Your beef steer is ready to harvest and the date to bring him to the butcher is set. It feels like the hard work should be done. Then, the butcher hands you a cutting instruction sheet and you feel like you’re back in high school again being handed an exam. What is a cubed steak? How big of a roast should you order? If you’ve never filled out cutting instructions before, it can feel like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. This article will cover things to consider before buying beef in bulk as well as provide some explanations and tips for making your cutting instruction decisions.
Common Questions
How much freezer space do I need?
Before committing to buying meat in bulk, it is important that you make sure you have adequate storage for what you are bringing home. Unless specified otherwise, freezer beef generally is delivered frozen. A 5 cubic foot freezer will hold a quarter of a beef carcass with room to access most of the contents. It is also helpful to come up with a plan for your freezer layout before loading the freezer up for ease of locating packages in the future.
What is a quarter of beef?
Unless a different arrangement is made, a quarter of beef is ¼ of the meat that comes from a beef carcass. It does not refer to the front quarter or hind quarter, so you will receive cuts from both.
What options do I have?
The options you have for cutting instructions may differ depending on your butcher’s policies, but this article will cover some of the more common ones.
If you’re getting less than a whole beef, you may have to decide if you want all your steaks from each part of the carcass to be boneless or bone-in. This is especially true for the loin. Do you want to have New York Strip and filet mignon steaks or do you want T-bone and porterhouse steaks? You cannot have both because they are made of the same muscles and the difference is if there is bone or not. However, choosing boneless loin steaks doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t have a bone-in rib roast. Most butchers don’t make it all or nothing.
Steaks like the flat iron, Denver cut, and chuck eye are becoming increasingly popular. If your butcher cuts them, you are likely giving up 7-bone and blade roasts for chuck steaks, boneless chuck roasts, and more ground beef. However, these steaks do take more time to cut and not all butchers will cut them.
Tomahawk steaks are also becoming more common. These are bone-in ribeye steaks with a long rib attached. By choosing a tomahawk steak, you will be sacrificing some beef rib options such as dinosaur ribs or Korean style ribs. You may still get some short ribs from the chuck, but many of the rib options will no longer be possible.
Many butchers offer different options for the fat content in ground beef. Ask your butcher what their standard target is to determine if you want to ask for lean or extra lean ground beef. You will also probably have several options for package weight and type. Commonly, processors offer 1, 1.5, and 2 pound packages in paper, vacuum, or chub packaging. You might also have the option to get the ground beef made into patties in addition to the regular bulk packaging.
There are also usually options for turning round cuts into cubed (mechanically tenderized) steaks, stew meat, regular round steaks and roasts. Cuts from the round are usually very lean and can be dry if not cooked correctly. If you don’t prefer to prepare those cuts, you can always ask for more of the round to be made into ground beef.
Once you decide the types of cuts you want, you will then be asked about packaging. You will need to know how many steaks you want per package as well as how large you want the roasts to be. A good rule of thumb for roasts is ½ of a pound per serving. If you intend to have 4 servings plus leftovers, you may want a 2.5 to 3 pound roast. You may also have the option of paper or vacuum packaging.
Do some options cost more?
Many processors add additional cutting fees when accommodating requests outside of their regular practices. For example, butchers may charge extra for things such as processing an animal under inspection (and eligible for sale) as opposed to custom exempt (not legal to sell), processing into quarters compared to sides or whole beef, cutting chuck steaks, keeping and packaging organ meats, making extra lean ground beef, using vacuum packaging, or further processing products into cubed steak, sausage links, or patties. These extra charges are to offset the additional labor for cutting, packing, cleaning equipment, or handling paperwork.
In Summary
While a cutting instruction sheet may seem daunting, if you spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the options, your decisions will be much easier. If you still have questions, just ask your processor. They would be happy to help guide you.
