BTW, any idea if prime on west coast costco's are the same as prime on east, south, central, north parts of the country? I'm thinking different depending on the region but not sure. Does beef taste different depending on the state?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
BTW, any idea if prime on west coast costco's are the same as prime on east, south, central, north parts of the country? I'm thinking different depending on the region but not sure. Does beef taste different depending on the state?

I don't think so. Prime is generally prime. Most all beef comes from the Midwest.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
BTW, any idea if prime on west coast costco's are the same as prime on east, south, central, north parts of the country? I'm thinking different depending on the region but not sure. Does beef taste different depending on the state?

No, but it does taste different depending on what they feed the beef prior to slaughter. Grass fed tastes substantially different to me than grain fed.

And the grading system refers to the marbling, which can affect taste pretty big time as that's where a lot of the flavor is. That's why Wagyu tastes better.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
BTW, any idea if prime on west coast costco's are the same as prime on east, south, central, north parts of the country? I'm thinking different depending on the region but not sure. Does beef taste different depending on the state?

No, but it does taste different depending on what they feed the beef prior to slaughter. Grass fed tastes substantially different to me than grain fed.

And the grading system refers to the marbling, which can affect taste pretty big time as that's where a lot of the flavor is. That's why Wagyu tastes better.

all meat is graded at the slaughter house when the 1/2 is broken in to 1/4's,

graded by the marbling (in the nice chart posted) where the ribeye and strip are seperated (between the last and next to last rib)


just as an FYI, a packer is allowed to downgrade meat, but not upgrade,

as in if they contract with a grocery store to sell them a pallet of Choice, or Select, and come up short, they will add a whatever boxes they have of the next highest grade to complete the contract,

unfortunately, if you are not in the business you would never know,

got to take advantage of that many times when I was in the meat biz

Someone here hooked me up with SRF a few years ago. They are my go-to, and during 2020 pandemic issues we bought a LOT from them. Always been great.

Ive had Heartbrand beef a few times, which is from Akaushi cattle (a type of wagyu breed as I understand it) raised in the US since 1993 through some export loophole the Japanese quickly eliminated.

Its very good. Not ever having tried A5 wagyu, I cant compare.

https://heartbrandbeef.com/

Being in the meat business personally, I've seen everything from select to Prime. I don't carry A5 Wagyu because it's not what I do primarily.
Prime is excellent and if I can't get it, I order from Pat LaFrieda's. I did last year for my birthday ordering a 30 day dry aged Porterhouse. It was outstanding.
The A5 Wagyu I got was completely different. I put nothing in the carbon steel pan but the steak itself. A smaller NY Strip. The fat content in the steak did all the work and I didn't have to use clarified butter or any kind of oil.
It is a specialty purchase and I've only had it once. I'll probably do it at the end of this year again for my birthday.
It was so tender that all I used was a fork to cut it and the taste was different than anything I've ever had.
If you can do it, I'd get the A5.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

But US wagyu for a couple bucks more per pound that usual, sure I'll try that. 80/20 sounds good actually; I tend toward that side for burgers than the lean 90/10 or higher type of stuff - that's too dry for me ...

I think you misunderstand what 80/20, etc is. It refers to the mix of meat to fat. So since the packaging is not marked with the fat content, I'm expecting (based on taste/texture) that it contains less fat, bit because of lean meat trimmings it is or exceeds the total fat content of standard 80/20. For an made up example. If you compared total actual fat content for a choice ground beef and prime ground beef. The prime would obviously have a small amount of additional fat measuring comparing two 80/20 blends from two differently graded trimmings.

I think i understand the 80/20. If whatever cut(s) was used to make ground looked well marbled like real wagyu ribeye or ny, then I couldn’t see a burger holding together well. I never seen wagyu cuts that one would use to make burgers but assume that they wouldn’t be marbled like the ribeye. Since the whole point of buying wagyu is the marbling, I wouldn’t want to pay premium prices for lean cuts of wagyu which is just essentially normal beef then.

Perhaps wagyu chuck is better marbled than choice or prime chuck. But again, seems like if it’s too marbled, it wouldn’t bind well. So a leaner cut would need to be added to maintain that 80/20.

80/20 seems like a good ratio for burgers - for me. I don’t like burgers made from 90/10.

I wonder now at what ratio burgers will start to fall apart without a binder. Would 60/40 hold together? 50/50?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

80/20 seems like a good ratio for burgers - for me. I don’t like burgers made from 90/10.

I wonder now at what ratio burgers will start to fall apart without a binder. Would 60/40 hold together? 50/50?

The lowest I've ever done is 73/27 when I did grinding. That's for straight ground beef.
I do IQF precooked burgers in a few different flavors but they do have soy and a binder in them to reduce shrinkage.
Those again are close to 70/30 or thereabouts. To much fat and I would imagine they'd just fat out but I've never gone above 30% fat.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I think i understand the 80/20. If whatever cut(s) was used to make ground looked well marbled like real wagyu ribeye or ny, then I couldn’t see a burger holding together well. I never seen wagyu cuts that one would use to make burgers but assume that they wouldn’t be marbled like the ribeye. Since the whole point of buying wagyu is the marbling, I wouldn’t want to pay premium prices for lean cuts of wagyu which is just essentially normal beef then.

Perhaps wagyu chuck is better marbled than choice or prime chuck. But again, seems like if it’s too marbled, it wouldn’t bind well. So a leaner cut would need to be added to maintain that 80/20.

80/20 seems like a good ratio for burgers - for me. I don’t like burgers made from 90/10.

I wonder now at what ratio burgers will start to fall apart without a binder. Would 60/40 hold together? 50/50?

The 80/20 ratio is meat/fat
You would want a leaner part of the cow to add to the <80 meat to bring the ratio of meat/fat up closer to 80/20. Sirloin is closer to 90/10, Short rib/brisket closer to 70/30 - mix 1:1 by weight and you'll be ~80/20. All this varies by cow. I would say prime/wagyu ribeye is <70/30. Grind, temp before cooking & how much you press the burger together has a lot of effect too. Side-by-side with 80/20, smash burgers are juicier vs traditional patties cooked to the same 'crust' (crusting usually over cooks patties IMO).

70/30 is too much fat, IMO but I've never used super high grade beef for a high-fat burger.

I think smash burgers are on the menu tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by lyman:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
BTW, any idea if prime on west coast costco's are the same as prime on east, south, central, north parts of the country? I'm thinking different depending on the region but not sure. Does beef taste different depending on the state?

No, but it does taste different depending on what they feed the beef prior to slaughter. Grass fed tastes substantially different to me than grain fed.

And the grading system refers to the marbling, which can affect taste pretty big time as that's where a lot of the flavor is. That's why Wagyu tastes better.

all meat is graded at the slaughter house when the 1/2 is broken in to 1/4's,

graded by the marbling (in the nice chart posted) where the ribeye and strip are seperated (between the last and next to last rib)


just as an FYI, a packer is allowed to downgrade meat, but not upgrade,

as in if they contract with a grocery store to sell them a pallet of Choice, or Select, and come up short, they will add a whatever boxes they have of the next highest grade to complete the contract,

unfortunately, if you are not in the business you would never know,

got to take advantage of that many times when I was in the meat biz

Around here it is worthwhile to pay attention to the choice cuts for this reason. If you look every time, now and again you can find some "choice" that is very obviously a better cut of meat.

I've always wondered why Choice (what I usually buy) sometimes looks like Prime.

But sometimes, Prime doesn't look like Prime at all. Choice at best, maybe even Select. All for ribeye or NY cuts. So this is still curious. When Prime looks good (at least like the pic on far left), I'll buy. Anything less, and I'll just buy Choice.

Around here, Prime looks like the far left pic although they to Moderate or maybe even Modest.

quote:

all meat is graded at the slaughter house when the 1/2 is broken in to 1/4's,

graded by the marbling (in the nice chart posted) where the ribeye and strip are seperated (between the last and next to last rib)

They don't grade each steak.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

80/20 seems like a good ratio for burgers - for me. I don’t like burgers made from 90/10.

I wonder now at what ratio burgers will start to fall apart without a binder. Would 60/40 hold together? 50/50?

The lowest I've ever done is 73/27 when I did grinding. That's for straight ground beef.
I do IQF precooked burgers in a few different flavors but they do have soy and a binder in them to reduce shrinkage.
Those again are close to 70/30 or thereabouts. To much fat and I would imagine they'd just fat out but I've never gone above 30% fat.

when I started out a meat clerk, then later cutter, we ground almost strictly from what we cut,

ground beef, ground chuck, ground round, and lamb, veal and pork

we never measure it , or had a way to , but it was generall understood that chuck was the middle grade,

the color told the story, the deeper the red, the leaner it was

later on as we started getting primals that were more block ready (less trim) and the packer tube beef became a thing, we had to make sure that we did not add to much fat to anything,

eventually, when I was in the Management side, not a meat manager any longer, all store trim was ground for just regular ground beef, and generally 73/27, (and still no way to measure it accurately)



one meat guy that tried to recruit me to Safeway, told me in hood stores they used a soy additive,
poured a bag in a 5 gall bucket, added water and let it sit in the cooler overnight,

the next day, grind some trimmings, and some fat, and add the soy,
run it thru the grinder once, the back in and let the mixer run a bit, and back thru into the tray for the customer,

I don't remember the proportions, something like a bucket of soy, 50lbs of trim, and maybe 25 of fat,

he said the hoody apt's near the store would look like they were on fire from all the smoke coming off the grills on a Sat night

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:

quote:

all meat is graded at the slaughter house when the 1/2 is broken in to 1/4's,

graded by the marbling (in the nice chart posted) where the ribeye and strip are seperated (between the last and next to last rib)

They don't grade each steak.

no, just grade the quarters,

Not so esoteric, but an alternate to Wagyu beef is what I have used for a few years.
My butcher buys meat with no additives - the best way to go.

I purchase whole briskets, filets, and ribeye's still in the producers vacuum bag and mark the production date on the bag in Sharpie (the production date is marked on the cardboard case from the producer).

I wet cure the meat in my refrigerator for 42 days from the production date.

This will produce a more tender meat.
.

quote:

Originally posted by redleg2/9:
Not so esoteric, but an alternate to Wagyu beef is what I have used for a few years.
My butcher buys meat with no additives - the best way to go.

I purchase whole briskets, filets, and ribeye's still in the producers vacuum bag and mark the production date on the bag in Sharpie (the production date is marked on the cardboard case from the producer).

I wet cure the meat in my refrigerator for 42 days from the production date.

This will produce a more tender meat.
.

when I worked for Winn Dixie, they aged all the middle meats 4-6 weeks , as in it would not ship ot stores until it had sat in a cooler that long,

rounds and chucks were a couple weeks,


wet age is a thing,

my last gig as a meat manager, we had choice whole bone in ribs at a cheap price, during grand opening,
got shipped some prime,
so we (myself, and 2 assistants) placed a nice one on the top rack, and left it there,

from Fed 17th, to Memorial day weekend,
we trimmed it up, (bones were quite funky) and sliced it 1.5" thick and split the steaks us among us,

grilled to a perfect rare, and was absolutely delicious