c/butchers

Tried aging a ribeye in my home fridge for 14 days and it came out tasting like blue cheese...

I had some extra USDA Choice ribeyes last month and thought I'd try dry aging them myself. Wrapped them in cheesecloth, set them on a wire rack in my fridge at home. After 14 days the outside was hard and dark but the inside had this funky almost fermented smell. Cooked one up and it was not good. Strong blue cheese taste that I just couldn't get past. Lost about 30% weight too. Anybody else try this at home and have it go sideways? What temp and humidity do you aim for?

TIL I hit 500 whole hog breakdowns last month and my knife hand is finally calloused enough

Got curious and counted my records from the past three years, and I honestly didn't expect to see that number since I mostly do primals during the week, but now I'm wondering how many of you actually track your counts or just go by feel?

Hit 1,000 pounds of trim in a single week and it changed my mind about efficiency

I always thought pushing for speed was the best way to get more done in the shop. But last week we processed 1,000 pounds of trim for grinding in five days. That forced us to slow down and organize the workflow better. Turns out grouping cuts by type saved way more time than just hustling faster. Has anyone else noticed that slowing down actually boosts your numbers?

Shoutout to the guy who convinced me to dry-age in my own cooler

I was really skeptical about dry-aging at home honestly. I mean I have a small walk-in cooler in my shop over near Portland and I figured it wasn't big enough or controlled enough. But this old timer at the meat expo last fall told me to just try it with a smaller primal cut for 14 days. So I grabbed a ribeye primal on a Tuesday and wrapped it in cheesecloth on a wire rack in the back of my cooler. Checked on it every morning before opening and the smell was a little funky at first but not bad. By day 10 the crust started forming and I got super nervous but on day 14 I trimmed it and cooked one steak for myself and my god. The flavor was way richer than anything I ever bought pre-aged. Has anyone else tried this in a standard cooler setup or am I just lucky it worked out?

Discovered a trick for keeping my boning knife sharp way longer between honing sessions

I was getting frustrated having to stop and strop my knife every 20 minutes breakin down a side of beef last Thursday, so I tried using a slightly coarser grit on my final stone step and it's like the edge just holds on forever now. Anyone else mess around with their grit sequence like that, or am I just totally wrong on this?

Was dead set against dry-aging in my walk-in, now I'm a convert

I figured it was just a waste of space and risked ruining good meat. Then I tried a 28-day ribeye from a buddy's setup and the flavor depth was unreal. Has anyone else had good luck with a cheap dry-aging bag setup?

Picked up a tip from a retired butcher at the farmer's market last Saturday

He was breaking down a whole hog and mentioned he always chills his knives in the freezer for 10 minutes before trimming fat. Said it keeps the fat from smearing and gives a cleaner cut. Has anyone else tried this or just use room temp blades?

Never knew beef fat could be worth that much till I checked the rendering prices last month

I was just poking around online after a big trimming day and saw that beef tallow is going for like $8 a pound in some specialty markets. Blew my mind because I usually just toss that stuff in the scrap bin or give it to a buddy for his dogs. I found this fact on a food industry trade site that breaks down byproduct pricing. Got me wondering if I should start saving my fat separately and selling it to a local soap maker or something. Has anyone else here messed around with selling tallow or suet on the side?

Old timer at a farmers market taught me why I was trimming fat wrong

I was working a demo at the Portland farmers market last summer, showing people how I break down a shoulder. This older guy, must have been 70, watched me for a minute then just said "you're leaving too much silver skin on the cap." I thought I was being careful, but he pulled out his own knife (a beat up old Forschner) and showed me a quick angular cut that took half the time. Most people say to leave a little fat for flavor, but he argued that the texture kills it for most home cooks. Has anyone else had a random stranger teach them something that went against their training?

Wasted $180 on a fancy vacuum sealer that couldn't handle pork ribs

Bought one of those expensive chamber sealers after seeing a guy on YouTube use it, but the damn thing couldn't pull a proper seal on anything with bone-in meat. Anyone else stick with the old manual clip method for stuff like that?

That one Wednesday where every knife I touched needed sharpening

Last month I had a shift where I went through 3 different boning knives before lunch and still couldn't get clean cuts on a case of pork shoulders. Turns out the new kid ran them through the dishwasher instead of hand washing them. Has anyone else had a helper mess up their edge routine like that?

Shoutout to the $30 meat grinder I got off Craigslist

Picked up a used #8 grinder for 30 bucks last month and it's already paid for itself in burger blends. Anyone else score a deal on used gear that actually worked out?

Switched from boning knife to a curved breaking knife for loin work 2 months ago

Had a bone saw kick back on me last Tuesday and it reminded me why I take my time

I was breaking down a hind quarter at the shop in Portland and hit a knot in the femur harder than I expected. The saw jumped and nicked my thumb right through the glove, just a scratch but it made me stop and think. Old timer I used to work with always said rush a cut and you'll pay for it later, and he was right. I had to re-bandage and walk away for a minute before I could finish the job clean. Any of you guys had a close call that made you slow down on a cut you'd done a hundred times?

Hit 500 pounds of trim waste in a single week and it stung bad

I broke down my numbers after a busy holiday week and realized I tossed out 500 pounds of scrap that could have been sold as grind or stock. That's almost a full days worth of product just going in the bin. Anyone else track their trim waste and find a number that made you rethink your cutting approach?

Had a customer ask me to slice his roast beef paper thin on the deli slicer the other day

This older guy comes in with a whole boneless ribeye he wanted me to slice, and he specifically said 'like you're making prosciutto, man.' I set the dial to 1 and went slow, but the meat kept tearing on the last inch. He just stood there watching the whole time. Anyone else have customers with super specific slicing requests that just don't work?

Swapped my old steel for a ceramic honing rod last month

I used to sharpen my knives on that old gray steel my dad gave me, like every day before service. But I kept getting tiny chips on my blades, especially on the lamb loins. A buddy at the shop showed me his ceramic rod and I figured I'd give it a shot for $30. Now I'm wondering if anyone else here made the switch or if I'm just crazy?

Old timer told me to throw my boning knife away after 3 years

This guy Jerry who's been cutting meat since the 70s told me I was nuts for still using the same 6 inch Victorinox I bought back in 2019. He said the steel loses its temper after heavy use and you're just fighting a dull edge no matter how much you sharpen. I laughed it off until I borrowed his 6 month old knife and couldn't believe the difference. First cut through a pork shoulder felt like butter compared to my chipped up blade. Anyone else ever get told to retire a knife way earlier than you expected?

Brand new bandsaw blade snapped on me mid-cut yesterday

I was breaking down a big pork shoulder at work yesterday, maybe 30 pounds, and about halfway through the first cut the blade just gave out. Scared the daylights out of me. The steel snapped right at the weld joint, and the tension sent the blade whipping around inside the saw housing. Luckily nobody was standing too close. I had just put that blade on that morning, a 14 TPI from a supplier I've used for years. I checked the tension before I started and everything seemed fine. I had to stop production for about 20 minutes to clean up the mess and swap in a backup blade. Has anyone else had a new blade fail at the weld like that?

Had to pick between frozen and fresh pork shoulders for my shop last month

I got a deal on 40 cases of frozen shoulders from Sysco at $1.89 a pound, but my local supplier in Richmond had fresh ones for $2.45. I went with the frozen to save money, and now I'm dealing with more moisture loss during smoking. Anyone else run into quality issues when you switch to frozen bulk meat?

Wasted $80 on a fancy boning knife that chipped on the first deer I broke down

I bought this high-end German boning knife online, thought it'd be game changer for processing deer. Chipped the blade on the pelvis on the first hind quarter I did, now it's got a nick I can't fix with a steel. Anyone else stick to cheaper carbon steel knives for game processing?

Tried dry aging a prime rib in my home fridge for 30 days and it was a total loss

I built a little setup with a mini fan and a salt block in my spare fridge, thinking I could pull off dry aging like the pros. After 3 weeks the smell was off and by day 30 the whole thing had this funky green mold that went way past the pellicle. I ended up tossing about 12 pounds of meat that cost me over $200 at the local wholesale club. Anyone else had a home dry aging project go sideways?

That 'bargain' boning knife cost me $80 in ruined meat

Picked up a cheap boning knife at a flea market in Tulsa for $12. Thought I was being smart. Thing was dull as a butter knife after two deer, tore up more meat than it cut clean. Had to trim away maybe 5 pounds of shredded venison. Any of you fellas got a go-to brand for a boning knife that actually holds an edge?

I finally looked up how many cows actually go into a 50-pound box of ground beef and I was way off

I was reading through a USDA report from last Tuesday and found out that a single 50-pound box of ground beef can come from over a dozen different cows blended together from different suppliers. It blew my mind because I always thought it was maybe 2 or 3 animals max in there. Has anyone else ever checked the actual numbers on blending ratios for their ground product?

Grandpa's butcher block finally gave up after 50 years

Last Tuesday I was breaking down a chuck roast and my grandpa's old maple block just split right down the middle, (it had been my dad's before that). Three years ago I moved it from the family shop into my garage setup, figured it would outlast me too. Any of you guys ever try to fix a crack that deep, or is it time to just get a new block?