How to Cut a Quarter Beef

I had no idea what to proper noun this postal service … "How to Butcher a Quarter Cow", "Ground Beef and Everything Else", "Fill Your Freezer With a Happy Cow" … well, you meet what I landed on. Either way, this post is all about beefiness cuts and what to look if you ever buy a quarter (or just double this info for a half) of a happy cow!

We've purchased a quarter of a cow the concluding 3 years, because one) Nosotros like beef 2) I like knowing where my meat comes from and 3) We call these happy, healthy cows – the kind that graze and are treated humanely.

Plus, at $3.29/pound – I tin can't beat the price.

Now, our beef isn't technically organic meat. The subcontract our cow comes from is just a family subcontract that raises 2-iii cows each year. They're grass fed until the final few weeks before butchering, and then they go a  scrap of grain in their diet because it marbles their meat.

The $3.29 is calculated on what they call hanging weight. Hanging weight is the final weight earlier the beefiness is butchered into various cuts. Our quarter cow totaled 161 pounds and toll us $531. Information technology will last united states of america all yr thanks to our deep freezer.

In one case you lot commit to purchasing a share of a cow you'll exist given a range of what it will weigh after butchering. Then the butcher will phone call you with exact details and ask some specific cut questions. This baffled me for quite some time as I didn't know exactly what to do with each cut or how much of what cuts we would need. At present, on circular iii, I've narrowed down our favorites and figured I should share.

So, for a quarter cow this is roughly how the conversation with the butcher went …

A half beef is divided into the front end quarter and the hind quarter. The front consists of chuck steaks, pot roasts, rib steaks, short ribs and soup bones. The hind consists of basis beef, top circular, bottom round, t-bones, top sirloins, tender loins, flank steaks, sirloin tip, rump roast.

They'll enquire for packaging purposes what thickness you'd similar for each steak, typically 3/iv in to 1 in. Nosotros prefer 3/four inch. Also, what weight you would like for each package of ground beef, nosotros opt for 1 pound packages, just if you lot take a large family y'all can easily request 1 one/2 pound or two pound packages.

They offering soup bones or stew meat – if you don't want them they'll go on them for canis familiaris bones and such. We always take them for os broth and we request that the stew meet be ground into extra ground beef packages.

The bottom and meridian round are commonly tougher cuts so they'll offering to cube them (tenderize). This is where we got smart and we asked for these cuts to be cut every bit thin as possible to utilize for carne asada or rouladen.

We ever forgo the rib steaks and request that it stay a rib roast also called a standing rib roast for our Prime Rib Christmas Feast. This is unremarkably one big roast, only we enquire that information technology be cut into two because we all like the salty outer crust from the Prime number Rib recipe and having two roasts gives the states more than outside pieces.

For the short ribs they'll offer a flanken cut, similar for Asian curt ribs where there is a circle of bone with a little bit of meat surrounding information technology. Instead, nosotros inquire for the larger, mesomorphic brusk ribs and we braise them in the oven.

If there are whatsoever cuts you are unsure of or don't know how to employ, y'all can always inquire that they just be ground into basis beef. Typically for a quarter you'll get 25-30 pounds of ground beef. You'll see below that we had our stew meat turned into basis beef which gave us quite a bit of actress.

This is what it looks like once delivered. Our quarter beef included — five packages of rouladen/carne asada, 49 packages/pounds of footing beef, 2 packages of soup bones, 3 top sirloin steaks (2 steaks in each package), 2 packages of short ribs, 1 sirloin superlative roast, 2 packages of T-os steaks (2 steaks in each package), iii pot roasts, 1 rib roast, 1 rump roast, 1 package of tenderloins and i package of flank steaks.

Over the next yr I'll be sharing our favorite recipes for each cut, I'll practise my best to update this mail service and so they all show in one place. I've learned a lot about preparing meat beyond footing beefiness and have officially awarded myself a homemaker badge for "beefiness knowledge". It's like Girl Scouts, but for moms!

Stay tuned for …

• Carne Asada
• Crockpot Pot Roast
• Slow Cooker Beefiness Roast French Dip
• Shepard'south Pie
• Beef Barley Soup
• Crockpot Enchiladas
• Crockpot Lasagna
• Braised Brusque Ribs
• BBQ Beefiness Sandwiches
• Mexi Burgers
• Prime Rib

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Source: https://thatmamagretchen.com/2014/07/what-to-tell-the-butcher-when-you-order-a-quarter-beef.html

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