That time 3 years ago in Seattle I ruined a whole primal of ribeye by misreading the marbling

I was working at a shop up in Capitol Hill and we got this beautiful 10 rib primal from a ranch in Eastern Washington. The marbling looked perfect to me, tight and even, so I cut it into steaks and put them right in the case. Well the old timer who ran the counter came over and asked if I even looked at the fat distribution because half of it was going to be chewy as hell. He pointed out that the fat was all clumped in one spot near the cap and the rest had barely any. I had already priced them all the same and now I had to eat the loss on three of them because nobody buys an uneven ribeye. Has anyone else had a total brain fart moment on grading that cost you money?

3 comments

3 Comments

mila_campbell252d ago

So you're saying marbling doesn't predict chewiness at all?

faithcampbell2d ago

Over here getting stressed about a little fat clump when plenty of people would still pay top dollar for a ribeye regardless. You took a small L on pricing but it's not like you ruined the whole primal, just misjudged a couple steaks. We all have those days where the meat doesn't look perfect and we lose a few bucks, it's part of the job.

the_viola2d ago

Nah I gotta disagree with you here. That old timer was wrong to blame you. Marbling grading is subjective as hell and you cant predict chewiness just by looking at fat clumps. I've cooked plenty of those so called uneven ribeyes and they turned out great after a good sear and rest. The fat renders differently depending on the cook method anyway. You priced them based on what you saw and that's fair. Customers should know a primal cut is never perfect, they're paying for the whole experience not just one slice. Sounds like that guy was just trying to flex his experience on you instead of teaching.