Get Big Tomorrow

Written by Fig

I was a meat cutter for 3 years. I am going to list all of the tricks that greedy meat department managers do to pinch pennies at the risk of your health. I have worked with some of the best and worst meat department managers this country has to offer. Not all meat departments are bad, but hey when one is bad, it is real bad. Here’s a list of things I have seen:

I have seen one manager clean out a meat case and find a packet of meat 2 months old. He then put it into the grind bin and made hamburger with it the next day.

Want to make hamburger meat heavier and make more profit, just add some ice to the meat. This oxygenates the blood too, so it is nice and red.

Want to make a cheap lean hamburger to sell as ground sirloin, then just buy some low quality bull meat and mix it with some fat.

Have some bad smelling chicken, then just soak it in salt water or bleach water.

If you cut a bone in sirloin just right you can hide a big bone under the meat.

Ever wonder what happens to the meat that they can’t grind up or sell? Just check the deli hot case and there it is.

Notice the special lights up above the meat case to make the blood appear redder then it actually is.

Speaking about the deli, most of those bargain sandwiches are just cuts of extra meat.

Are meat departments clean? Well for the most part. They usually get a notice from the health inspector ahead of time. If you ever get to tour a meat department, check out the yellow grime around the seals in the grinder, saws, pattie machine and tenderizer.

Ground sirloin and ground round are the same thing. They just package it with a different label.

Different meat? I see a lot of meat departments claim that they have the best meat. Well, there are only 3 big meat suppliers in the U.S. (Monofort, Excell, and IBF). Everyone uses the same meat.

Well I hope that that was an eye opener for you. Not all meat departments do that, just the ones with

Here’s some tips when buying SEAFOOD:

First of all most of the seafood that you see was actually previously frozen.

Fresh seafood is a contradiction in terms. What you don’t know is that when the ships go out to sea they go out for weeks at a time. Then the fish are brought to a fish market. Then the fish are sold to a local delivery route. Then the local delivery route person has to deliver it.

The freshest seafood is the fish that you buy frozen. On the ships that are out to sea for weeks at a time they fillet them and flash freeze them right on the boat. Also most fish that you do buy are farm grown. And they fillet them and flash freeze them on the spot.

All shrimp that you buy unless you live in Maine… are frozen from China.

It is always best when you buy fish to ask the seller if it was previously frozen. If so then ask them if you can buy the fish frozen.

When buying shrimp, always tell the seller to add a scoop of ice to your shrimp once it is weighed so it remains nice and cool.

Always ask to smell the fish. The fish should not smell fishy. If it does it is bad. Look at the color of the fish. Does it look faded or does the texture look like it has been handled a lot (due to the fish being taken in and out of the fish case night after night). Salmon should look red not pink. Never buy pre-cooked shrimp from a fish case. It was probably going bad so they cooked it. Whole fish should look as if it should still be swimming. Smell the slit gut on the whole fish, to see if it is bad. Also check the eyes of the fish. If the eyes are cloudy then it is old. The scales should also be slimy not dry.

Try to avoid fish cases that do not put paper under the fish to separate it from the ice. What happens if they don’t do that, is that the fish will lose its flavor and absorb the water from the ice.

Always ask them if there is any more fish in the back. This is where the good fish is.

Never let them pick the fish for you. Always get what looks good to you.

Do not refreeze frozen fish.

I have seen people wash fish with a salt water solution, to hide fishy smells.

I hope that the fish section was a help!!!

Here is my BEEF selection chart:

I love grilled steak. I do not like paying out the ass for a good steak either. Here is a list of some fat to lean cuts of steak and meat:

List of very tasty, but fattening steaks:

1. Skirt steak (the best cheapest steak around)

2. Boomerang (just ask a knowledgeable meat cutter for one. Tell them it comes off of the 3 piece chuck. They’ll know, because they know they are good!!”

3. T-bone (I would not buy a t-bone, see porter house below)

4. Porter House steak (This is the best value, you get a strip, t-bone and the tender loin for free. If you were to buy just the tender loin by it’s self you would pay about 1/2 to 3/4 of what the whole steak costs.

5. Strip steak (see porter house)

List of lean steaks and meat

1. Chuck roast, bottom, top round… (meat cutters do not want you to know this. If you compare the prices of the hamburger and chuck roasts, you might notice that the roasts are cheaper. All you do is ask the meat cutter to trim your roast (fat does not way that much at all. Believe me!!!) and ask them to grind it twice for you. This ground roast will be much leaner and cheaper than any ground beef that you can buy. If you do not want to do that then you should get up early in the morning and be the first shopper in the store. Then buy some of their ground sirloin. Usually this is when the meat cutters grind up all the steaks that have started to dis-color and sell them as ground sirloin. Here’s another tip ground sirloin and ground round are the same thing. The meat markets just place a different lable on the package. All stew meat is, is cut up chuck roasts. Save your self money when buying stew meat, and just cut up a chuck roast or blade roast.

2. Eye round roast (makes a tasty roast or if cut into slices it makes great little steaks)

3. Top round first cut (London Broil) Is a very good buy. Grill that baby and you got your self a feast!!!

4. Top sirloin steak (very reasonably priced. Very good)

5. Flank steak (used for making fajitas) very good when grilled yum..

6. Tender loin (the leanest and tenderest and most expensive cut) Buy a porter house instead!!!

I hope that list helps when selecting BEEF. I loved cutting meat!!!

Now on to meat packaging plants. I have to sympathize with Hudson’s beef. These meat packing plants deal with thousands of pounds of meat a year, it is very tough to monitor every pound of meat that is processed. I knew a federal meat inspector, that told me he would run tests on every dozen or so racks of meat. Now when you process meat for hamburgers, it only takes one infected slab of meat to infect hundreds of pounds of meat. When you grind the meat if spreads all of the virus around to the rest of the meat. If you want th meat packing plants to check every ounce of meat, then expect higher meat prices.