Cut The Fat

The meat bench had a metal backing with thick wooden boards for cutting.  The owner’s father was teaching his apprentice how to tie a roast while he was picking up buckets of leaned out chuck that was chopped for Hamburg.  “When you get out of the cooler I want you to bring me out a boxed chuck and get me a face while your at it.”  “What’s a face?”  The apprentice asked.  “The face is a knuckle that’s what we called it back in the day.”  In a few moments the apprentice brought out the box of chuck and a few cryovaked packages of knuckles and placed them on the bench.  The apprentice took the chuck out of the box leaving the shoulder there heaving it on the bench.  “Use the back of a knife and open them up so you don’t cut into the meat and here take this smock to pick them up and keep the blood in the package.  I don’t want you making a mess.” The apprentice opened up both the chuck and knuckle drying up the loose blood with the smock.  “I’ll show you how to break down the chuck for a chuck roast.”  The old meat cutter pointed to a long tear drop shaped piece of meat on the back of the chuck.  “I start with the jet. It’s the trapezius muscle but we call it the jet.  Remember that everything comes apart in seems.”  He grabbed his boning knife and a knife sharpener, “This is why when I tell you to keep a sharp blade I mean it.  When your breaking down cattle the tip of the knife is very important.” 
The old man took is boning knife in one hand and a small hook in the other hand.  He dug in the hook to the outer layer of fat on the chuck peeling back the tear drop shaped piece of meat. He placed the jet on the bench, “I’ll show you how to take out the gristle in the middle then we can save that for ground sirloin or cube steak.  It’s a very lean piece of meat and that’s what I use it for.” 

The old man slid over the chuck to the apprentice.  “I want you to start seeming out the cap of the chuck.  I took out the jet and if you follow the seem you’ll cut a big chunk of straight fat.  To give you an idea of the cattle’s anatomy a boxed chuck is the upper back and shoulder area ending where the ribeye begins, that is why there is a thick layer of fat because they store the fat there to deal with cold temperatures.  Unless were making beef sausage I don’t have a use for it.” 

The apprentice started to cut back the cap of the outer layer of the fatty chuck carving out the solid piece of fat.  “Let me show you a trick when your breaking down the seem use your wrist it’ll show you greater control so you don’t cut into the meat and use the tip of your knife.”  The apprentice peeled off the cap of the chuck.  “Good put that to the side you will lean that out for hamburg.”  The old man fliped over the chuck, “This is the short rib” pointed to a small section where the chuck meets with rib bones.  “Some customers like this for barbequing, it’s a little tough but it’s full of flavor.”  He cut out the short rib section.  “Put a cushion under this and put in a bag in the cooler.”  The apprentice did what he was asked to do walking back to the bench a minute later. 

“Next I’ll show you how to square off the chuck roll into a chuck roast.”  The old man cut off the end of the chuck narrowing it throwing the remains to the pile to be cut up for hamburg.  On the bench was a large lean looking piece of beef that was ready to be tied into a roast.  “This is what will be the chuck roast and after I show you how to tie it I’ll have you put it in a plastic bag then hang it from one of the hooks so the blood can drain.”  The old man and the apprentice started to cut the chunks of fatty cattle back meat into stock for hamburg.  “Lean out the pieces and remember this rule always split the fat with the customer.  Fat is profit in this business but we make our hamburg lean. It’s not like back in the day when meat was expensive customers care about health so we lean our hamburg.”  The old man and the apprentice leaned out and cut up the chuck shoulder for hamburg stock mixing it before putting it in metal tubs for grinding.

The apprentice put the knuckle meat in front of the old meat cutter, “The face comes from the upper thigh area of the cattle. You can make a spoon roast with it but its tough and lean that’s why I make cube steak or stirfry and lean stew meat with it. There’s the thick gristle that is the attaching tendon that is where I start.  The vetran meatcutter started to seem the knuckle into three different pieces of meat.  “The knuckle isn’t an expensive piece of meat so if you screw this up you can always blend it in for ground sirloin.  The apprentice followed suit breaking down the knuckle into three different pieces of meat cutting out the excess fat and gristle.  Then he grabbed a fish bucket separating the meat with pieces of paper and put them in the cooler.  When the apprentice returned to the bench they started to tie the roast.