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July 1, 2005
Innovation in the beef industry
A year or so ago, I started trying a new type of meat that showed up at my local butcher shop (inside historic Eastern Market on Capitol Hill). It is called an "flat iron" cut. Now I know, thanks to a recent article in Wall Street Journal, "New Steaks Shoulder Their Way Onto the Grill" that this is part of an innovation in the beef industry:
The new cuts are the product of the industry's drive to re-map the way a cow's carcass is butchered -- something that hasn't changed much in more than a half-century. The NCBA's [National Cattlemen's Beef Association] effort began in 1995, when producers realized that demand for cuts from the shoulder and hind quarters, such as pot roast and stew meat, was falling. The group spent about $300,000 on a "muscle profiling study" to get a better handle on the taste and texture of all parts of the animal.
Bucky Gwartney, a meat scientist for the NCBA, designed the study, in which he and scientists from the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida analyzed 5,616 cuts of meat from the chuck and round areas. They submitted the cuts to various tests, including chemical analysis and "sheer force testing" (a cutting procedure that determines, in technical terms, meat tenderness).
Panels of trained tasters ate samples of each cut to see how they stacked up. Mr. Gwartney says his personal favorite is the petite tender, citing "the shape, the versatility, the tenderness, and the flavor."
The study results released in 2000 enabled the industry to identify eight key value cuts, four of which are among the 10 most tender cuts in the beef carcass. These include the flat iron, second in tenderness only to filet mignon, the shoulder center steak, the petite center and the sirloin tip center steak.
Take it from me, a flat-iron cut really is almost as tender as a filet mignon. It will be showing up on my grill a lot this summer - especially given the price differential, as quoted in the story:
Filet mignon now averages nearly $14 a pound. By contrast, a flat-iron steak costs less than $5 a pound, on average, says FreshLook Marketing Group, which analyzes fresh food sales.
It will also be showing up alot in my describtions of the importance of non-high-tech innovation in the I-Cubed economy.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at July 1, 2005 8:07 AM
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