Theatrical Thursday: Know Your Meat (c. 1945)

I’m back.  The most pressing family issue has been resolved (for the time being, at least) and my husband’s aunt and uncle are on their way to my in-law’s home after their short visit here.

Have you ever looked at the meat cuts chart in your favorite cookbook and thought to yourself, “okayyyyyyyy…this isn’t really helpful?”  I have.  For most of our married life, our primary sources of animal protein were hamburger, chicken, eggs, and cheese. I would occasionally try cooking a roast in our slow cooker but it always turned out bland and overdone.  Since ours was a mostly animal protein-free diet, I really didn’t worry too much about it.  That all changed when I started to collect the vintage cookbooks in earnest and discovered that it wouldn’t take me all day to cook fabulous meals.

But to make a fabulous meal, we also need to know not only our meat but the meat grade.  You may discover, like I did, that even though your grocery store makes it sound like they are selling only the very best beef, they may in fact be selling you “meh” beef.  As you will see in the video, all meat in the United States is inspected and assigned a grade.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Quality Grades for Beef:

• Prime grade is produced from young, well-fed beef cattle. It has abundant marbling and is generally sold in restaurants and hotels. Prime roasts and steaks are excellent for dry-heat cooking (broiling, roasting, or grilling).
• Choice grade is high quality, but has less marbling than Prime. Choice roasts and steaks from the loin and rib will be very tender, juicy, and flavorful and are, like Prime, suited to dry-heat cooking. Many of the less tender cuts, such as those from the rump, round, and blade chuck, can also be cooked with dry heat if not overcooked. Such cuts will be most tender if “braised” — roasted, or simmered with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
• Select grade is very uniform in quality and normally leaner than the higher grades. It is fairly tender, but, because it has less marbling, it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades. Only the tender cuts (loin, rib, sirloin) should be cooked with dry heat. Other cuts should be marinated before cooking or braised to obtain maximum tenderness and flavor.
• Standard and Commercial grades – are frequently sold as ungraded or as “store brand” meat (my emphasis added).
• Utility, Cutter, and Canner grades are seldom, if ever, sold at retail but are used instead to make ground beef and processed products (my emphasis added).

You can imagine my surprise when I realized that my grocery store was selling a lower quality meat than I thought they were.  I hadn’t paid attention to what “Select” meant because I thought it was an advertising gimmick.  I mean, come on!  This is the 21st century, don’t we have the technology and resources to only have the top grade in our meat cases?  Apparently not.  According to AskTheMeatMan.com, “Select” is the grade that Walmart sells. And, the bottom grades just reinforce my practice of grinding my own meat at home.  No wonder it is always full of cooties and being recalled!

I found this wonderful video produced by the U.S. government’s Office of Price Administration during World War II to help educate homemakers on the various cuts of meat and how they can help ensure that everyone is doing their share to keep prices low.  The grading system they describe is a little different than the one currently in place but you will be able to get the gist of it.  My favorite thing about this video, though, is that they walk us through the butchering process so that we can see exactly what we are getting with each cut of beef.  It is a little dry, in parts, but well worth hanging in there to watch the entire film.

Know Your Meat (c. 1945) (Approximately 20 minutes)

Click here if the player does not work for you