In the early 1980s, we used to buy something called boneless three way chucks. It was one whole boneless chuck, but not an under blade chuck roll. It was the entire chuck, with mock tender and flat iron still on it. Also in the box was one cross rib and a bag that weighed about 15 lbs that contained a lot of fat, boneless short ribs, a small piece of brisket. I think the entire box might have been an "arm chuck" boned out in three pieces, but minus the shank.
That bag, if ground, might if your lucky be exaclty 70/30 beef fat ratio. We dont sell 70/30 anymore.
This may have been a west coast only item. I don't know. We only got them from Harris Beef Ranch.
We would only get Forequarters and Hindquarters from Harris Ranch, I have in the past gotten boneless chucks with the mock still attached, and have gotten Clods with the Flat Iron still attached. We have a newbie at work named Charles and from now on I am going to start calling "3 way Chuck" he wont have a clue it refers to boxed beef. lol
We would only get Forequarters and Hindquarters from Harris Ranch, I have in the past gotten boneless chucks with the mock still attached, and have gotten Clods with the Flat Iron still attached. We have a newbie at work named Charles and from now on I am going to start calling "3 way Chuck" he wont have a clue it refers to boxed beef. lol
Possibly it was called "three piece chucks" and not three way. I don't remember for sure.
How about three piece loins. Remember those? Usually it was two short loins, two top sirloins, and two head loin filets.
Now that you mention it I do remember getting them. Three pieces - the chuck, the shoulder, and then that third bag we called the "rag bag". Ours must have been packed differently as that rag bag would grind well as it had the boneless shin, the chuck eye, and the cross rib in it. Of course the trick was not to grind it if possible. We merchandised boneless shin beef (I know it's really the fore shin) or else we did grind that. We sliced the eye into chuck eye steaks or made cubed steak or "round" cubes out of that. The cross rib we sold as original square cut london broil.
I started cutting in 1989 in Seattle Wa. I pretty sure that how we got them, for having the mock and the Flat iron steak. Came in TWO Boxs Chuck in one and the arm two piece in the other. then wasnt long ,just the rolls or bone-in.
I laugh, how the cutters was calling me a BOX cutter, for the meat was coming in a Box VS swinging. But, still had all the Old tools , hooks, waste chain vest. Every store still had the rail on the ceilings. JUST didnt use them. Now, new meat cutters today, just got to have that deli electric meat slicer in order to be able to cut meat..lol. Thats if you find a store that not pre-packaged .
I used to cut alot of 3 piece chucks, they were IBP. The merchadising guy from the warehouse that used to come around said "That aint a bag of crap, thats the profit bag!" lol..
Not just west coast, we used them on the east coast at the chain Pathmark. We could go through 150 of them a week when we had boneless chuck roasts on sale. That third bag we called the "rag bag". That piece of boneless short ribs we trimmed and put out as a london broil or sliced it for boneless flanken. We merchandised the rest of it for boneless shin meat, stew, and cube steak.
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In the early 1980s, we used to buy something called boneless three way chucks. It was one whole boneless chuck, but not an under blade chuck roll. It was the entire chuck, with mock tender and flat iron still on it. Also in the box was one cross rib and a bag that weighed about 15 lbs that contained a lot of fat, boneless short ribs, a small piece of brisket. I think the entire box might have been an "arm chuck" boned out in three pieces, but minus the shank.
That bag, if ground, might if your lucky be exaclty 70/30 beef fat ratio. We dont sell 70/30 anymore.
This may have been a west coast only item. I don't know. We only got them from Harris Beef Ranch.
So they don't put these out any more??? What replaced it? And yes alternatively we clled that rag bag the "money bag".
I haven't seen a full boneless chuck (from a box) in over 30 years. The replacement would be "chuck rolls". Well trimmed, boneless underblade chucks. I guess coarse ground tubes of beef could also be considered part of the replacement.
As for the "money bag", I only had one manager who merchandised it, and when I told him that the other stores grind it, he said "that's why they aren't making any money". But OTOH, this guy got caught cheating on the tare several times by weights and measures and people had to go to court. At a previous store he got caught stealing a hind 1/4 (for the store, not for himself) off a truck. He was fired for that one.
We had both 3 way bnls chucks and chuck rolls but it was hard to make money on the latter, though they were a necessity when on sale otherwise you would get buried in trim. I left the trade in 1996 so no idea what they get in now.
Yeah, I remember it well. Called 3rd bag and was a piece of crap. I've been cutting since '71, and to this day, it was probably my worst job. Depends on the manager, what he wanted from the bag. About 15 lbs. of half fat half meat. If you had time, you could get some stew and lean ground beef. Mostly, you hunked and chunked.
Yes they were pretty common back in the early days of box beef. We were so excited to get away from swinging beef we hardly cared what was in the goody bag, we would get what we could merchandise from it and grind the rest with a little frozen shank meat , in my younger days I had a boss that would use shank meat for ground round , ground chuck , didn't matter it all looked alike lol. ground round out of it was like a hockey puck. I had forgot about the three way chucks , you jogged my old memory banks.
I worked many of them in my time, remember the big flat type box with the bone in chuck and shoulder, hell to pick up after they got stack and re stacked in the cooler a few times
We merchandised those bags pretty seriously, as time permitted, but we were also big on frozen patties so if you had all the cubed steak, boneless shank meat, and diet lean stew cubes you could sell, you could lean the rest up pretty quickly to make 80% lean frozen chuck patties. In season we maintained a polar bar or two in prominent places and we could sell 1000 lbs/week if you could make them. It really WAS a money bag.
As to ground beef, our position was that fat content made more difference than the cut it was produced from and every single batch was fat-tested. Failing to fat test every single batch could and did lead to termination if you were caught. We sold 80% lean ground chuck, 85% lean ground round, and 90% lean ground sirloin. We ONLY made ground sirloin from peeled knuckles, but the rest, it didn't matter as long as it tested to spec.
JohnnyWatts wrote:
Yes they were pretty common back in the early days of box beef. We were so excited to get away from swinging beef we hardly cared what was in the goody bag, we would get what we could merchandise from it and grind the rest with a little frozen shank meat , in my younger days I had a boss that would use shank meat for ground round , ground chuck , didn't matter it all looked alike lol. ground round out of it was like a hockey puck. I had forgot about the three way chucks , you jogged my old memory banks.
Yes they were pretty common back in the early days of box beef. We were so excited to get away from swinging beef we hardly cared what was in the goody bag, we would get what we could merchandise from it and grind the rest with a little frozen shank meat , in my younger days I had a boss that would use shank meat for ground round , ground chuck , didn't matter it all looked alike lol. ground round out of it was like a hockey puck. I had forgot about the three way chucks , you jogged my old memory banks.
