Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire SELECT GRADE BEEF

My experience with select grade beef has been that there is a lot of variation in taste an quality and it is usually kind of tough. This evening I made a fire of pecan wood and some red oak in my fire ring and grilled some select rib eye a little over 1 inch thick. I grilled them hot and fast and left some pink in the center. They were well marbled and were on sale marked down from $11.78 a pound to $6.97 due to going out of date in a day or two. This steak was absolutely as good tasting and tender as I ever ate. I bet most Wagyu isn't any better.

What y'all reckon? Did the grading person mess up? The fat marbling indicated choice to me.

The out of date aging didn’t hurt any for quality.

As the old saying goes, “Even a blind hog finds an acorn onct in awhile “ !

I think you might be right on that. It looks good, but might have been breaking down a bit.

The USDA inspector that grades the beef makes one small incision between two ribs and measures the amount of marbling at that exact spot.
It is a good indicator of how well marbled the rest of the beef is, but not a guarantee.
There are lots of other reasons why a choice or even prime animal might not "make the grade'.
Often age is a factor. Any animal over 30 months of age can not be graded choice or prime.
I have beef that was marked no-roll or even commercial that clearly should have been USDA prime, but the animal was 33 months old by the time it got the slaughter.

Select is almost always Mexican or Brazilian beef. My guess is you probably got lucky..... you'll know for sure by the morning.

Ok ..I'll give up some real info... Meat ..all things being the same 2 side by side pieces one's bigger one smaller both the same height the one that's bigger and the same price has more fat in it fat = volume.... Take any two pieces of the same stuff ..same same.. hang both over a 3/8th dowel. The one that hangs the best..I mean like a wet rag .. that your friend. ... . I made a lot of money cooking over the years ..my best year was burning though 9 pallets of Kingsford...

What about dry aged? Both pieces same size but dry aged one weighs less.

it's all in what the animal was fed... schit in, schit out... grading doesn't matter much IMO... i haven't gotten lucky with store bought meat in about 20-30 yrs... that said, i have given up trying....

Select is the bottom 40% of beef. Occasionally select is decent but usually not very good.

This explains the grades of beef pretty good....

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/4454/beef-grades-explained.html

No telling what you got Hastings, even tho USDA inspectors are suppose to check.

We cut our own steaks and the softer the cover the more tender the steak will be. A few other steps to raising really tender beef, don't let the bovine breed or be bred, don't slaughter the animal till it's 3 years old and feed the animal a little daily, not just 6 weeks before slaughter. We have one on the kill list for mid January.....can't wait.

I ate a lot of select beef when I was a bachelor, because it was cheap. Also because the military commissary didn't often get any better grade. Aside from that, I know little to nothing about meat grades. If it looks good, I'll eat it.

I don't really pay attention to grading. I have learned to "eyeball" the cuts that I prefer. Every now and then, I'll buy a cheap one that disappoints, but that has happened with prime too.

Are you sure it wasn't some marketing wank?


Some companies try to use the words "choice, select or prime" in their advertising to get you to buy their products.

How much did they weight then? We always killed our when the got to 1000-1200lbs. IIRC, that was about 18mos.

Been too long, I miss having cattle.

Aged beef - for 40% off.

Win/win.




GR

water out , taste different...it's a different game .THEY always tell u to ..let rest to let the moisture return / distribute the juices...

The biggest thing to watch out for, is perforating (needle) tenderizing.

Costco does this.

Transfers all the process bacteria down into the meat, so it's like hamburger.

Slab meat - you can sear and then eat essentially raw.




GR

I got some really good top sirloin at Albertsons the other day for $4.99 a pound. I usually go to Costco and get new Yorks but they are $14/ pound now.

I put olive oil on the sirloins then rabbed them down with blackened seasoning. I gave them a quick hot sear and then slowly cooked them on low with the lid on. Then melted blue cheese crumbles on the top.

My kids used to not like blue cheese but they'll eat it now.

Bb