not the "device" part. This should be fairly easy via photo/video + AI. Similar to what is done for x-ray or other medical imaging AI.
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Indeed and these are great standards.

But ambiguity is built into the system between cuts. There is no definite list of standards for the consumer to decide if they want a Top Round or a Chuck Eye Roast. What the s the difference, and which one is higher on the list? I know Chuck is and that's it. That's all I know.

That's bullshit. I know the difference between a thigh and a breast. The breast is white and stingy and dry shit meat for nuggets, and the thigh is thick succulent and juicy for Patricians.

No such luck on cows. Good luck Consumer, here's a Chuck Loin Chop Rib, you know like mom used to make. No I don't fucking know what the fuck.

You shouldn't need a class to buy a cow, you should have to look at a big diagram on the wall for 20 seconds and figure it out for the rest of your life.
 
SanDiegoCJ said:
Our CostCo's around here sell "choice" grade beef. Most major chain groceries sell "select" grade, which is one grade lower than "choice".
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That is how it goes in my town as well. Not the choice scale but the distribution of it.

Leaner cheaper cuts are just fine to wrap in tin foil and give the pork shoulder treatment to.

I'm a huge fan of the 'cheaper' cuts of beef but I just want a hierarchy of them. They like to make things ambiguous, it's a vestige of snake oil times.
 
Thefishguy77 said:
Hunt our own food. Then buy halfs of beef and pork when needed.
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So do you just hack into it or what? I'd assume butchering a deer is the same, the only butchering I've done is cutting it off the deer and straight into the grinder, otherwise we took it to some guys down in the old part of town to cut up and sausage.

I saw on TV these butchers in the PNW drive a trailer butcher rig around and they go to these islands and take care of people's beef. Industry is dying out because PNW and hippies and alternative forms of industrialized nutrition.
 
evernoob said:
So do you just hack into it or what?
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The meat industry at supermarkets back in old days required butchers to be a journeyman/apprentice for 3 years before getting the coveted "Master Butcher" title.

evernoob said:
the only butchering I've done is cutting it off the deer and straight into the grinder
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That grinding only sounds like a meat machine operator gig... Some meatcutter skill for beginners if removing meat from carcasses but bonus if you remove the hide too-
 
evernoob said:
Indeed and these are great standards.

But ambiguity is built into the system between cuts. There is no definite list of standards for the consumer to decide if they want a Top Round or a Chuck Eye Roast. What the s the difference, and which one is higher on the list? I know Chuck is and that's it. That's all I know.

That's bullshit. I know the difference between a thigh and a breast. The breast is white and stingy and dry shit meat for nuggets, and the thigh is thick succulent and juicy for Patricians.

No such luck on cows. Good luck Consumer, here's a Chuck Loin Chop Rib, you know like mom used to make. No I don't fucking know what the fuck.

You shouldn't need a class to buy a cow, you should have to look at a big diagram on the wall for 20 seconds and figure it out for the rest of your life.
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Even an oaf like you can take a chicken apart with a knife in 90 seconds in your kitchen. Try that with a cow. There are a lot more parts and a lot more options with a cow. And it’s different on grass fed beef. There are parts that just aren’t as good (imho) on a grass fed cow.

Of course you could just try different roasts and steaks and learn what you like. Maybe write it down so you don’t forget.
 
DMG said:
Even an oaf like you can take a chicken apart with a knife in 90 seconds in your kitchen. Try that with a cow. There are a lot more parts and a lot more options with a cow. And it’s different on grass fed beef. There are parts that just aren’t as good (imho) on a grass fed cow.

Of course you could just try different roasts and steaks and learn what you like. Maybe write it down so you don’t forget.
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Well fuck man look at this:
https://www.ift.org/news-and-publica...afety--quality

Instrumental Grading of Meat

Neil H. Mermelstein

March 1, 2013

Beef Carcass Grading
On a voluntary, fee-forservice basis, meat processors can have their products officially graded or certified by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) (www.ams.usda.gov). During the grading of beef, the chilled carcass side is cut between the 12th and 13th ribs to expose the rib eye and associated fat cover. Historically, grading was done on beef carcasses by a human grader trained in processing plants, but that led to day-to-day and week-to-week variation in the accuracy of grading. So researchers at the USDA’s Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) (www.marc.usda.gov) in Clay Center, Neb., worked on the problem and developed an instrument that almost all major North American beef plants use for measuring marbling and yield grade traits.​
So of course I was on the right track but it's already been done. I'm not satisfied with it, I wonder what else is wrong.

THey only grade in that one spot, that's obviously not enough, you can tell visually. That leaves way too much variation for the big chain grocers to juke that shit.

Why can two identical cuts from the same store, with the same grade, be prepared side by side and taste so differently? Cheating by my shitty discount grocery stores? Non-participation? Fake USDA labels?
 
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evernoob said:
Why can two identical cuts from the same store, with the same grade, be prepared side by side and taste so differently? Cheating by my shitty discount grocery stores? Non-participation? Fake USDA labels?
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I feel this is particularly true with beef sirloin filets/sirloin in general.

Non-machine tenderized, of course. :flipoff2::laughing:
 
evernoob said:
Well fuck man look at this:

https://www.ift.org/news-and-public...ssues/2013/march/columns/food-safety--quality

Instrumental Grading of Meat

Neil H. Mermelstein

March 1, 2013

Beef Carcass Grading
On a voluntary, fee-forservice basis, meat processors can have their products officially graded or certified by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) (www.ams.usda.gov). During the grading of beef, the chilled carcass side is cut between the 12th and 13th ribs to expose the rib eye and associated fat cover. Historically, grading was done on beef carcasses by a human grader trained in processing plants, but that led to day-to-day and week-to-week variation in the accuracy of grading. So researchers at the USDA’s Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) (www.marc.usda.gov) in Clay Center, Neb., worked on the problem and developed an instrument that almost all major North American beef plants use for measuring marbling and yield grade traits.

So of course I was on the right track but it's already been done. I'm not satisfied with it, I wonder what else is wrong.

Why can two identical cuts from the same store, with the same grade, be prepared side by side and taste so differently? Cheating by my shitty discount grocery stores? Non-participation? Fake USDA labels?
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Like humans and every other animal, some cows are bigger, older, younger, fattier, different breeds, etc. You are looking for order where there is none. At least until we grow beef in a lab.
 
DMG said:
Like humans and every other animal, some cows are bigger, older, younger, fattier, different breeds, etc. You are looking for order where there is none. At least until we grow beef in a lab.
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Except there is order. There are standards for age, weight, size, fat, yield etc. for beef before they go to slaughter. Hence the grades of prime, choice, select, standard, commercial and so on.
 
DMG said:
Like humans and every other animal, some cows are bigger, older, younger, fattier, different breeds, etc. You are looking for order where there is none. At least until we grow beef in a lab.
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But I pushed that argument aside long ago.
  1. Grading is supposed to ELIMINATE ambiguity
  2. We can grade beef with a machine
  3. We do grade beef with a machine
  4. We aren't thorough enough on the grading
It should be a Law and Regulation that the machine inspecting of beef is more granular than one cut on each carcass.

During the grading of beef, the chilled carcass side is cut between the 12th and 13th ribs to expose the rib eye and associated fat cover.
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One cut is enough in 1960, that is not enough now.

Meat selling is anachronistic and we have the technology and the market demands that inspection be objective. If the retailers don't want it, then they should be forced by law to do it. I suspect they'll 'voluntarily' adopt the standards like they did with USDA Grading in the first place, just as Dow and Dupont supported Nixon's EPA.

Ok here is the instrument design specifications:

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/defau...ssProducts.pdf

There's a NIST standard for the device! Holy shit. Here it is:

https://www.nist.gov/system/files/do...-web-final.pdf

But wait, there's more! The actual testing standard is an ASTM procedure!
Standard Test Method for Livestock, Meat, and Poultry Evaluation Devices

https://www.astm.org/Standards/F2343.htm

ASTM F2343 - 15 Standard Test Method for Livestock, Meat, and Poultry Evaluation Devices.jpg

Paywall


ASTM F2343 - 15 Standard Test Method for Livestock, Meat, and Poultry Evaluation Devices.jpg





Ok so they need to streamline that procedure for in-store measurement.

Now what do I do? Go gather up donations to establish a 501(c)3 and appoint myself CEO, give myself a salary, move to Washington DC, and campaign for this?
 
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We have always raised our own beef. We used to cut it up ourselves. Its a whole lot of work and requires equipment that is hard to properly clean and store. We use a nearby butcher now. As far a cuts of beef go Grandpa had a great saying. "What's not on one side of the knife is on the other". That plan won't work though when your looking a the meat section in a store. The main thing you are missing in the store is seeing the old rangy bull or old broken down cow the butcher buys to cut up and put on the shelf. Sit in a sale barn a while and watch who buys those animals.

As far as grain fed vs grass fed goes there are many variables that will make or break the taste of the beef in either case along with the age/condition of the animal. Most people miss the number one thing that controls the taste of beef in either case. Access to fresh water. That alone can make or break the taste of beef. Ever to go a feed lot and see the steers struggling through knee deep mud and shit? I have. No wonder they don't taste so good.

I'm with you on the lack of real world grading and standards. I don't see it ever changing. Too much money involved and that means people usually won't do the right thing.
 
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