Meat, Poultry, and Seafood

Chapter 8

Purchasing, Storing, and Preparing Meats

Meats refer to beef, veal, lamb, mutton, and pork

Poultry refers to chicken, duck, goose, guinea, squab, turkey, or any domesticated bird raised to eat

Purchasing Meats

Meats available from whole carcass to portioned servings

Storage-refrigerators and freezers Employee skills Cost- unit cost and labor

Grading Scales United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Quality grades

Beef: Prime Choice Select Standard Commercial Utility Cutter Canner

Veal Prime Choice Utility Standard

Lamb Prime Choice Good utility

Storing Meats

Store loosely wrapped in air-permeable paper (refrigerated)

Store tightly wrapped for freezer storage

Keep meats separated

Butchering Meats

Cattle butchered for beef are quartered Fore quarters Hind quarters

Cattle 1 day to 15 weeks are halved Considered veal

Hogs are halved Only in “HOG ONLY” shops

Sheep under one year old is considered lamb

Older considered mutton Both cut directly into primal cuts

Primary divisions of meat after initial butchering

Beef Primal Cuts

Pork Primal Cuts

Lamb Primal Cuts

Meats must be aged between 48-72 hours to allow muscles to relax

Fabrication is cutting primal cuts into usable portions

Trimming is getting meat ready to cook Tying a roast-even cooking Silverskin removed from tenderloin Butterflying- cut and split

Special Cuts

Medallions or Noisettes Small, round cuts of tenderloin

Scalloped Thin, boneless, lightly pounded

Emince’ Thin strips made to sauté

Other Meats

Offal meats- organ meats Sweetbread (thalmus gland) Liver Tripe Heart Brain

Game meat- wild animals Deer, wild boar, moose, elk

Kosher Slaughtered to comply with Jewish

dietary laws Only beef / veal fore quarter Poultry Some game NO HOGS

Purchasing, Storing, and Preparing Poultry

Poultry refers to chicken, duck, goose, guinea, squab, turkey, or any domesticated bird raised to eat

Can be purchased: Fresh or Frozen Whole or Pieces Bone in or out Ground

Grading

Depending on shape ratio of meat to bone Hair / down, feathers Broken bones /cuts

USDA A USDA B USDA C

Storage

Wrapped loosely Refrigerated between 32°F and 36°F

Trends and new interest in poultry

Free Range Birds Game birds – partridge, pheasant,

squab, duck, goose, and quail Once only hunted for sport and food,

now raised in a fashion similar to free range birds

Fabrication

Keep all trim for other uses Tools:

Clean work area Boning knife Chef’s knife

Disjointing Boning Trussing