What are “Cut Sheets” and how to they change how much meat we get?
When ordering direct form a farm, unless that farm as a pre-defined “meat box” you’ll have to answer some “cut sheet” selections.
The “Cut sheet” are instructions for the butcher so they know what you want for each cut of beef / lamb / pork.
Pictured is the Rear Beef shank which we’ve had Ponde Meats prepare into the popular “Thors Hammer” cut.
Meat has been removed from the top of the cut, leaving the bone exposed. This meat isn’t “thrown out” but added to the premium mince box.
At the end of the cut up process, the concents of this box are minced up into your A Grade, Low Fat mince.
A secondary box with more fatty offcuts is also minced, and this can be used for Sausages, Burger Patties, Mince (higher fat content) and meatballs.
In this way, none of the “side” of beef is wasted.
Over the whole side of beef (or even a half side), the cut choices will significantly impact on the amount of “mince” , and “Sauages” that you will receive with your order.
In this scenario, because I wanted my fancy “thors hammer” about 300g of beef, which I could have slow cooked, has been “lost” to the mincing machine 🙂
A similar situation occurs when doing any “boning out” of other cuts including Y-bone, T-bone, Ribs…etc.
A different example of this is your brisket. If you want a super lean trimmed brisket, you’re going to lose some meat, and some of the fat, which will either be discarded or turned into mince.
There’s no “right” or “wrong” answer when choosing cuts, but it’s important to understand the ‘real world” impact of these choices!
If you want to maximise the amount of “meat” you get with your side of beef, then keeping all your cuts “Bone In” is a good place to start!
