From Cow to Steak

     My beef is in. It is currently hanging at the Redmond Smokehouse and will be cut, wrapped and ready for me by the 16th. I had been told that the butcher would call and that I needed to know how I wanted it cut up. How I wanted it cut up? Are there options? Apparently there are and a quick education in beef cuts was in order.

     I started as I do all research - online. There are myriad sites that have detailed pictures of where each cut comes from and the difference between British and American butchering. I read about steak thickness and how best to store frozen meat. I studied diagrams of cows with dotted lines all over their bodies and little mouth watering words like "brisket" and "tenderloin". But I still didn't know how I wanted my beef. I guess everyone likes beef in different configurations so I had to think about how I liked to cook and eat beef. For instance I'm not much of a ground beef person. I would much rather have those tough cuts as stew meat, brisket or pot roast. Also I wanted to make sure I got everything usable, as I have a taste for offal, as well as dogs that will eat anything. 

     Through my Googling I found a forum that had all the info I could ever need. It turns out that Garden Web is not only an invaluable help for gardening but for just about everything you do at home. I asked the question about my beef and got enough info to gave me confidence when talking to the butcher. Here is the link to the thread gardenweb.com.

     I found a few other sites that are interesting in a homesteading kind of way. Backwoods Home Magazine is a bit extreme but has some down and dirty info on cutting up a cow. The usmef.org site (I have no idea what that stands for) has the most comprehensive list of beef offal I could find and has pictures of things you probably didn't know a cow had. 

     Now starts the education on how to cut up the pig I have coming......