Cutting the carcass of beef. Beef carcass cutting scheme

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Cutting the carcass of beef. Beef carcass cutting scheme
Cutting the carcass of beef. Beef carcass cutting scheme
Anonim

Beef is appreciated by both gourmets and food lovers alike. It is a tasty, high-calorie meat that is great for preparing main dishes, as well as for mixing with other ingredients to create complex recipes.

Retail beef

Before it goes on sale, beef meat goes through several stages of preparation. Pre-sale procedures include directly cutting, deboning and stripping.

Cutting

Beef carcass before processing is divided into two longitudinal parts. The further scheme for cutting the beef carcass will strictly correspond to the anatomical lines - the places where the bones and bone groups are united by the connective tissue.

Cutting a beef carcass
Cutting a beef carcass
  1. Half of the carcass is cut into two parts - front and back. Or, if the carcass was whole, into four parts. The place of the cut runs approximately in the center - between the thirteenth and fourteenth vertebrae, this line will go along the last rib. Start cutting from the bottom, from the flank. First, an incision is made at the level of the thirteenth rib, then it is passed through the soft tissues that frame the rib from the back to the spine. The articulation of the indicated vertebrae is cut.
  2. Further, the cutting of the beef carcass continues in parts. The front half of the side is divided into five cuts.
  3. The neck is cut along the line that runs between the beginning of the sternum and the last cervical vertebra. Moreover, the incision should pass between the last cervical and first dorsal vertebrae.
  4. To cut off the shoulder blade, a quarter of the carcass is placed with the inside down and the shoulder blade is pulled up by the leg. The first incision is made along the contour that the muscles form, the second incision runs along the line from the elbow to the upper edge of the shoulder blade, and the third one is made on the shoulder blade pulled away from the body - the muscles connecting the bones of the shoulder and the shoulder blade itself are cut.
  5. The rest of the front quarter of the carcass is called the dorsal-thoracic, it is divided into a thick edge, infrascapular part, brisket and hem, which is cut off after deboning the dorsal-thoracic part of the carcass.
  6. Go to the back half of the half carcass. Cutting a beef carcass for trade involves the selection of the following parts: tenderloin, rump, flank, thigh, or rump, shank. The cut is separated first. This is the best and most expensive part of the carcass. The notch is cut along the entire length of the lumbar spine, starting from the thick edge - the head. After isolating the fillet and shank (upper part of the leg), the back part is divided into lumbar and posterior pelvic. The remaining cuts stand out during deboning.

Deboning

The deboning is done after the cutting of the beef carcass is completed. This process involves removing the meat from the bones. During this, it is important that no meat remains on the bones, and that there are no large and deep cuts on the pieces of meat. The maximum allowable depth is 10 mm. The size of the pieces is determined by the cutter, but do not forget that small pieces will be used for trimming, and they are much less valuable.

The order of deboning also determines how the beef carcass is cut.

Beef carcass cutting scheme
Beef carcass cutting scheme

Neck deboning

They try to remove the meat from the neck in a whole layer, carefully separating it from each vertebra.

Shoulder deboning

The boning spatula is placed with the inside up. First, the radius and humerus are cut and separated. The next after cutting the fastening tendons, the scapular bone is separated. Veins are cut off from the piece of meat formed in the rest. The rest is divided into two parts - shoulder and shoulder.

Bone in the dorsal part

First cut off the meat from the sternum, capturing what is attached to the costal cartilage. Next, the meat is removed from the ribs in a whole layer. Then this pulp is divided into a thick edge, a hem and a subscapular part.

Hip deboning

Cutting beef carcass for sale
Cutting beef carcass for sale

The pelvic bone is cut out first. Then an incision is made along the femur, and it is isolated. The inner part is cut off - the flank, then the outer - the rump. Cuts into pieces are made according to the films and after the removal of sinewy meat.

Cleanup

When the cutting of the beef carcass and its deboning is over, the stripping begins. The essence of stripping is to clean the meat from hard tendons and films, as well as to give pieces of meat a more even shape and presentation.

To do this, thin margins are calved from large pieces, excess fat is separated from all the pulp.

Appearance of pieces

Cutting beef carcass for steaks
Cutting beef carcass for steaks

After deboning and trimming, the pieces of beef should look like this:

  • shoulder part of the shoulder blade - wedge-shaped;
  • shoulder part of the scapula - two oblong muscles interconnected;
  • thick edge - rectangular piece;
  • thin edge (lumbar) - also rectangular, but thinner accordingly;
  • neck - square or rectangle;
  • hem - rectangular piece;
  • brisket - part in the form of an inflated sail;
  • tenderloin - the soft part of the rounded oblong shape;
  • knuckle - round or square shape;
  • flank - a thin rectangular layer;
  • shank - either chopped oval pieces with bone, or a rectangular piece with a thinner edge.

Cutting beef carcasses by grades

Beef meat taken from different places of the carcass has different taste properties, endowed with its own set of useful substances, each place requires a certain processing and is suitable for different dishes. Therefore, this type of meat is usually divided into three varieties:

  • the first, which includes rump, fillet, which is also called tenderloin, chest and back parts completely;
  • Second grade includes thigh or rump, shoulder, shoulder blade and flank;
  • third grade is leftovers, i.e. notch and shanks (front and back).
Cutting beef carcasses by grade
Cutting beef carcasses by grade

There is no doubt that the cost for the same weight pieces of meat of different varieties will be specifically different. Therefore, it is important for the buyer to know which beef is suitable for which dishes, so that, having bought a piece of expensive meat, he does not lower it to dishes that cannot hit the gourmet's receptors.

It is worth noting that cutting a carcass of beef for sale leaves approximately 7% third grade meat, 88% second grade and only 5% first grade beef. This is what determines the market value of the meat itself and dishes from it.

But the taste of meat depends not only on its variety. Determining factors are also the physical stress that cattle experienced throughout their lives (the greater the load, the harder and denser the muscles), the type of food, the method of slaughter and, of course, the age at which the animal was slaughtered, after which the beef carcass was cut. According to the first criterion, it is believed that the meat becomes more tender in the direction from head to tail and from bottom to top. Young veal, of course, will be different from "adult" meat, it will be brighter in color and more loose and tender in texture.

Culinary purpose of different cuts

Pieces with more connective tissue will be tougher and take longer to process. Such pieces are usually not fried, but boiled or twisted into minced meat. This is flank, neck and hem.

Cutting a beef carcass for trade
Cutting a beef carcass for trade

The rump and shoulder blade also have a considerable amount of connective tissue, they are also better to stew or use for soup. For these purposes, as well as for grinding into minced meat, you can use any pieces of the second grade, which determines the cutting of the beef carcass.

For steaks, tenderloin is ideal, which can be safely fried in portions or small pieces.

For different types of soups, it is better to choose different pieces. For example, for borscht - fatter, and for a weak transparent broth - a lean piece.

Processing conditions

The whole procedure for processing beef must necessarily take place in a cool room. The temperature should not exceed 10 degrees.

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