Bill my old mind don't work as well as it use to LOL but my answer to this is,Thewater holding capacity of beef is one of the most important factors of meat quality, beef has the greatest capacity to retain water, so hanging will hold better than box
My market would be with hanging beef, fresher, better, could offer my customers more
Leon, Boxed Beef is cryro vaced not hanging in the open so it doesn't dry out as much
That said it doesn't matter to me
I just opened the best shop ever We Wet Age all of our beef a minimum of 28 days (I have some over 60 days now and it cuts like warm butter) I also dry age some of my meat after the wet age, 21 days for that
The most important thing about beef is that you buy the highest quality stuff you can. Age it right. Cut it right After that it's all gravy my friend
__________________
Joe Parajecki
Operations Manager/ Partner
Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI
Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild
Butcher Bill..The protiens and iron are retained at the cellular level of the the animal. it doesn't really matter Carcass beef or box beef it does not make enough of a difference to even track
Back to the carcass/boxbeef question about opening a shop....My company fully supports local vendors and every store in my region recieves carcass beef, most stores at least 1 per week, up to 3 per week in some locations. All is supplemented with box beef. Here in lies the problem with a whole carcass program... you only recieve 2 ribs, 2 strips, 2 pismos, 2 top butts...you then have to work very hard to push all the ends...of course you will alwasy have the people who want the hanging tenders, flat irons, chuck eyes and such...but the rest certainly becomes an issue when you start to back up on short ribs, shanks, briskets,.....only weighing in because I have lived it...in very high volume markets...and even then it is a challenge.
I'd do both to cover my a**. I don't want to run out of exports, strips, pismos or butts, so I'd make buys on those items to cover the spread. We break lamb carcass and almost always sellout of loins and racks before the legs, shoulders and shanks. From time to time, we'll buy boxed lamb to cover. I'd do the same with pork as well. If you have any marketing capacity at all, providing recipe cards and in-store sales will help sell the slower moving items.
I read somewhere beef is 77% moisture-don't think it matters too much -hanging or boxed, although vac sealed primals retain the purge.
The opening a butcher shop, caught my eye- i believe butcher shops have come full circle-the more the big box stores go case-ready, the more of a void in the marketplace. However, you've got to be one hell of a marketing manager-you need to be able to sell yourself, and use different marketing themes-like truckload meat sales, freezer plans, and have a facebook page and youtube page, id be having pos informational videos/recipes
If i were going to open a meat market, id be going with boxed beef, stay consistent with ibp- id be selling whole primals everyday at a discount, id be selling 5, 10 lb lots of products at a discount, id be having certified angus beef also id have a tumbler and vac seal machine for marinades, make my own sausage, etc
All depends where you are-if enough population, you can be a high end butchery, with unique items supermarkets dont display
I have done both and prefer Carcass beef than block ready, but it is always good to have some primals on hand in case you need them.Problem today is most of the cutter coming out of school don't know how to cut carcass.Our store is all bock ready.
Something I've never seen in my retail experience: actual Beef Rib Steaks.
At my last job the managers nearly gave me a corrective for asking if I could cut an export rib on the saw after a customer asked me for something like $40 worth of rib steaks.
Instead I was told to sell him a couple of t-bones from the 13th rib area with the chine knocked-off.
We would use the export ribs for the insipid 2.5" Cowboy steaks with the rib bone frenched. I never liked selling those.
With all that written... I kind of miss pulling the brisket off the breast bone, seaming out the pectoral, and the yanking the shoulder plate from the clod.
