EELS

Frequently Asked Questions Part 1

How can the meat dollar be stretch?
There are many ways to stretch the meat dollar. Here are a few:

Compare meat prices of comparable advertised items and shop for the best buys, considering time available for preparation and the tastes of the consumers.

Take advantage of specially priced meats by purchasing enough for several meals, providing refrigerator or home freezer space is available.

Compare the cost per serving rather than the cost per pound. Meats with minimum bone and fat may cost more per pound but less money per serving because there will be more servings to the pound. For example, compare the total cost of the amount needed of boneless chuck meat versus short ribs.

Cook meat at a low temperature to cut down on shrinkage and loss of moisture, resulting in more meat to serve.

Use the liquid in which pot roasts and stews are cooked to prepare gravy or sauce to serve with the meat, since the liquid provides food nutrients as well as flavor, stretch ground beef and sausage meats with pasta and vegetables such as dried beans, lentils, peas and rice.

A Divide the cost per pound of the meat you are buying by the number of servings you expect to get.
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A This depends upon the amount of edible lean meat in each cut after cooking and the needed serving size. For a 3-ounce serving of cooked meat allow:

Boneless meat - 114 to 1/3-pound per serving (ground meat, meats for stews and soups, boneless roasts and steaks and liver and other variety meats).

Bone-in meat - 1/3 to 1/2-pound per serving (roasts and steaks with moderate amount of bone).

Bony meat -3/4 to 1-pound per serving (spareribs, short ribs, ox tails, lamb riblets).

Note: Three ounces of cooked meat is considered a serving, but more than one serving may be desired by some people.

A Fully cooked meats such as franks, salami, bologna, luncheon meats and sausages are 100 percent edible. One or two links or two slices are usually considered a serving.

A The advantages must be worked out by the individual consumer. The potential savings will depend on the cost per pound of the edible cuts of meat after trimming, wrapping and adding the cost of energy used for freezing rather than the original cost per pound. Keep in mind that ground meat, stew meat and meat for braising will cost the same price per pound as roasts, steaks and chops. For more detailed information on buying meat for your freezer write to the National Live Stock & Meat Board, 444 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60611. To Top of Page

A. A primal cut (also known as a wholesale cut) is the whole chuck or shoulder, rib, whole loin or whole round. When the primal cut is divided into smaller sections, usually by sectioning out whole muscles, sub primals result. Examples of sub primal cuts of beef are the top round, whole tenderloin and rib eye.

A. Yes, some retail markets offer sub primal cuts of meat which are vacuum packaged at the processing plant and shipped refrigerated to the retailer. Some primal cuts may also be offered during special sales by the retail market.

A. There is usually substantial savings in buying the entire sub primal cut of meat. To be sure, check the price per pound of comparable retail cuts at the meat counter and in newspaper advertisements and be sure to compare the same cut and quality. Sub primal cuts that are boneless, and most of them are, can be cut into steaks and roasts according to your needs.

A. This is due to the elimination of air in the package. As soon as the wrapper is removed and beef is cut, it will change to its normal bright red color.

A. Meat inspection is required by law in every meat processing plant in the United States that offers meat for sale to consumers. Both the livestock and the meat after it is processed must meet rigid standards for wholesomeness and sanitation. Inspection is carried out under federal or state supervision.

Q How can you know that a steak, a can of meat or a hot dog meet these standards?

A. The USDA Inspection mark is stamped on the can or package of meat and on the primal cut of fresh meat. Trimming and dividing into retail cuts may eliminate some of these marks. As a result, not all retail cuts of fresh meat will have a visible inspection stamp.

Although there are federal grades for pork, they are not used in retail stores. The pork grades are used to facilitate packer-producer marketing. Many cuts of pork, especially those which have been cured and smoked, carry identifiable brand names which enable quality comparisons.

Q What determines the grade of a particular piece of meat? What factors are used to determine the grade of a carcass?

A. The grade of a particular cut of meat is determined by the grade of the carcass from which it is cut. Quality and curability are major factors considered in judging and grading meat. These are the primary factors which determine the value and general acceptability of the carcass.

A Quality are to those characteristics associated with the palatability of the lean

(tenderness, juiciness and flavor). Quality is judged by the maturity of the carcass, marbling (flecks of fat within the lean) and the color, firmness and texture of the lean. Bright colored, firm, fine textured lean is associated with high quality meat.

Q What is the meaning of curability when related to the grading of a carcass?

A. Cutability refers to the amount of usable meat in a carcass. High curability carcasses combine a minimum of fat covering with very thick muscling. The USDA curability grades are numbered 1 to 5 with number 1 having the highest ratio of lean to fat.

Q What USDA grades of beef are generally found in local meat markets?

A. Most of the USDA graded beef in our supermarkets is Select or Choice

Q What happens to the other government grades of beef?

A. About 5 percent of the beef that is graded in the United States is Prime. Of this, only a small percentage is sold at retail; the rest is sold to restaurants. Lower grades Standard through Canner, though wholesome and nutritious - do not have the same tenderness and finish (fat). Most lower graded beef is used in ground beef or in processed meats.

Q What is the quality of un graded or private label beef?

A. Guides to quality of beef used by government, packers and retailers are very similar. Most packers or retailers set moderate to high standards for the quality of the beef they identify with their private labels. However, the overall quality of a particular brand may be higher or lower than most government grades commonly found in the retail markets. To Top of Page

Q What is the grade or quality of generic beef

A. Generic is a new term recently used to describe foods, including beef, that do not carry a brand or grade as a guide to quality. The quality may vary from market to market and from time to time.

Q What are the advantages/disadvantages of generic beef?

A. Generic beef is generally considerably less expensive than top quality beef. It may be leaner, less tender and less flavorful. All cuts, with the exception of the tenderloin, may need to be cooked with moist heat to bring about tenderness.

Q How can the quality of meat be judged when shopping in a neighborhood store?

A. The color of meat can be helpful when judging quality. Beef is bright red; veal, grayish pink; and pork, grayish pink to delicate rose. Spring lamb that has been grass fed tends to be light pink while those that have been grain fed may be a darker pink. Fat on grain fed beef is a creamy white. In addition, the neighborhood store maintains quality standards for its meat supply so that satisfied customers will continue to purchase meat at the store.

Q Is there a simple way to learn to recognize the many cuts of meat?

A. The names of meat cuts frequently are related to the bone shape and location on the carcass. The bone structure is the same in all species (beef, pork, lamb and veal) and carries similar names.

A. Bone shape and cut indicate the location on the carcass. Cuts from the middle section along the back bone are generally more tender than those in the shoulders, legs, breasts and flanks.

A. No. This is a voluntary program called Uniform Retail Meat Industry Standards (URMIS). The entire retail meat industry in 1973 agreed to establish one specific name for each basic retail cut, and usage of uniform information on the label has been increasing.
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A. The major purpose of aging is to develop additional tenderness and a characteristic flavor. Usually only ribs and loins of high quality beef and lamb are aged, and these are generally sold to restaurants.

A. The three most widely used methods of aging are: dry aging where the meat is held at temperatures from 34" to 38OF for 10 days to six weeks in rooms with controlled humidity; fast aging where the meat is held at a much higher temperature, about 70OF for two days or less with controlled humidity and ultraviolet lights used to reduce microbial population; and vacuum packaging in moisture-vapor-proof film that protects the meat from the time it is fabricated until it reaches the customer. A new method of tenderizing meat, electrical stimulation, is being used by some processors.

A. Most meat sold in retail markets is aged during the normal process of moving fresh meat from packer to retailer to consumer to kitchen range - about 6 to 10 days. This is long enough for considerable tenderizing to take place. For consumers who prefer "aged" meat, however, some retailers will hold ribs and loins of beef for longer periods of time.

A. No, aging beef requires controlled temperature and humidity which is not available in the average home refrigerator.

A. The cuts mentioned, whether beef, pork, lamb or veal, are the more tender cuts and are usually in greater demand. As they are a smaller percentage of the carcass, the old rule of supply and demand increases their cost.

A Baby beef and calf are terms used to describe young cattle weighing up to 700 pounds that have been raised mainly on milk and grass. These are young cattle that do not have the quality of beef fed on grain. The cuts will be smaller, have a light red color and less fat than those from more mature animals. The fat present may have a yellow cast due to the carotene (vitamin A) from grass.

A. Grass fed beef is meat from cattle that have remained on the range without being brought to the feedlot for finishing. Very often the fat covering will have a dark or yellow cast resulting from the carotene (vitamin A) in grass. This color tends to disappear from animals that are brought from the range to the feedlots for short or long feeding.

A. Short fed cattle are those that are brought from the range into the feedlot at heavier weights (750 to 850 pounds) and kept there for approximately 90 to 130 days before marketing. Usually these cattle will have better curability and less tendency to have excessive fat covering. The fat will have a desirable white color. Long fed cattle refers to grain fed cattle that have been in the feedlot for more than 130 days.

A. Although many consumers use the terms interchangeably, GROUND BEEF, according to the nationwide Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards Code, must be pure beef, ground only from skeletal meat (beef muscle attached to the skeleton) with no variety meats, other meats or ingredients added. Properly, the term hamburger describes the meat when it is cooked. To Top of Page

A. Standards specify that ground beef can contain varying degrees of leanness from 70 percent to 90 percent or more, and must be labeled accordingly. But it never can contain less than the minimum of 70 percent lean or maximum of 30 percent fat.

Q Should you buy ground beef with different ratios of lean-to-fat depending upon the use? Which is the better buy?

A. Although cooking losses are generally less with the leaner beef, the differences are usually not great. In general, entrees prepared with meat that has a lower lean-tofat ratio are more juicy. Some recipes made with leaner beef tend to be drier and more crumbly. Plan ahead and match the meat choice with the recipe needs.

A. Retailers may use the name of their choice along with the ingredients added to the ground beef. Examples: Extra Value Blend or Our Ground (Beef, Water, Isolated Soy Protein, Salt).

Why is Kobe beef is considered the best, tenderest beef in the world.?

Actually there's no such thing as Kobe beef, the real name is Tajima beef, Kobe is the shipping point for beef from elsewhere in Japan.

What is called "Kobe beef" Kobe is the capital of the ancient province of Tajima, now named Hyogo Prefecture.

This beef comes from an ancient stock of cattle called "kuroge Wagyu" (black haired Japanese cattle).

Today they are raised on a couple of hundred small farms, most of which pasture fewer than five cows, and the largest of which run only 10 to 15.

Each animal is pampered to the max, their diets are strictly controlled and during the final fattening process, cattle are fed hefty quantities of sake and beer mash.

Each animal gets a daily massage, relaxed cows make good beef :-)