c/butchers

PSA: I finally stopped fighting the fat cap on my briskets

For years I trimmed it down to a quarter inch, like everyone said. Last month, a guy at the Kansas City competition told me to leave a full inch. Tried it on my next five pack. The bark got way better and the flat stayed juicy for hours longer. Now I only trim the hard fat. Anyone else switch up their trim style and see a big difference?

I finally tried that new 'self-sharpening' band saw blade from a trade show

It lasted about a week before the edge was completely gone, costing me almost $80 and half a day of downtime. Anyone have a brand they actually trust for heavy use on beef quarters?

Honestly, the way some folks handle a boning knife makes me nervous

Tbh, I was helping out at a friend's shop in Tacoma last week and saw a new hire trying to cut through a beef knuckle with the tip. He was basically stabbing at it. Ngl, that's a great way to slip and hurt yourself or wreck the meat. A boning knife is for smooth, controlled pulls along the bone, not for prying. After the third try, I had to show him the right angle. Has anyone else had to correct this with new people? What's your go-to tip for teaching knife control?

Spent a whole morning trying to get a bone-in pork shoulder to fit a customer's tiny smoker

A guy came in last Tuesday asking for a full picnic shoulder, about 12 pounds. He was super specific about wanting the bone in for flavor. I cut him a beautiful piece, wrapped it up, and thought nothing of it. He calls me three hours later, totally stressed, saying it's way too big for his little backyard smoker. I told him to bring it back. I figured I'd just cut it in half, no big deal. But trying to split that shoulder evenly with the bone structure took forever. My band saw was acting up, and I didn't want to just hack at it and ruin the cut. What should have been a 10 minute job turned into a solid 45 minutes of careful work. Has anyone else had a simple request turn into a major time sink because of a customer's equipment?

My new scabbard sharpener was a total waste of $150

I saw a demo at a trade show in Chicago last fall and thought it would save me time on the line. It's this electric thing that's supposed to sharpen a boning knife in under a minute. After three weeks of trying, it just heats the blade up too much and ruins the temper. I'm back to using my old hand stones and the edge is way better. Has anyone else tried one of these and gotten it to work right, or should I just sell the thing?

Serious question, has anyone else tried a vinegar soak for tough silver skin?

I had a batch of pork loins last week where the silver skin was just not budging with my usual method. I was about to give up and just work around it, but I remembered an old butcher in Omaha told me once to try a quick soak in white vinegar. I diluted a cup of vinegar in a gallon of cold water and let the loins sit for about 20 minutes. The difference was night and day, it came off in clean sheets. Is this a common trick, or did I just get lucky with that particular batch?

A visit to a small farm in Vermont made me rethink my whole approach to aging beef

I was helping a friend process a steer at his place last fall, and he insisted we hang the quarters in his old barn for 28 days at 38 degrees. I thought it was a waste of time for a home freezer. But the flavor and tenderness after that month were so much better than my usual 14-day hang. Now I'm pushing for longer aging on certain cuts at my own shop. Has anyone else had a big change in their process after seeing something done differently on a farm?

Learned a better way to break down a whole hog from a guy in Boise

Last month I was helping a friend at his shop in Boise and this older butcher, Frank, showed me his method for separating the shoulder from the loin. He uses a specific cut behind the fifth rib instead of just following the seam, which saves about 15 minutes per side and leaves cleaner primals. I've been doing it his way all week and it's way more efficient. Anyone else pick up a small trick like that from another shop?

Had to choose between a new band saw or a new grinder for my shop

My old band saw blade kept jumping the track, and my grinder was getting slow. I had about $1200 set aside and couldn't get both. I went with the grinder, a 1.5 horsepower model from a local supplier. It's been two weeks and sharpening knives is way faster, but breaking down whole lambs is taking longer by hand now. For those who had to pick one major tool over another, how did you make it work short term?

PSA: I just saw a chart showing how much meat gets tossed at big grocery stores each week

I was looking at some old trade papers from a butcher school in Chicago... and there was a chart from 2019. It said a single large supermarket location can throw away over 300 pounds of meat a week. That's just the stuff that goes past its date before it sells. It made me think about our shop. We cut to order and our case is small, so maybe we waste 20 pounds a week, tops. It's a huge difference. Makes me wonder if the big guys could learn something from how smaller butcher shops handle stock. Do you think that number is still true now, or has it gotten worse?

Just heard a guy at the market say all beef should be aged the same amount of time

He was telling another customer that 28 days is the only right way for every cut. I've been breaking down whole animals for 15 years, and that's just not true. A ribeye needs way longer than a flank steak to get tender. What's the shortest time you've aged a specific cut and still been happy with it?

Vent: Went to a new steakhouse in town and the way they cut their ribeyes is just wrong

I mean, I took my wife out to that new place, The Oak Grill, last Friday. I ordered their prime ribeye, and when it came out, I could tell right away. The grain was running the wrong way, like they cut it with the muscle instead of against it. It was a beautiful piece of meat, maybe 2 inches thick, but it was tough as leather because of that one basic mistake. You could see the long muscle fibers just pulling apart in strings instead of nice, short bites. It's butchering 101, and for a place charging $48 for a steak, you'd think they'd know. It just kills me because the flavor was actually really good, but the texture ruined it. Has anyone else run into a high end spot that just doesn't get the fundamentals right?

Had a walk-in freezer fail on a Friday in July

The alarm went off at 7 AM and the temp was already at 45 degrees. We had just taken in a whole side of beef from a local farm the day before. Had to move everything to our backup unit across town in under two hours, lost about $200 worth of ground product that we couldn't save. Anyone else have a good plan for a sudden freezer breakdown?

My old boss in Omaha told me to always cut pork shoulder with the grain, and I've been doing it wrong for 8 years.

Vent: I swapped my usual boning knife for a $15 Victorinox filet knife on a whole hog last week and it actually worked BETTER for the delicate rib work.

Has anyone else had a weirdly good result using a tool that's technically for a different job?

Found an old USDA chart about beef grading from the 70s

I was cleaning out my uncle's shop in Boise and found a faded paper chart. It showed that in 1975, over 60% of beef was graded Prime or Choice. Now it's under 40%. The chart was tucked inside a meat ledger. Makes you wonder about changes in cattle feed and breeding. Has anyone else seen old data that surprised them?

Finally got my brisket trim time down under 10 minutes

For the last six months, my average was about 15 minutes per piece at my shop in Billings. I started watching an old timer named Frank at the state fair competition and copied his knife grip. The difference is crazy, and I'm saving over an hour on a full case now. Anyone have other small tricks that saved you a ton of time on a standard cut?

Just realized my whole approach to breaking down a pork shoulder was backwards

I was watching a new hire, a kid from the culinary program at Johnson County Community College, and he went straight for the seam between the muscles with his boning knife. For ten years, I'd been fighting through the fat cap first, and my boss finally said, 'Lisa, you're making it hard on yourself.' Do you all have a specific cut where you learned a much easier method way later than you should have?

Just cut my 1,000th brisket flat for burnt ends... that number hit me

I was cleaning up after a big weekend order and counted the tickets in my book. I've been doing burnt ends for about three years now, but seeing that exact 1,000 mark on my tally sheet was a shock. It made me realize how much muscle memory I've built up for trimming and cubing that specific cut. I can almost do it with my eyes closed now, which is a weird feeling. Has anyone else hit a personal number like that in their shop that made them stop and think?

Hot take: I finally got why my pork shoulder was always dry after a trip to a barbecue joint in Kansas City.

I was there for a competition last fall and saw a pitmaster pull a shoulder at 195 degrees, not the 205 I always aimed for. He wrapped it in butcher paper and let it rest in a cooler for four hours. Tried it back at my shop, and the texture was completely different, way more juicy. Anyone else pull their pork at a lower temp like that?

Just realized I've sharpened my main boning knife over 1,000 times

I was cleaning my roll last night and made a mark on the handle for the sharpening stones. I counted back through my old job logs and realized I've done it at least once a week for twenty years. That's a lot of steel taken off, but the blade still feels perfect in my hand. Anyone else have a tool that's just become a part of you after that much use?

Tried a new way to break down pork shoulders and saved a full hour

I always used to follow the old school method my boss taught me, cutting against the seam and working around the bone. Last week, I watched a video from a shop in Kansas City that starts by removing the whole blade bone first before anything else. Tried it on six shoulders yesterday and it cut my time from about 25 minutes each down to 10. The meat came off cleaner too. Has anyone else tried flipping the order of their cuts like that?

Spent $800 on a new vacuum stuffer and it's the best money I've ever wasted

I thought my old hand crank was fine, but this thing saves me over an hour on a 50lb batch of sausage. What's the one tool you bought that you now can't live without?

Question about a band saw blade that snapped on me yesterday. It was a 1/2 inch 3 TPI for breaking down beef rounds.

It was a fresh blade from a local supplier, maybe 2 weeks old. I was halfway through a 50-case order of top rounds when it just went with a loud pop. No weird noises before, tension seemed fine. Had to finish the breakdown with a hand saw, which added like 90 minutes to the job. Anyone have a good trick for checking a blade for stress points before you start a big run? Or is it just a bad batch of steel?

A customer in Tulsa asked me to cut a 'Denver steak' from a chuck roll.

I'd only ever done it from a chuck shoulder clod, so I had to figure it out on the fly. It worked, but the grain was a bit different. Anyone else had a request that made you rethink a standard cut?