Wow! Do I ever remember rolling and tying rolled rump roast. You would have grooves on the side of your hand when you left the shop. Incidentally, to do this right Leon, you need a needle. You need to find a photograph of a meat dept. needle with the loop hole at the point-end. I think the younger generation would get a kick out of it.
I will never forget how long it took me to learn a good knot tie. But boy when I found one I practiced on anything and everything including my wife's thigh!. LOL>
I was trained under a man who cut for 50 years. I did a lot tied rolled rump with him just like that picture. Then when I went on to work for other companies they had no idea what rolled rump really was OR they were just lazy and their version of it was bottom round roast. Now that back section of the whole round is expected to be stew meat or cube steak. Its rarely tied for roast anymore . I find that sad.
Here is your needle Coalcracker. We still use them sometimes, but I think mostly only for Crown Roasts and the like. They are obviously not as popular as I thought as I couldn't find better than this stock photo.
Thanks fdarn, its a beauty. Brings back memories. You are correct that its sad not to see rolled beef anymore. I'll share something funny with you. We lived about 130 miles from Philadelphia up in the anthracite (hard coal) corner of the state. My dad, & his brothers plus my granddad all worked in the mines. Going down to Philly was a big thing especially to see the historical sites, the zoo and South Street. South Street was a hip place to be back in the 60's. The Orlons made that street popular because of the song South Street which was made in 1963. So we go down for a visit around 1995 and we walked all along S.S going in and out of shops. The pizza was just unbelievable.
We walked into a International Deli and it was really awesome, meats from around the world, hanging salami's, cheeses, some of the best bread I ever ate. We went to the lamb case and there a young man about 20 and he was all frustrated, sweat running down his face as he was trying to tie a leg of lamb. I ask if I could see some loin chops but he asked me if I could comeback or continue our shopping for a little while. I said ok, and then asked if there was something wrong. He said I've got to get this leg rolled for a very important customer who would be back shortly. Oh I said I guess we aren't that important. Oh no sir you are its just that I am having a serious problem with keeping the knots from slipping. I said maybe I can help, oh no, no, if my boss ever seen you behind the counter he would fire me and throw you out of the store. I said look all I need is about 3 minutes. He was so panicy he said ok come on back. I go back tie it up for him and said now throw it against the stainless steel wall above the cutting table, he looked at me strange, I said go ahead those knots will never slip. He did and a smile came across his face and he got all happy and then I was his best friend.
He just got it all wrapped up and that very important customer came back to pick up the lamb. Low and behold it was Frankie Avalon with his wife and kids.
Now that's a great story. You can tell everyone you tied Frankie Avalon's leg of lamb. The most famous person I had a brush with was Sissy Spacek when she visited Giant in Charlottesville. She didn't need any meat that day though :(
-- Edited by fdarn on Friday 14th of August 2015 09:32:39 PM
I am a Philadelphia native and in my opinion, the farther you go from Philly the worse the food gets. You just don't know a good pizza or a good cheesesteak or a good hoagie (Subs to those not from the area) if you have not had one in Philly or its VERY close suburbs.
Some of the celebrities I waited on regularly were John Fascenda, long time Philly news anchorman and narrator of NFL films for decades due to his very distinctive voice, Billy Graham's sister, Chubby Checker and his Swedish wife, 76ers star Wilt Chamberlain, and others whose names I don't recall right now. My older sister once got "picked up" on the boardwalk of Wildwood, NJ by Frankie Avalon (before he was married!) and Dick Clark once picked up my older brother when he was hitch-hiking. My brother was very impressed in that he had a 45 rpm record player built into his car!
Back on topic, I used the needle for many cuts not just rolled rumps but also Pork Royales, Crown Roasts, etc.
Coalcracker wrote:
Thanks fdarn, its a beauty. Brings back memories. You are correct that its sad not to see rolled beef anymore. I'll share something funny with you. We lived about 130 miles from Philadelphia up in the anthracite (hard coal) corner of the state. My dad, & his brothers plus my granddad all worked in the mines. Going down to Philly was a big thing especially to see the historical sites, the zoo and South Street. South Street was a hip place to be back in the 60's. The Orlons made that street popular because of the song South Street which was made in 1963. So we go down for a visit around 1995 and we walked all along S.S going in and out of shops. The pizza was just unbelievable.
We walked into a International Deli and it was really awesome, meats from around the world, hanging salami's, cheeses, some of the best bread I ever ate. We went to the lamb case and there a young man about 20 and he was all frustrated, sweat running down his face as he was trying to tie a leg of lamb. I ask if I could see some loin chops but he asked me if I could comeback or continue our shopping for a little while. I said ok, and then asked if there was something wrong. He said I've got to get this leg rolled for a very important customer who would be back shortly. Oh I said I guess we aren't that important. Oh no sir you are its just that I am having a serious problem with keeping the knots from slipping. I said maybe I can help, oh no, no, if my boss ever seen you behind the counter he would fire me and throw you out of the store. I said look all I need is about 3 minutes. He was so panicy he said ok come on back. I go back tie it up for him and said now throw it against the stainless steel wall above the cutting table, he looked at me strange, I said go ahead those knots will never slip. He did and a smile came across his face and he got all happy and then I was his best friend.
He just got it all wrapped up and that very important customer came back to pick up the lamb. Low and behold it was Frankie Avalon with his wife and kids.
When I worked for the A&P as a floater-meat dept. manager up in Bridgeport Conn. division back in the 60's. I was sent down to Westport to sub for a dept. manager on vacation. A few celebrities shopped in that small A&P. I met Jean Tierney and Joan Newman and they were really nice women. On one occasion Paul Newman (God rest is soul) came in the store. There was a great buzz in the store. I was out cleaning the bottom of the display case where they displayed their fresh fish (I don't think it was ever cleaned). He was returning something and let me tell you he was a tyrant, extremely demanding and expected everybody to behave like the Prince of Wales was shopping There. He berated some lowly clerk about the bad item and then went storming out of the store. I hate to talk badly about the dead, but he must have had a bad hair day. LOL>
When I worked for the A&P as a floater-meat dept. manager up in Bridgeport Conn. division back in the 60's. I was sent down to Westport to sub for a dept. manager on vacation. A few celebrities shopped in that small A&P. I met Jean Tierney and Joan Newman and they were really nice women. On one occasion Paul Newman (God rest is soul) came in the store. There was a great buzz in the store. I was out cleaning the bottom of the display case where they displayed their fresh fish (I don't think it was ever cleaned). He was returning something and let me tell you he was a tyrant, extremely demanding and expected everybody to behave like the Prince of Wales was shopping There. He berated some lowly clerk about the bad item and then went storming out of the store. I hate to talk badly about the dead, but he must have had a bad hair day. LOL>
I guess that was a bad time to ask for an autograph.
Yup I remember tying those. Hated to tie it when someone else broke it - seems they always screwed up the angle. Our counter lady made all the other cutters mad at me when she told them she wished they could make rolled rumps as nice looking as the ones I did! I was low guy on the totem pole, they had been cutting for years so it really got under their skin. Only problem I had was learning the finesse, my strings would always cut into the roast as I tightened the knot to get it to lock. lol One day screwing around manager bet me how far into the roast I could get the string to cut. Cut that sucker so deep we didnt need much of a knife to finish the job.
Cant get swinging beef anymore so we have to use the cheat bottom round, bummer
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I'm not a vegetarian, but have eaten many animals that were.
Yup I remember tying those. Hated to tie it when someone else broke it - seems they always screwed up the angle. Our counter lady made all the other cutters mad at me when she told them she wished they could make rolled rumps as nice looking as the ones I did! I was low guy on the totem pole, they had been cutting for years so it really got under their skin. Only problem I had was learning the finesse, my strings would always cut into the roast as I tightened the knot to get it to lock. lol One day screwing around manager bet me how far into the roast I could get the string to cut. Cut that sucker so deep we didnt need much of a knife to finish the job. Cant get swinging beef anymore so we have to use the cheat bottom round, bummer
This is what I'd like to hear more about, until this post I was lead to believe the rump end of the bottom round flat was the rump roast vs the remainder just a bottom round roast.
"Only problem I had was learning the finesse, my strings would always cut into the roast as I tightened the knot to get it to lock"..... That's my issue when tying tenderloins... Locking the knot but not cutting into that soft meat!
Yup I remember tying those. Hated to tie it when someone else broke it - seems they always screwed up the angle. Our counter lady made all the other cutters mad at me when she told them she wished they could make rolled rumps as nice looking as the ones I did! I was low guy on the totem pole, they had been cutting for years so it really got under their skin. Only problem I had was learning the finesse, my strings would always cut into the roast as I tightened the knot to get it to lock. lol One day screwing around manager bet me how far into the roast I could get the string to cut. Cut that sucker so deep we didnt need much of a knife to finish the job. Cant get swinging beef anymore so we have to use the cheat bottom round, bummer
This is what I'd like to hear more about, until this post I was lead to believe the rump end of the bottom round flat was the rump roast vs the remainder just a bottom round roast.
"Only problem I had was learning the finesse, my strings would always cut into the roast as I tightened the knot to get it to lock"..... That's my issue when tying tenderloins... Locking the knot but not cutting into that soft meat!
I do believe that is commonly referred to as the Rump Roast. However this is a Rolled Rump. If you ever cut a whole round, you can only cut back so far and still have nice straight steaks. When you can't cut back any further, you could wrap what was left of the top around what was left of the bottom "rolled" and then tie it together to keep it in place.
I notice a lot of stores tie roasts that have no loose parts. Whats up with that?
