You Sir are an artist. My Dad was a meat cutter for Winn Dixie in Jacksonville before I was born (I'm 57 now). He talks about things like this ... but to see it happen in real life is awesome. I think You and My Dad are cool as frigg. ✌
This honestly takes me back. My Dad was a butcher for forty years. 25 years retail and the last 15 years with his own custom kill and butcher shop. All pre 1999 so I definitely remember the days when anything that wasn't well-known steaks and roasts ended up as hamburger. Nobody wanted briskets or skirt steaks or anything that wasn't traditional 1960s meat. I was the only broke college kid I knew who had a steady supply of steaks, bacon and pork chops.
"broke" going to school, housed, clothed, health is good, steady supply of great food. Crazy how not having piles of free money makes someone call themselves "broke"
@@jordanbabcock9349 That's 99% of the american poor. Aside from the "great food". Most poor people are overweight in the USA. Even in the poorest cities people still had clothes lol, ion even know what you mean by that.
Funny that people getting custom cutting were like that. We always bought flanks and skirt steak and such from retail shops in the mid '90s. They were mid-priced at the time. (In the far northwest.) Tongue was still mid-low price back then too, now its more than sirloin, (and frozen tripe is now up to the same as round roast or burger... Some combo of the dogfood industry and increased popularity of foreign foods.)
My dad own a meat processing plant no retail but some of the steaks we didn't save Denver steak, flat irons, and Dino ribs. It was pretty common to grind most of the cuts in to burgers. We rarely saved chuck steaks. Most of made in to random roasts like the Chuck roasts and the arm roast.
I walked into my local Rural King in Decatur, Indiana this morning and saw The Bearded Butcher seasonings. I drove hours to the store and have ordered online in the past. Today however........made my day. I've been sub'd since it was thousands. I've loved the journey.
Small world! I'm usually in Decatur, IN about once or twice a month as my fiancé's family lives up there; we are in the Indy area ourselves. It's about a 2 hour drive NW one way
My uncle was a butcher and I was endlessly fascinated by watching the cow come apart. He would give us these really funky looking cuts of meat along with directions how to cook each piece. Those were some of the best beef dinners ever.
Not only is this entertaining and oddly satisfying/calming to watch, but the level of knowledge and education going on here blows my mind! So glad I found your channel! Thanks for being so dedicated to mastering your craft/art and sharing it!
I love watching someone who has mastered their craft it lends itself to artistic expression and it was a joy to watch and I was imagining your father teaching you as a younger man and how his knowledge has passed down to you and this was beautiful to see. I know it was just a beef front but you can tell how much passion his father had and passed on to him!
I've been buying custom for a number of years, and this video has really opened my eyes as to why so many of the cuts in my freezer are so different from many of the cuts at the grocery store!
45 yr cutter, you don't fear the saw. It's only a tiny area at the front of the spinning blade you worry about. And after time, you create a zone you watch. I still can count to 10, Lol. I work in both arenas. I enjoyed retail more, I'm a meatcutter. Custom is more of a butcher to me. I manage a shop that has both!
This took me back. My in-laws raised cattle and would have a local butcher process a couple of them a year. They weren't imaginative cooks or eaters, so they stuck to the steaks and the hamburger and didn't know what to do with the rest of it. When I married in, my wife and I were gifted with the backlog of their freezers and ate like royalty for several years on short ribs, oxtails, hearts, livers and all the soup bones anyone would ever need. I felt like we got the better part of the deal at times.
@@fathersonandskillet They use to say that about Native Americans not country folks in fact the opposite has always been true. They use to waste the hell out of animal meat.
@@davidlightman9551 My dad's family have been living on a farm'since the mid 1700's in the US and the current farm has been continually operated since 1820 when they crossed Appalachia and settled in Tennessee from Burke County NC. They rarely if ever touch offal, never have going back at least three generations from what I can tell. They do a little more than burgers and steaks with the cattle they raise but nothing like many others will now. I really think a lot of it has to do with preservation or with how you cook for a very large family. There wasn't electricity in the family farm house until the mid 1940's so meat had to be preserved differently than freezing it and a lot of the cuts like sweet breads, liver or heart had to be eaten immediately. There were a lot of one pot dishes like stews or roasts too. Grilling or BBQing on a working family farm just wasn't always practical.
For a stew, i would take heart over regular meat any day of the week.. Throw in some marrow bones and something ligament-heavy like a knee and you'll have a broth so strong you can walk on top of it without sinking...
With custom cut, don't most butchers have a cut sheet where you can specify how you want the animal processed? Which cuts you want, thickness, if offered additional processing such as smoking and sausage? We do a beef every year along with at least one pork. We do our own chickens. I know the processors we work with cut our animals in this manor.
You may refer to being a little OCD, I call it pride in your skill and work. Thank you for your amazing content and clear explanations. It is appreciated.
I learn from you guys every time I watch, even when it's repeated info (the brain just can't retain all that info all the time). What amazes me is actually how "little" you get from that big cow. Same with a bison, I thought you'd get so much more meat out of that big animal, but you don't. When I go into our local butcher shop I have a whole new appreciation for the amount of cattle that is sitting in that shop. Chicken I get...but beef, it just opened my eyes for sure. Pork even seems to "go further" than the beef. Then again, we don't do a lot of roasts (usually only during the winter, in the crock pot). Great stuff!
A lot of weight in fat and organs and even the hide. What isn't shown is that all of those trimmings actually have a market, from dogfood to leather to hand soap and wheel bearing grease. Maybe the small shops can't produce enough to bother selling it for much more than saving on the cost of disposal, but the big processing plants most definately have buyers for all of it. Even bones go to broth/soup companies and from there to be ground into bonemeal which is then sold to organic gardeners. "Lithium grease" is a standard gear-lube oil thickened with about lithium-soap made by reacting lithium hydroxide with refined tallow (more specifically stearic fatty acid extracted from tallow.) very similar to bar soap which is sodium hydroxide reacted with tallow (sodium-soap greases are effective and were once common due to low cost but they are not water resistant)
Your knife skills are really amazing we use the Victorinox knife up here a lot to recall and Vicki's every fisherman has a Vicki on and we buy them by the 12 pack in a box I didn't realize if they made big ones we used extra for the fishing knives
What I have gained is an appreciation for what I'm seeing in the grocery and the ability to recognize a superior piece of beef. I don't eat that much beef, but I find myself wanting it more often these days. Love that spinalis.
I can see the diff between our butcher custom and what y'all do. For custome, we get the skirts - fajita meat. I chose to let the chuck be ground. I tried it the first half we bought and didn't like them at all and we did have to pull that yellow cord and I wldn't have known to do that if I hadn't watched y'all. I got the shanks. I got the short ribs. Ours gives us boneless and bone in steak options - I get ribeye, ny strips, and filets. Then I ask for 75% of my trim to be cut into stew beef where possible. I use it as much as ground. We got the neck bones for the dogs also. Ours also saved out the kidney fat and ground it for me so I can render it into tallow. 💜
This brings back good memories. I started when I was fourteen. I cut at the Red & White in Hatteras NC. It was all hanging quarters. (Swift, out of Norfolk VA) after about three years we started getting some primals in boxes. Pork loins came 6(?) A box wrapped in paper. Chickens came whole packed in wooden crates filled with crushed ice. I used to hate Memorial Day weekend as it was the annual marlin tournament at the Marlin Club. ( Think country club with stupid expensive boats and no golf course. Same self important assholes though.) 125 - 150 1¼" porterhouse steaks. Real porterhouse, no T-Bones with thick filets, and they had to have tails. We would not have porterhouses in the store case fore weeks. This has been a great video to watch. I have not cut meat for about 25 years. You help put names to a lot of "faces". You did not cut anything new to me but you showed me what they changed there name to. Lol But can you explain how anyone ever convinced someone that a flank steak was a "quality cut"?
I loved the break down between the differences. the real question is do you feel the retail style is more cost effective than the custom jobs for you? I like the ideal of using everything but I also understand time restraints are always an issue. Thanks for the informative and excellent content
your speed with that bandsaw is impressive. i wish i could get into butchery. ive been in restaurant cooking for a while and processing the meats into the product we were going to use was my favorite.
Loving the chuck roasts! My dad was a meat cutter for 42 years and he loved to cook them. Visited your shop for the first time last month. Tried your summer sausage. Best I ever had
i like how the number of people at trimming table gradualy grows bigger as the new chunks of meet are piled... and GREAT RESPECT as I can see some young butchers over there, I was sure that younger generation only uses mobile phones and nothing else
A lot of ppl including myself are confused by what gristle, membrane, silverskin and fats are. Can you guys maybe do a video to help clarify. Thanks, I love all the videos you guys do!
If it helps any, here is a sort of comparison. Fat is the bright white stuff ( 3:48 ) that cooks down into a liquid and adds flavor and moisture. Gristle is more of the bits of tendon ( 37:10 ) and tough chunks that attack the meat together. (can't remember a good time stamp) Silver skin is the stuff sort of like the cuticles on your nails, thicker and tougher then regular skin but thin and between muscle portions. Membrane was effectively the diaphragm, at least in the video. it's separates the muscles from organs hence why it's on the inner side of the ribs ( 22:00).
I’m a new starting butcher and watching this videos from you guys it’s awesome like y’all take the time to explain not my coworkers ,it’s not like I wanna take over there spot but iron wanna be a good butcher that wen people go they ask for me cuz of my work 🔥💯 so thank y’all and I will watch all the videos here to keep learning 💯💯
Thanks for making this video! I really enjoyed the comparison at the end. My husband and I grow beef cattle, so it is cool to see the different ways beef front quarters are cut for retail and custom.
You mentioned brisket, I remember as a child my parents bought brisket because it was the cheapest cut at the time and we ground our own ground beef. As for preference in custom vs counter, I'd take the custom all because the bone just adds flavor plus my lovely wife makes bone stock. I can't believe some don't take the bone dust off!! The old butcher Chester I worked with as a teen would have beat my ass if I didn't scrape it off. Like you he had people driving over 100 miles to buy his meat, was a sad day when he passed away too early. The grocery store never recovered from his loss and almost went out of business. Miss him.
Excellent video Seth! The video helps me understand why I see the cuts at the meat counter and why they maybe priced higher. I agree with some of the comments below in how relaxing and educational all your videos are. I have eaten the flatiron steaks for the past year and never disappointed since I saw your videos. Thank you again for putting these videos out! Jeff P.S. I see Scott made his appearance in the video and I'm not talking about the commercial part either.. Too funny!
7:15 brisket is my mums favourite cut as it’s what she grew up with but now it’s out of the price range when it used to be the cheapest cut you could get.
I appreciate all the work you've shone. Its great watching your videos. I wish you had shown the process side by side it would have been easier to understand the differences. I went back and forth a few times trying to see the exact difference
Thank you for your posts! I grew up on a farm. Often we would feed out a steer and have it processed by the local butcher. Sometimes we would offer the butcher half of the steer in exchange for his processing. You move through cuts so efficiently! One day I hope to process a whole steer and you have made that a possibility. Just watching and learning from your videos. Grain fed beef is not cheap.
Man, you guys are awesome. So informative about products and differences between what different places do, what you can get, what you should ask for and what you will get.
Grew up on a ranch next to Farley,N.M. in the 40's & 50's where we did all our own everything. Totally different today in how we raised cattle and butchering, but would go back to Farley in the blink of an eye. Thank you guys for what you are sharing with the world today. I think your father and mine would have enjoyed a great piece of beef and maybe a couple of fingers...:-)
In the 80’s brisket always went on sale around Memorial Day, and Labor Day for$0.99 lb! For $0.25 lb my butcher would grind ten of them, and double freezer wrap them in 2lb packs for my deep freezer. I’d buy 100lbs at a time. It was awesome. Four kids, hamburger helper was on the menu 3 times a week, different flavors, of course! My wife, and kids, LOVED them.
I've seen skirt selling for the same as filet. I too was shocked to see it go to ground beef table. I mean, it doesn't require much work on the part of the butcher, so it's difficult to understand.
I'm from Minnesota, and we have a few GOOD butchers here... My dad gets a half a hog yearly from "mills locker plant" in "New York Mills", and it's VERY professionally done, as far as I can tell... They contract out their hog buying to a certain farm they always have good results from, and they do our order just the way we put on the paperwork they have us fill out, and we're always happy to just let them go at their own pace because of their popularity. In short, they get done when they get done, but the neat always looks excellent... This time they gave us the big mound of fat they trimmed off but IDK what my dad wanted it for(assuming he asked for it) IDK how it compares to other butchers as far as processing goes as I'm not a butcher, but like I said, it's meat, and it looks professionally done, what more can you ask for?
watching you guys i feel like i could prob break down a part of a cow on my own if i had to but without the machinery and work space it would be hella hard
Fascinating to me as a cook. We don’t bring quarter hinds, but we do primordials to reduce costs. We order in skirt steak, brisket and baseball cuts when asked. We’ve not used shoulder cuts which are often reclassified as chuck. I personally purchase whole beef items. Tenderloin, strip loin and ribeye. Don’t need to pay for the premium wrapped goods.
Love this video !! I grew up in a Meat Packing Plant in N. E. GA. We brought the hogs and Beef in the back door on hoof and out the front door for wholesale. . We did it all..
I really enjoy these comparison videos, so educational. One thing I have wondered is why the finger? bones (top of the vertebrae) that you trim off the rib section are always broken and at a fairly pronounced angle. I know it doesn’t matter since they get trimmed and discarded, but I thought it’s interesting they are never intact. Is that a side effect of the side drying as it hangs or something else?
@@haydensmith7551 that’s the problem now a days, people are such pussy’s and they whine right away that their feelings are hurt and yet they post shit on here complaining
Lucky to have butchers in my local grocery store in a suburban/urban area. They buy most seafood and protein from local fisherman/ranchers. And you can stop by and watch them break down lamb (1/2), pork (1/2) and beef (1/4). I've never order anything custom, but can. They don't have anything pre-packaged, like 1lb ground beef. Each shift has at least 5 or 6 butchers. And they are excellent about education and telling you the best time to buy a cut that might sell out. I love lamb riblets. I'll get 4 or 5 slabs, cook them up, eat as quick snack for 3-5 days. Very fortunate.
Howdy my bearded brothers all the way from Australia thanks for the video, I am a big beef fan. Prices here at the moment, standard supermarket prices, Eye Fillet $52 a kilo, Scotch Fillet $42 a kilo and T-bone Steak $30 a kilo. Rump which I personally don't consider "steak" or at least one I want to eat $30 a kilo. I have had to cut back to steak Friday's only unless my kids bugger off for the weekend in which case I have an eye fillet Sunday too... Stay safe and keep doing what you do, big love to you and yours from the down under. Kev
🙋🏻♀️I AGREE 100%...We will ONLY purchase beef from the cattleman and NEVER use a butcher shop like I describe below ever again... ~20 years ago I picked a quarter & half cow cut right in front of me (I personally labeled each package of beef) at a country butcher shop in Fort Worth, Texas (we lived in Dallas, Texas) and of course they throw in 25lb chicken & 50lb frozen veggies AND a 35 cuft commercial freezer including "free delivery" ALL for the special price of $2500 with free 12 months financing. ☝🏻I know what I'm talking about because my husband lived in Nebraska, his ex-wife & ex-mother-in-law both worked for Omaha Steaks, AND I've lived in Texas ALL my life (except for the military orders to Japan and a few weeks as an exchange student in Germany) so I know what my beef should taste like😉👍🏻
Exactly I totally agree with you, they eating good if I buy half a cow, take a steak from every cow they butcher for every cow and don’t have to buy beef ever again 👊
I can’t even find a real butcher. Even when they look like my grandpa with the white coat, the white hard hat, and the meat counter everything comes in a semi from a processing plant. “Do you have ….? No, we don’t get that cut. We can’t even order it.” 😢
I love watching your videos fun and really informative. I’ve seen this one many times because of the comparison 4:164:16 which is very helpful in understanding what part of the animal I am eating but also different cuts.
Nice video. I buy 1/2 cow at a time from local farm. Guess I will consider myself lucky. Based on you description I guess I’m getting “ custom “ however I do get Rib steaks, flat iron, flank, bravette, ranch, sirloin, Pichania Sometimes short ribs sometimes dino. Boneless chuck roast. Nice selection.
Over here in Australia if people order a 1/4 of beef whether hind or fore it’s all boned out and prepped as if it was for retail sale always sliced ,packed and labeled how the customer wants too most times it’s even frozen for them in boxes to pick up
Nice to see young men learning the trade. Meat cutters is a dying trade. I've been cutting meat since 1983. Just don't seeing young people interested in meat, it's a wonderful trade to get in. A good meat cutter us worth his weigh in gold now days. Thank you for your video 👍👍
The mock tenderloin (teres major) is my favorite for a fancy date night in. Cut them into medallions, season them, and sear them on all sides. Some red, garlic smashed potatoes and roasted broccoli makes for a nice dinner. Skirt steak is my other favorite cut. Quick and tasty for fajitas.
Honestly that’s what a lot of my ground beef stash is, ground brisket. I like to grab them from Kroger when they go on sale for 1.99/lb. Separate the meat, add some fat back in, grind it and it’s some of the best burger I’ve had.
Love these type of videos. Sooooooooo maybe in a near future video cut 2 quarters, front and a hind, into sections like a packing plant would cut to send out to some grocery stores, meat stores and restaurants that do not process full quarters especially in places like Newfoundland. It may end up being the same as you cut most times but you don't have to vacuum pack the whole section you can cut it to whatever is best seller for your store. I know you kinda show some of this in videos but it be nice to see like that full whatever cut from each quarter and you show like "this is the piece that would get vacuum packed and labeled to be shipped out as a ________ and then received by said store/restaurant to be cut into T-bone, taco meat, rib eye or whatever."
Smoked a brisket today. My niece and I share a locally sourced half beef each year. I’m ordering 1/2 hog this year. Also have excellent source for lamb.
You are a very very strong man no doubt…the cases of boxed meat we unloaded at the store when I was a boy was heavy you are grabbing the whole piece of beef moving it like it’s nothing my wife and I noticed it …wow
Nice job... Good to understand wtf I'm eating! I keep overcooking OssoBuca, Brisket, and short ribs plus they all taste the same and too stringy. I have steaks like Ribeye, and standing Rib Roast down to an art. Tricky using slow cooker. Love your shows.
Dam the asmr of the ripping and peeling is relaxing. Been cutting for 18 years in retail big chain store and hope to learn breaking of beef and pork. This video was so enjoyable
The sheer depth of anatomical knowledge is absolutely amazing ! I wonder - could you point out all those structures on a living animal: muscle, bones, gristle and all ? If you could, with any accuracy, you'd be like a Human X-Ray machine ;) Obviously that would super-useful to a veterinarian.
This is good for the people who don't understand how the cuts come off the carcass and how one primal can produce several different cuts. Ex if you want bnls strip steaks you aren't going to get t-bones. If you want full length tenderloins you are not going to get T-bones
I love this video. Being from south Philadelphia, there is nothing like going to my local old school Italian butcher shop and getting custom cuts during the holiday season in the winter. ❤
Yes we usually put the brisket into stewing beef or Burger to make a good lasagna pot of chili it makes a better mix with the trimmings but when you're raised on a beef farm you get sick of eating the same thing everyday
I know that I'm not going to change your ways by saying this (Not that It affects me in any way anyway), but I'd be pretty upset if my cuts of beef got squared up the way that you're doing it. Those are really large chunks taken off, only for what seems like the sake of symmetry alone. I mean sure, a steak needs to be flat so that it cooks evenly; but there's a limit. I don't need 20% of my prime cuts and roasts in my ground meat mixture. I'm sure everyone has their preferences on how it should be presented to them though, especially places like restaurants and retailers. Myself, If I already paid the farmer, I want my steaks and roasts with as much meat on them as possible. Love your guys channel, keep up the good work! Cheers
My father was a meat cutter and used to bring home a pin bone steak. That was without a doubt the best steaks I have ever had. But I never hear of them. Have you ever discussed this cut?
I have learned so much from watching your videos. The next time I go to a steak house, I am ordering a Porterhouse for sure!!! Medium rare. Thank you for educating us. Incidentally, I live in Denver and I have never heard of a Denver steak, nor seen one for sale. I will look for it.
A lot of places cube it, stew/stir fry, what ever they can sell. Also names will vary. Not to make light of meat cutting but the actual cutting is sorta monkey work. Same thing endlessly repeated and there are a lot of "dotted lines" to follow. Marketing and making a profit on the other hand is what makes the man.
One of my favorites is the dinasaur plate ribs. Lots of meat and I smoke them till they’re falling apart with hickory. Brisket is my close second. Got a pork shoulder going for tomorrow.
As a Texas BBQ caterer, I have to say this was an excellent video and very informative. I knew most of the cuts prior to watching but the differences between custom and retail was awesome information. Thank you very much for sharing!🤠👍
I grew up with my mom's pot-roast of "7 bone" Chuck (It's the blade bone chuck cut where the cut edge of the blade makes a "7" not 7 different bones) . Now I know why I can't get them anymore at the meat counter. Please do a pot roast comparison between the boneless chuck, and "7 bone" chuck. Thanks
Question - Were the tater tots frozen, cooked, thawed? Our attempt with frozen tots showed they were still frozen after 20min at 350 degrees. Thanks in advance. Love your videos!!
That Rump Roast in the window looked like it may have some gaseous disease. I think it was past shelf life and rotten to the core. 😵😵 Great video tho. I am impressed with the knowledge. I have cut some meat in my lifetime, but it is very apparent I had no clue what I was doing. 👍👍
Fascinating to watch a man who is good at his trade work. Truly you know your job. Great to see where all the bits and pieces come from. Question: Where does a petit sirloin come from? It's two lobes of meat with a clear line between them and a triangle of fat. Not the greatest steak, but overall a good value and always available at the lower-mid grocery store I go to.
![Wagyu Beef and Kobe Beef [What's the Difference?] The Bearded Butchers Answer and Grill!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6oJLOd6Fipo/mqdefault.jpg)
You Sir are an artist. My Dad was a meat cutter for Winn Dixie in Jacksonville before I was born (I'm 57 now). He talks about things like this ... but to see it happen in real life is awesome. I think You and My Dad are cool as frigg. ✌
This honestly takes me back. My Dad was a butcher for forty years. 25 years retail and the last 15 years with his own custom kill and butcher shop. All pre 1999 so I definitely remember the days when anything that wasn't well-known steaks and roasts ended up as hamburger. Nobody wanted briskets or skirt steaks or anything that wasn't traditional 1960s meat. I was the only broke college kid I knew who had a steady supply of steaks, bacon and pork chops.
Sẞ1AaAá lo mo
"broke" going to school, housed, clothed, health is good, steady supply of great food. Crazy how not having piles of free money makes someone call themselves "broke"
@@jordanbabcock9349 That's 99% of the american poor. Aside from the "great food". Most poor people are overweight in the USA. Even in the poorest cities people still had clothes lol, ion even know what you mean by that.
Funny that people getting custom cutting were like that. We always bought flanks and skirt steak and such from retail shops in the mid '90s. They were mid-priced at the time. (In the far northwest.) Tongue was still mid-low price back then too, now its more than sirloin, (and frozen tripe is now up to the same as round roast or burger... Some combo of the dogfood industry and increased popularity of foreign foods.)
My dad own a meat processing plant no retail but some of the steaks we didn't save Denver steak, flat irons, and Dino ribs. It was pretty common to grind most of the cuts in to burgers. We rarely saved chuck steaks. Most of made in to random roasts like the Chuck roasts and the arm roast.
I walked into my local Rural King in Decatur, Indiana this morning and saw The Bearded Butcher seasonings. I drove hours to the store and have ordered online in the past. Today however........made my day. I've been sub'd since it was thousands. I've loved the journey.
Pat, we appreciate it! Thank you for the support!
Small world! I'm usually in Decatur, IN about once or twice a month as my fiancé's family lives up there; we are in the Indy area ourselves. It's about a 2 hour drive NW one way
My uncle was a butcher and I was endlessly fascinated by watching the cow come apart. He would give us these really funky looking cuts of meat along with directions how to cook each piece. Those were some of the best beef dinners ever.
Not only is this entertaining and oddly satisfying/calming to watch, but the level of knowledge and education going on here blows my mind! So glad I found your channel! Thanks for being so dedicated to mastering your craft/art and sharing it!
Look up the guy that butchers a side of pork. I think he's Japanese in NY? That's a good series. BB has it here too.
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I love watching someone who has mastered their craft it lends itself to artistic expression and it was a joy to watch and I was imagining your father teaching you as a younger man and how his knowledge has passed down to you and this was beautiful to see. I know it was just a beef front but you can tell how much passion his father had and passed on to him!
I've been buying custom for a number of years, and this video has really opened my eyes as to why so many of the cuts in my freezer are so different from many of the cuts at the grocery store!
There is alot of stuff that comes off the cow you don't see in the grocery store. Bone, fat, waunky end cuts. Stuff you wouldn't buy anyway.
Am I the only one who gets nervous about how quickly he seems to move around that saw? Great work you make it look so easy
45 yr cutter, you don't fear the saw. It's only a tiny area at the front of the spinning blade you worry about. And after time, you create a zone you watch. I still can count to 10, Lol. I work in both arenas. I enjoyed retail more, I'm a meatcutter. Custom is more of a butcher to me. I manage a shop that has both!
You're not alone...
This took me back. My in-laws raised cattle and would have a local butcher process a couple of them a year. They weren't imaginative cooks or eaters, so they stuck to the steaks and the hamburger and didn't know what to do with the rest of it. When I married in, my wife and I were gifted with the backlog of their freezers and ate like royalty for several years on short ribs, oxtails, hearts, livers and all the soup bones anyone would ever need. I felt like we got the better part of the deal at times.
@@davidlightman9551 don't give the city folks too much credit, but yeah...
@David Lightman you have to be joking or stupid
@@fathersonandskillet They use to say that about Native Americans not country folks in fact the opposite has always been true. They use to waste the hell out of animal meat.
@@davidlightman9551 My dad's family have been living on a farm'since the mid 1700's in the US and the current farm has been continually operated since 1820 when they crossed Appalachia and settled in Tennessee from Burke County NC. They rarely if ever touch offal, never have going back at least three generations from what I can tell.
They do a little more than burgers and steaks with the cattle they raise but nothing like many others will now. I really think a lot of it has to do with preservation or with how you cook for a very large family. There wasn't electricity in the family farm house until the mid 1940's so meat had to be preserved differently than freezing it and a lot of the cuts like sweet breads, liver or heart had to be eaten immediately. There were a lot of one pot dishes like stews or roasts too. Grilling or BBQing on a working family farm just wasn't always practical.
For a stew, i would take heart over regular meat any day of the week.. Throw in some marrow bones and something ligament-heavy like a knee and you'll have a broth so strong you can walk on top of it without sinking...
With custom cut, don't most butchers have a cut sheet where you can specify how you want the animal processed? Which cuts you want, thickness, if offered additional processing such as smoking and sausage? We do a beef every year along with at least one pork. We do our own chickens. I know the processors we work with cut our animals in this manor.
You may refer to being a little OCD, I call it pride in your skill and work. Thank you for your amazing content and clear explanations. It is appreciated.
It's a self lie to hold us back. All these labels. That's all they are. We are unique without labels.
@@aaronmayhew2.0 t
True that but some people cannot cope without the ‘comfort’ of labels. I am happily label free.
I learn from you guys every time I watch, even when it's repeated info (the brain just can't retain all that info all the time). What amazes me is actually how "little" you get from that big cow. Same with a bison, I thought you'd get so much more meat out of that big animal, but you don't. When I go into our local butcher shop I have a whole new appreciation for the amount of cattle that is sitting in that shop. Chicken I get...but beef, it just opened my eyes for sure. Pork even seems to "go further" than the beef. Then again, we don't do a lot of roasts (usually only during the winter, in the crock pot). Great stuff!
A lot of weight in fat and organs and even the hide.
What isn't shown is that all of those trimmings actually have a market, from dogfood to leather to hand soap and wheel bearing grease. Maybe the small shops can't produce enough to bother selling it for much more than saving on the cost of disposal, but the big processing plants most definately have buyers for all of it. Even bones go to broth/soup companies and from there to be ground into bonemeal which is then sold to organic gardeners.
"Lithium grease" is a standard gear-lube oil thickened with about lithium-soap made by reacting lithium hydroxide with refined tallow (more specifically stearic fatty acid extracted from tallow.) very similar to bar soap which is sodium hydroxide reacted with tallow (sodium-soap greases are effective and were once common due to low cost but they are not water resistant)
I thought I was good at putting a deer away but I have got a long way to go to get to this level! Thank you for showing how it is done! Awesome ❤
Your knife skills are really amazing we use the Victorinox knife up here a lot to recall and Vicki's every fisherman has a Vicki on and we buy them by the 12 pack in a box I didn't realize if they made big ones we used extra for the fishing knives
Never would I ever need most of this information, but it’s so damn entertaining to see an expert talking and explaining his passion. 😂
What I have gained is an appreciation for what I'm seeing in the grocery and the ability to recognize a superior piece of beef. I don't eat that much beef, but I find myself wanting it more often these days. Love that spinalis.
@@andrewmantle7627 cow 🐄 feet are delicious 😋
I can see the diff between our butcher custom and what y'all do. For custome, we get the skirts - fajita meat. I chose to let the chuck be ground. I tried it the first half we bought and didn't like them at all and we did have to pull that yellow cord and I wldn't have known to do that if I hadn't watched y'all. I got the shanks. I got the short ribs. Ours gives us boneless and bone in steak options - I get ribeye, ny strips, and filets. Then I ask for 75% of my trim to be cut into stew beef where possible. I use it as much as ground. We got the neck bones for the dogs also. Ours also saved out the kidney fat and ground it for me so I can render it into tallow. 💜
I am mesmerized by how sharp your knives are!
This brings back good memories. I started when I was fourteen. I cut at the Red & White in Hatteras NC. It was all hanging quarters. (Swift, out of Norfolk VA) after about three years we started getting some primals in boxes.
Pork loins came 6(?) A box wrapped in paper. Chickens came whole packed in wooden crates filled with crushed ice.
I used to hate Memorial Day weekend as it was the annual marlin tournament at the Marlin Club. ( Think country club with stupid expensive boats and no golf course. Same self important assholes though.) 125 - 150 1¼" porterhouse steaks. Real porterhouse, no T-Bones with thick filets, and they had to have tails. We would not have porterhouses in the store case fore weeks.
This has been a great video to watch. I have not cut meat for about 25 years. You help put names to a lot of "faces". You did not cut anything new to me but you showed me what they changed there name to. Lol
But can you explain how anyone ever convinced someone that a flank steak was a "quality cut"?
I loved the break down between the differences. the real question is do you feel the retail style is more cost effective than the custom jobs for you? I like the ideal of using everything but I also understand time restraints are always an issue. Thanks for the informative and excellent content
your speed with that bandsaw is impressive. i wish i could get into butchery. ive been in restaurant cooking for a while and processing the meats into the product we were going to use was my favorite.
I was still nervous watching him use it so quickly despite knowing he’s a professional. That thing cuts through bone like butter. 🫢
Loving the chuck roasts! My dad was a meat cutter for 42 years and he loved to cook them. Visited your shop for the first time last month. Tried your summer sausage. Best I ever had
i like how the number of people at trimming table gradualy grows bigger as the new chunks of meet are piled... and GREAT RESPECT as I can see some young butchers over there, I was sure that younger generation only uses mobile phones and nothing else
A lot of ppl including myself are confused by what gristle, membrane, silverskin and fats are. Can you guys maybe do a video to help clarify.
Thanks, I love all the videos you guys do!
If it helps any, here is a sort of comparison. Fat is the bright white stuff ( 3:48 ) that cooks down into a liquid and adds flavor and moisture. Gristle is more of the bits of tendon ( 37:10 ) and tough chunks that attack the meat together. (can't remember a good time stamp) Silver skin is the stuff sort of like the cuticles on your nails, thicker and tougher then regular skin but thin and between muscle portions. Membrane was effectively the diaphragm, at least in the video. it's separates the muscles from organs hence why it's on the inner side of the ribs ( 22:00).
I’m a new starting butcher and watching this videos from you guys it’s awesome like y’all take the time to explain not my coworkers ,it’s not like I wanna take over there spot but iron wanna be a good butcher that wen people go they ask for me cuz of my work 🔥💯 so thank y’all and I will watch all the videos here to keep learning 💯💯
Thanks for making this video! I really enjoyed the comparison at the end. My husband and I grow beef cattle, so it is cool to see the different ways beef front quarters are cut for retail and custom.
Thanks for watching!
You mentioned brisket, I remember as a child my parents bought brisket because it was the cheapest cut at the time and we ground our own ground beef.
As for preference in custom vs counter, I'd take the custom all because the bone just adds flavor plus my lovely wife makes bone stock.
I can't believe some don't take the bone dust off!! The old butcher Chester I worked with as a teen would have beat my ass if I didn't scrape it off. Like you he had people driving over 100 miles to buy his meat, was a sad day when he passed away too early. The grocery store never recovered from his loss and almost went out of business. Miss him.
Excellent video Seth! The video helps me understand why I see the cuts at the meat counter and why they maybe priced higher. I agree with some of the comments below in how relaxing and educational all your videos are. I have eaten the flatiron steaks for the past year and never disappointed since I saw your videos. Thank you again for putting these videos out! Jeff P.S. I see Scott made his appearance in the video and I'm not talking about the commercial part either.. Too funny!
Jeff, glad you enjoy our videos! Thanks!
7:15 brisket is my mums favourite cut as it’s what she grew up with but now it’s out of the price range when it used to be the cheapest cut you could get.
I appreciate all the work you've shone. Its great watching your videos. I wish you had shown the process side by side it would have been easier to understand the differences. I went back and forth a few times trying to see the exact difference
Thank you for your posts! I grew up on a farm. Often we would feed out a steer and have it processed by the local butcher. Sometimes we would offer the butcher half of the steer in exchange for his processing. You move through cuts so efficiently! One day I hope to process a whole steer and you have made that a possibility. Just watching and learning from your videos. Grain fed beef is not cheap.
Man, you guys are awesome. So informative about products and differences between what different places do, what you can get, what you should ask for and what you will get.
Grew up on a ranch next to Farley,N.M. in the 40's & 50's where we did all our own everything. Totally different today in how we raised cattle and butchering, but would go back to Farley in the blink of an eye. Thank you guys for what you are sharing with the world today. I think your father and mine would have enjoyed a great piece of beef and maybe a couple of fingers...:-)
*The Bearded Butchers* Bravo well done, thank-you sir for taking the time to bring us along. GOD Bless.
In the 80’s brisket always went on sale around Memorial Day, and Labor Day for$0.99 lb! For $0.25 lb my butcher would grind ten of them, and double freezer wrap them in 2lb packs for my deep freezer. I’d buy 100lbs at a time. It was awesome. Four kids, hamburger helper was on the menu 3 times a week, different flavors, of course! My wife, and kids, LOVED them.
Skirt going into ground beef, criminal !!. Great work as always
I've seen skirt selling for the same as filet. I too was shocked to see it go to ground beef table. I mean, it doesn't require much work on the part of the butcher, so it's difficult to understand.
That was just to show what typically happens when cutting custom style beef.
Hubby raises cattle and when we have our personal steer processed, I must have the skirt.
I'm from Minnesota, and we have a few GOOD butchers here... My dad gets a half a hog yearly from "mills locker plant" in "New York Mills", and it's VERY professionally done, as far as I can tell... They contract out their hog buying to a certain farm they always have good results from, and they do our order just the way we put on the paperwork they have us fill out, and we're always happy to just let them go at their own pace because of their popularity.
In short, they get done when they get done, but the neat always looks excellent... This time they gave us the big mound of fat they trimmed off but IDK what my dad wanted it for(assuming he asked for it)
IDK how it compares to other butchers as far as processing goes as I'm not a butcher, but like I said, it's meat, and it looks professionally done, what more can you ask for?
watching you guys i feel like i could prob break down a part of a cow on my own if i had to but without the machinery and work space it would be hella hard
Fascinating to me as a cook. We don’t bring quarter hinds, but we do primordials to reduce costs. We order in skirt steak, brisket and baseball cuts when asked. We’ve not used shoulder cuts which are often reclassified as chuck. I personally purchase whole beef items. Tenderloin, strip loin and ribeye. Don’t need to pay for the premium wrapped goods.
Never ceases to amaze me on your episodes! 👍👍 educational and entertainment!!
ceases
Love this video !! I grew up in a Meat Packing Plant in N. E. GA. We brought the hogs and Beef in the back door on hoof and out the front door for wholesale. . We did it all..
I really enjoy these comparison videos, so educational. One thing I have wondered is why the finger? bones (top of the vertebrae) that you trim off the rib section are always broken and at a fairly pronounced angle.
I know it doesn’t matter since they get trimmed and discarded, but I thought it’s interesting they are never intact. Is that a side effect of the side drying as it hangs or something else?
I remember _The Galloping Gourmet,_ Graham Kerr, mentioning it was important to wipe off knives after sharpening them. Passing it on. Regards.
Great video Bearded Brothers! Lots of information to share & take in.
Thanks for sharing!
You bet!!
I've been watching you guys for 3+yrs and I will never get tired of Seth or Scott breaking down beef. If only I lived in Ohio! 💪🤘💯
Gotta make the trip sometime!
I would venture to say that your retail cuts are more custom than what you call butchers custom!! Thanks for another great video.
Was thinking the same thing!
Careful, they responded rudely when I pointed that out.
@@jaklg7905 chin up princess
@@jaklg7905 suck it up, quit whining
@@haydensmith7551 that’s the problem now a days, people are such pussy’s and they whine right away that their feelings are hurt and yet they post shit on here complaining
Lucky to have butchers in my local grocery store in a suburban/urban area. They buy most seafood and protein from local fisherman/ranchers. And you can stop by and watch them break down lamb (1/2), pork (1/2) and beef (1/4). I've never order anything custom, but can. They don't have anything pre-packaged, like 1lb ground beef. Each shift has at least 5 or 6 butchers. And they are excellent about education and telling you the best time to buy a cut that might sell out. I love lamb riblets. I'll get 4 or 5 slabs, cook them up, eat as quick snack for 3-5 days. Very fortunate.
I'm always learning through your channel - Thanks so much you guys! - Cheers!
When I was a kid in the 60s I remember those ads in the back of the papers tv section selling sides of beef and offering to rent you freezer space.
You guys are Fantastic, I have learned so much from your videos. keep up the great work!
Howdy my bearded brothers all the way from Australia thanks for the video, I am a big beef fan. Prices here at the moment, standard supermarket prices, Eye Fillet $52 a kilo, Scotch Fillet $42 a kilo and T-bone Steak $30 a kilo. Rump which I personally don't consider "steak" or at least one I want to eat $30 a kilo. I have had to cut back to steak Friday's only unless my kids bugger off for the weekend in which case I have an eye fillet Sunday too... Stay safe and keep doing what you do, big love to you and yours from the down under. Kev
Thank you, take care!
Another great video from bearded butcher's and you can learn how to cut meat
You don’t have OCD you’re just a professional through and through, The best processor I have ever seen in my lifetime.
Most butchers around here are as trustworthy as used car salesman
Where at? Here in Texas they seem to be pretty good. I’m no pro but I love to cook and eat.
🙋🏻♀️I AGREE 100%...We will ONLY purchase beef from the cattleman and NEVER use a butcher shop like I describe below ever again...
~20 years ago I picked a quarter & half cow cut right in front of me (I personally labeled each package of beef) at a country butcher shop in Fort Worth, Texas (we lived in Dallas, Texas) and of course they throw in 25lb chicken & 50lb frozen veggies AND a 35 cuft commercial freezer including "free delivery" ALL for the special price of $2500 with free 12 months financing.
☝🏻I know what I'm talking about because my husband lived in Nebraska, his ex-wife & ex-mother-in-law both worked for Omaha Steaks, AND I've lived in Texas ALL my life (except for the military orders to Japan and a few weeks as an exchange student in Germany) so I know what my beef should taste like😉👍🏻
NE kansas
Not in south Philly. Our local old school Italian butcher shops are first class.
Exactly I totally agree with you, they eating good if I buy half a cow, take a steak from every cow they butcher for every cow and don’t have to buy beef ever again 👊
I have noticed if something gets popular then the price goes up. Take chicken wings when people started liking them the price went up.
I can’t even find a real butcher. Even when they look like my grandpa with the white coat, the white hard hat, and the meat counter everything comes in a semi from a processing plant. “Do you have ….? No, we don’t get that cut. We can’t even order it.” 😢
I love watching your videos fun and really informative. I’ve seen this one many times because of the comparison 4:16 4:16 which is very helpful in understanding what part of the animal I am eating but also different cuts.
You sir are a credit to your profession. Unbelievable attention to detail.
Seth…your knife-work is truly an art form.
Nice video. I buy 1/2 cow at a time from local farm. Guess I will consider myself lucky. Based on you description I guess I’m getting “ custom “ however I do get Rib steaks, flat iron, flank, bravette, ranch, sirloin, Pichania Sometimes short ribs sometimes dino. Boneless chuck roast. Nice selection.
Over here in Australia if people order a 1/4 of beef whether hind or fore it’s all boned out and prepped as if it was for retail sale always sliced ,packed and labeled how the customer wants too most times it’s even frozen for them in boxes to pick up
Astounding skill level. You make what I know from experience to be very difficult look easy. That ability only comes from an outstanding skill set.
Nice to see young men learning the trade. Meat cutters is a dying trade. I've been cutting meat since 1983. Just don't seeing young people interested in meat, it's a wonderful trade to get in. A good meat cutter us worth his weigh in gold now days. Thank you for your video 👍👍
Nice work explaining the difference. I am purchasing my first whole beef and am trying to educate myself on the processing of it.
The mock tenderloin (teres major) is my favorite for a fancy date night in. Cut them into medallions, season them, and sear them on all sides. Some red, garlic smashed potatoes and roasted broccoli makes for a nice dinner.
Skirt steak is my other favorite cut. Quick and tasty for fajitas.
You can sure tell he is a master of his craft and his Dad taught him very well.
Honestly that’s what a lot of my ground beef stash is, ground brisket. I like to grab them from Kroger when they go on sale for 1.99/lb. Separate the meat, add some fat back in, grind it and it’s some of the best burger I’ve had.
Sometimes you’re like a surgeon with your cuts and your knowledge of the anatomy. Thanks for your content.
Absolutely interesting
I find it strangely calming to watch experts at work !!
I’ve learnt a lot from 4 of you videos
Thanks
Great to hear!
Love these type of videos. Sooooooooo maybe in a near future video cut 2 quarters, front and a hind, into sections like a packing plant would cut to send out to some grocery stores, meat stores and restaurants that do not process full quarters especially in places like Newfoundland. It may end up being the same as you cut most times but you don't have to vacuum pack the whole section you can cut it to whatever is best seller for your store.
I know you kinda show some of this in videos but it be nice to see like that full whatever cut from each quarter and you show like "this is the piece that would get vacuum packed and labeled to be shipped out as a ________ and then received by said store/restaurant to be cut into T-bone, taco meat, rib eye or whatever."
Smoked a brisket today. My niece and I share a locally sourced half beef each year. I’m ordering 1/2 hog this year. Also have excellent source for lamb.
Short ribs are so underrated - one of my favorite cuts.
You are a very very strong man no doubt…the cases of boxed meat we unloaded at the store when I was a boy was heavy you are grabbing the whole piece of beef moving it like it’s nothing my wife and I noticed it …wow
Nice job... Good to understand wtf I'm eating! I keep overcooking OssoBuca, Brisket, and short ribs plus they all taste the same and too stringy. I have steaks like Ribeye, and standing Rib Roast down to an art. Tricky using slow cooker. Love your shows.
Dam the asmr of the ripping and peeling is relaxing. Been cutting for 18 years in retail big chain store and hope to learn breaking of beef and pork. This video was so enjoyable
Amazing to watch you boys work! Now I know how my moose and caribou are processed!
I just love seeing you cut the meat into different cuts.
The sheer depth of anatomical knowledge is absolutely amazing !
I wonder - could you point out all those structures on a living animal: muscle, bones, gristle and all ?
If you could, with any accuracy, you'd be like a Human X-Ray machine ;)
Obviously that would super-useful to a veterinarian.
This is good for the people who don't understand how the cuts come off the carcass and how one primal can produce several different cuts. Ex if you want bnls strip steaks you aren't going to get t-bones. If you want full length tenderloins you are not going to get T-bones
I love this video. Being from south Philadelphia, there is nothing like going to my local old school Italian butcher shop and getting custom cuts during the holiday season in the winter. ❤
So... This is one of my favorite videos. All the links Spencer put in. I have seen. Fantastic.
Yes we usually put the brisket into stewing beef or Burger to make a good lasagna pot of chili it makes a better mix with the trimmings but when you're raised on a beef farm you get sick of eating the same thing everyday
The marbling on that beef looks great
I know that I'm not going to change your ways by saying this (Not that It affects me in any way anyway), but I'd be pretty upset if my cuts of beef got squared up the way that you're doing it. Those are really large chunks taken off, only for what seems like the sake of symmetry alone. I mean sure, a steak needs to be flat so that it cooks evenly; but there's a limit. I don't need 20% of my prime cuts and roasts in my ground meat mixture. I'm sure everyone has their preferences on how it should be presented to them though, especially places like restaurants and retailers. Myself, If I already paid the farmer, I want my steaks and roasts with as much meat on them as possible.
Love your guys channel, keep up the good work! Cheers
I agree with so many comments here. So satisfying and lovely to watch. Great to see a true artisan at work. SUBSCRIBED!.
Thank you so much!
My father was a meat cutter and used to bring home a pin bone steak. That was without a doubt the best steaks I have ever had. But I never hear of them. Have you ever discussed this cut?
I have learned so much from watching your videos. The next time I go to a steak house, I am ordering a Porterhouse for sure!!! Medium rare. Thank you for educating us. Incidentally, I live in Denver and I have never heard of a Denver steak, nor seen one for sale. I will look for it.
A lot of places cube it, stew/stir fry, what ever they can sell. Also names will vary.
Not to make light of meat cutting but the actual cutting is sorta monkey work. Same thing endlessly repeated and there are a lot of "dotted lines" to follow.
Marketing and making a profit on the other hand is what makes the man.
One of my favorites is the dinasaur plate ribs. Lots of meat and I smoke them till they’re falling apart with hickory. Brisket is my close second. Got a pork shoulder going for tomorrow.
As a Texas BBQ caterer, I have to say this was an excellent video and very informative. I knew most of the cuts prior to watching but the differences between custom and retail was awesome information. Thank you very much for sharing!🤠👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
I grew up in an area where everyone around me had a farm. Sadly we did not. My dad was a golf course guy 😂. But nothing beats farm raised beef
Brisket was 69c a lb 15-20 years ago and now it’s 5.99 lb or more. Money drives why they save brisket now.
I can't stop being jealous over the knives used!
I grew up with my mom's pot-roast of "7 bone" Chuck (It's the blade bone chuck cut where the cut edge of the blade makes a "7" not 7 different bones) . Now I know why I can't get them anymore at the meat counter. Please do a pot roast comparison between the boneless chuck, and "7 bone" chuck. Thanks
Question - Were the tater tots frozen, cooked, thawed? Our attempt with frozen tots showed they were still frozen after 20min at 350 degrees. Thanks in advance. Love your videos!!
So...
Just a question...
Which meat is BEST ?; the grain fed or the grass fed beef?
That Rump Roast in the window looked like it may have some gaseous disease. I think it was past shelf life and rotten to the core. 😵😵 Great video tho. I am impressed with the knowledge. I have cut some meat in my lifetime, but it is very apparent I had no clue what I was doing. 👍👍
These videos (?) are soooo informative. Love em. Thank you, years and years of experience distilled down in 20-30 min segs.
Fascinating to watch a man who is good at his trade work. Truly you know your job. Great to see where all the bits and pieces come from. Question: Where does a petit sirloin come from? It's two lobes of meat with a clear line between them and a triangle of fat. Not the greatest steak, but overall a good value and always available at the lower-mid grocery store I go to.
Petite sirloin comes from lower sirloin.
When I cooked in restaurants we used hanger steaks alot. I feel they are under rated. Why don't you see them in retail often
Amazing video. Professional's doing almost anything is cool to watch. Ill be showing this to my boss today. Hes gonna love the information.
Thank you for teaching me the difference and how to do it. I will never cut beef. But it's fun to learn.
Great video as always! I never get tired of watching them and look forward to the next.