Thursday 19 February 2015

How Do You Want Your Cow Cut Up?

How Do You Want Your Cow Cut Up?

That is what your butcher will need you to work out when you have a whole animal to be processed.  Our butcher provided a form to fill in that outlined all of the different cuts of meat and we had to select what we wanted from each side of the carcass and what thickness we wanted it cut - Thing, Medium or Thick.  
There is also a section where you can nominate if you prefer mince or sausages or happy with a 50/50 mix.





We really wanted to pay respect to Freezer 2 by using as much of her as possible.  So this means that we asked for things that many customers may not request including:

All the fat that would normally be trimmed off and discarded - Minced.
All of the bones  - split into: meaty bones for stock, marrow bones for extracting the bone marrow and all the other bones cut into hand sized pieces for our dog.
The Beef Cheeks - my favourite cut of meat on the animal for slow cooking.
Liver, Kidneys, Heart, Tail and Tongue.

Then it is a matter of deciding on the cuts of meat you want, keeping in mind that if you choose one cut you may not be able to have another as they both use the same parts.  
A good example of this is the T-Bone, the Sirloin (Porterhouse) and the Eye Fillet.  If you want to have Sirloins then you can't have T-Bones as they both use the same part of the animal. If you want the whole Eye Fillet then you are also dealing with the same are of the body and will have to forgo the T-Bone.
Of course when you are dealing with a whole animal you can opt for T-Bones from Side 1 and Sirloin and Eye Fillet from Side 2.  We always choose Sirloins and Eye Fillet as we love these cuts and find T- Bones just too big.

So what did we choose?
We asked for packs for 2 people which means the different types of steaks had 2 steaks (all medium thickness) per pack, mince was packed in 1 Kg packs and sausages in packs of 8.
Where we requested roasts and corned beef these were also between 1- 2kg.

Well here is what we went with and the number of packs (not weight specific) of each that we ended up with.  

Sirloin Steaks - 19 Packs
Eye Fillet - 4 Packs
Rumps - 1 Left Whole and given to friends as payment for helping us with a job
           - 7 Packs and 1 Roast
Round Steak - 22 Packs
Topside - 4 Roasts
            - 5 Packs of Steak
            - One left whole to make beef Jerky
Silverside - 15 Packs Corned
Gravy Beef - 9 Packs
Osso Bucco - 8 Packs Bone In
Blade - 8 Roasts
Oyster Blade Steak - 11 Packs
Chuck - 7 Packs of Steak
          - 36 packs of Mince
Ribs - 3 Rib Roasts
       - 6 Packs of Spare Ribs
Rib - 10 Packs Rib Fillet Steak
      - 8 packs of OP Rib (Rib on the bone) steak
Brisket - 3 Roasts
           - Sausages
Off Cuts - Sausages - We ended up with 70 Packs of thick and 70 Packs of Thin sausages
Cheeks - 1 Pack
Marrow Bones
Stock Bones
Ox Tail - 1 Pack
Heart - 4 Packs
Liver - 8 packs
Kidney - 2 Packs
Tongue - 1 Pack
Dog Bones
Minced Fat - 8 packs

We are not fans of offal and so the liver will all go to our dog Jessie as will the heart.  The kidneys I am not sure yet and I would like to try the tongue but Hubby is dead set against it.  I might cook it and not tell him and see if I get away with it.
One of the things I decided was to get all of the Blade cut into roasts.  Later on if I am out of stewing cuts of steak I can dice this up, or if I run out of mince I can mince it.  
I also asked for the OP Rib (Rib on the bone) to be cut in thick slices as I have a plan to try something different with them and since we have so much meat I can afford to experiment.         

Have I listed any cuts of meat that you have never cooked with?

4 comments:

  1. Thank you! It's great to see it laid out so clearly. It's funny, I thought I wasn't familiar with all the different types of meat because we're not big meat eaters. Age must count for some experience though because the only meat on your list I'm unsure of is brisket. I don't know what it is or what I would do with it.

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    1. Thanks Linda Different cuts of meat are sometimes know by different names and there are other cuts that we did not get like Y-Bone Steak, Shin, Skirt, Flank and Knuckle. I will remember to blog about the Brisket when we get to one (I thing they are buried about 1/2 way down)

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  2. There are a few cuts on your list that I never buy. I have seen them but I don't know what they are used for, so I buy what I know. I am looking forward to hearing how you use Oyster blade, oxtail and like Linda the Brisket. Sarah

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    1. Thanks Sarah I will be posting about all of those cuts.

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