This came from a forum i'm a member of, this would be a good question to the chain stores.
... If meat cutting is not a skill anymore and it is so easy, why are there so many "hacks" and "rough cutters" out there? I see way to many "door stops" and "miscuts" still!
that should be the motto of a few chain stores ive been in-
this is the chain stores-laying in thier own bed-they made thru the years-they are paying the piper for diminishing meatcutters and thier importance thru the years
i'm young at this but I agree with you sir, I've heard a lot from the old timers that said chain stores were going to hell on acount of box meat. we cut some but also use some primals
Now this is true ,When I had the missfortune to work of a supermarket, yet not as a butcher I might add,there wasn't any fresh cut meat done in the store, it all came in prepacked. The guy who supervised the meat depatrment went away on a two week course and came back with master Butcher written on his shirt tag. How is this possible?, as it has taken me 37 years to get this far, and him two F'ing weeks to get called "The Master Butcher", in a large supermarket?
A strange world we live in.
As for the quality of knifeman ship , there is a lot to be desired.
I hear you Pete that is a BIG insult. They are digging their own grave though. Let them keep screwing up like that and customers will come to the Butcher Shops and independant stores.
I hear you Pete that is a BIG insult. They are digging their own grave though. Let them keep screwing up like that and customers will come to the Butcher Shops and independant stores.
I really hope this is the case and get back what is rightfully OURS.
Got this one Oldtimer at our store where we package ribeyes and strips 2 together in a 4s tray. He just can't seem to get the 2 steaks the same thickness. And I mean sometimes 1/2 in. difference.
I learned early on, like day one or two of my apprenticeship "Cut it like your buying it for yourself" every steak every package!! wedge cuts are not an option, they are stew meat or stir-fry.
I think that type of cutting just gives stores the justification to do pre-cut , but how hard is it to teach someone to hold a knife and use it . or What is cheaper training a huge machine
Meat Monkey you always have a GREAT answer !! An I feel once again you should have your reward LOl
My friend I agree with you on that answer, and as long as the chains have the mentality that meat cutters now a days aren't skilled they going to look for monkeys & the pay rate is going to be what they can get away with. I still say a unskilled meat cutter can cost a store a lot of money cutting box meat.
I have to say that I don't think the situation is as black and white as some of these posts claim. I spent the first 12 years of my career working for an Independent chain with a top shelf reputation for the best meat, and the last 16 years working for a big high volume chain.
Certainly we had very highly skilled cutters at the independent chain, but a lot of other stuff went on behind the scenes that never happened at the chain I worked for and would have gotten you fired if you did them. Know what "dynamite" was? It was a nitrite solution that you could take green steaks and spray them with them and they would then be bright red again, for DAYS! How about re-grinding hamburger or mixing some red food coloring in it? Of course that's really amateur and you had to be careful to only use a little or it would turn your cusotmers hands red when they made their burgers! BUT how many of you know about the old ground beef press? If not ask and I will explain. How about washing old chicken, fish or hams in a solution of Borateem and water to make them "fresh" again? Or on sale items, leaving a much heavier layer of fat on them than when they are not on sale. I did none of these things nor allowed them as a meat mgr at the Independents but I saw and did them all as an up and coming apprentice and journeyman there.
NONE of these things ever happened at the big chain I worked for. Moreover the case was constantly screened and culled for mis-cuts, not just by me but by the store mgr, Perishable Asst. Store Mgr., and my wrappers. We also had a 1/8" trim spec and that spplied on all items, on sale or not. Probably the main cause of mis cuts was not meatcutter skill (or lack of) at my chain but since we did so much volume we used "power cleavers" to cut pork loins. Several boxes of pork loins would be put in the freezer by the evening cutter, then when the night cutter came in a midnight he would pull them out, typically 15 boxes of pork loins and load the power cleaver. I think it took 6 loins at a time. You surround the power cleaver with lugs on the floor then turn it on. It would cut the 6 loins into chops in just a few minutes then you would keep reloading it and let it run while you kept packing the chops in boats. The thing spun around like a helicopter cleaving chops and did put out a fair amount of wedges. They should not end up in the case but sometimes they did, and were culled when spotted, often by the wrappers before they hit the case. We really didn't have this issue with the cuts produced by my journeymen. Also I required my wife to shop out of the case and she is not a trained meat expert so if something was not right that was another way for me to spot it as well as set an example.
Well that was my experience through the 90s anyway, maybe it is worse now.
Vaccum Pkg. Meats~~~ Meat has a memory! If it is pulled from the carcass ? or cut to make be be left on as a cut for more profit, (as in tail of New york-put to Rib-eye) it will never Cook as Rib-eye?
When Cutting/vaccum pkg/quick chilling (18-20 hours after slaughter) Putting something that has square coners into a rounded-end flat bag under Vaccum/prusure . Now peanut-head is going to try to cut it with Square -sides with four corners? When Cooked will go back to what was last done to it(LAST)! Remembering setting in a rounded bag for 6-8 weeks???
I have to say that I don't think the situation is as black and white as some of these posts claim. I spent the first 12 years of my career working for an Independent chain with a top shelf reputation for the best meat, and the last 16 years working for a big high volume chain.
Certainly we had very highly skilled cutters at the independent chain, but a lot of other stuff went on behind the scenes that never happened at the chain I worked for and would have gotten you fired if you did them. Know what "dynamite" was? It was a nitrite solution that you could take green steaks and spray them with them and they would then be bright red again, for DAYS! How about re-grinding hamburger or mixing some red food coloring in it? Of course that's really amateur and you had to be careful to only use a little or it would turn your cusotmers hands red when they made their burgers! BUT how many of you know about the old ground beef press? If not ask and I will explain. How about washing old chicken, fish or hams in a solution of Borateem and water to make them "fresh" again? Or on sale items, leaving a much heavier layer of fat on them than when they are not on sale. I did none of these things nor allowed them as a meat mgr at the Independents but I saw and did them all as an up and coming apprentice and journeyman there.
NONE of these things ever happened at the big chain I worked for. Moreover the case was constantly screened and culled for mis-cuts, not just by me but by the store mgr, Perishable Asst. Store Mgr., and my wrappers. We also had a 1/8" trim spec and that spplied on all items, on sale or not. Probably the main cause of mis cuts was not meatcutter skill (or lack of) at my chain but since we did so much volume we used "power cleavers" to cut pork loins. Several boxes of pork loins would be put in the freezer by the evening cutter, then when the night cutter came in a midnight he would pull them out, typically 15 boxes of pork loins and load the power cleaver. I think it took 6 loins at a time. You surround the power cleaver with lugs on the floor then turn it on. It would cut the 6 loins into chops in just a few minutes then you would keep reloading it and let it run while you kept packing the chops in boats. The thing spun around like a helicopter cleaving chops and did put out a fair amount of wedges. They should not end up in the case but sometimes they did, and were culled when spotted, often by the wrappers before they hit the case. We really didn't have this issue with the cuts produced by my journeymen. Also I required my wife to shop out of the case and she is not a trained meat expert so if something was not right that was another way for me to spot it as well as set an example.
Well that was my experience through the 90s anyway, maybe it is worse now.
The old cutters that I first started working with always told me they wished they still had "boom" to throw in with the day old ground beef. I reckon that was "dynamite". I worked for a chain where some cutters would add water or ice to the grind to add weight. You had to be careful because if you added too much water it wouldn't bond with the meat and you'd have 4D trays full of what looked like kool-aid in the bottom! One cutter used to add vegetable oil to the grind. He'd put all the grind in the hopper, start blending and drizzle oil in. I asked him why and he said "Oil weighs more than water boy!"
Yes I forgot about the ice! At the independent where I did my apprenticeship, we had a crushed ice machine in the cooler right next to the blender, for this very purpose, mixing in the ground beef. It did add a good chill but its main purpose was to add weight.
I worked for two chains and both of them had apprentice programs in place It depends on the chain. Most have recognized that the meat Department is a profit center if the people are trained correctly
Roundy's, Harris Teeter, Publix, they all have training programs for meat cutters
__________________
Joe Parajecki
Operations Manager/ Partner
Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI
Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild
The biggest problem is lack of pride in what a cutter produces. I think the chain store is partly to blame. Every butcher has been pressured to produce on a daily basis. The more pressure the more short cuts. When you talk about pride, if you take a meat crew on a "case walk" and ask " who cut this doorstop?" you will not get a response. Ask " who missed the angle on a London broil?", with the intention of teaching the proper way, you will find that also "just appeared". The standred answer is " not me" . On the other hand, pick up a beatuiful package of veal, and ask the same question, the butcher will step foward. That is what we are losing. Ask your crew if they are proud of what they produce, or are they " going threw the motions?"
