Chatted with an old timer at the farmer's market yesterday

He was telling me how he used to break down whole sides of beef in his garage for the neighbors back in the 70s. Said he could do a primal cut from memory in under 4 minutes. Made me realize how much we lean on those fancy cutting guides now, wonder if I'd be that fast without one.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire14d ago

Right? Makes you miss when people just knew how to do stuff.

milam4811d ago

I actually read something not too long ago about how butchers back then didn't even use scales half the time. They just knew by feel and eye what a pound looked like. My grandpa used to say the same thing about cutting up deer after hunting season, he'd just go at it with a boning knife and a prayer. Makes you wonder if all those cutting guides are more for show than anything. Then again, I tried to wing it on a whole chicken once and ended up with something that looked like it lost a fight with a blender. So maybe there's something to learning the old way, but it takes years of practice most of us just don't have.

seth_shah15d ago

So you're telling me this guy could break down a cow in his garage faster than I can figure out which way to set my oven? That's impressive and terrifying at the same time. I just hope he had a good plan for the bones and didn't just leave them in a pile for the dog. Makes me wonder if we're getting soft with our YouTube tutorials and pre-cut packages. Maybe we should all just go back to hanging meat in the garage, at least it would save on electric bills.