Text 33071, 111 rader
Skriven 2010-01-03 14:13:18 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DALE SHIPP
Ärende: Re: Prime Rib
=====================
DD> But, it's not "prime" rib roast if it comes from "good" or "utility"
DD> graded beef. Technically not even from "choice" - although choice is a
DD> lot closer to "prime" than the others. Often the market reports when
DD> giving the numbers of cattle at the stockyards give "Canners &
DD> Cutters", "Utility", "Good", and lump "Choice & Prime" together. And
DD> once in a while a "Bologna Bull".   Bv)= 

DSh> Do you have info on what percentage of cattle end up in each 
DSh> category?

DSh> I'm pretty sure that our normal supermarkets get choice and good.

See below; there hasn't been a USDA Good for 22 years.  It's time to
stop referring to that grade by an obsolete term.

DSh> I suspect most of the prime grade goes to the restaurant trade.  

You are correct.

DSh> Any idea where the grades less than good end up? 

I've provided a link below to a USDA spreadsheet.  

But first, you should bear in mind that the USDA beef grading system
is entirely voluntary.  All beef is USDA inspected for wholesomenes, but
only beef submitted by the industry for grading receives a grade.  
Companies pay the USDA for the grading service. Lower-grade beef is 
rarely found for sale simply because lower-quality beef is never 
submitted for grading.  That doesn't mean that low-quality beef isn't 
being sold - it is, it just doesn't have a grade on it.  And meat
that fails the mandatory USDA inspection isn't sold for human
consumption at all.

Secondly, Dave Drum's "grading scale" isn't used by anyone, except maybe
him.  The actual USDA grades are - from best to worse - as follows:

USDA Prime - Highest amount of marbeling and best quality.  The supply of
true Prime beef is very limited, because less than 3% beef submitted
for grading rates "Prime."  Almost all Prime beef goes to hotels and
upscale restaurants.

USDA Choice - Almost as high in quality as Prime, and much more widely
available.  About 55% of all graded beef rates as "Choice," and this
is the grade most commonly found in restaurants.  It's also relatively
easy to find in supermarkets, where it will always be clearly 
labeled as Choice.  The overall quality of Choice and Prime is nearly
identical, but Prime has more fat in the meat and the marbling is
more evenly distributed.

USDA Select - Used to be called "Good" but the name was changed more than
20 years ago (1987) and you'll never again see anything stamped "Good," so
we might as well use the correct term.  Select is the lowest grade
commonly offered for retail sale.  Many restaurants won't touch it,
but most supermarkets love it because they can buy it relatively
cheap and sell it at inflated prices to consumers who have been
trained to think that the leanest meats are somehow preferable.
Also, Select beef is extremely uniform in overall quality; 
supermarket buyers value that kind of consistency.

USDA Standard - Low quality but economical; most of the time it comes
from lower-quality young animals.  It has very little fat covering and 
practically non-existent marbeling.  According to the USDA, most
Standard beef gets sold as ungraded "branded meat" - a typical
example of this would be those bix five-pound boxes of store-brand
hamburger patties that Stop & Shop/Giant sells in the summertime for
cookouts.

USDA Commercial and USDA Utility - Both of these grades come from 
animals too old to be considered for the four grades above.  However,
they may have acceptable fat content, which - along with maturity - 
often mmakes for good flavor. They're both tough grades, with USDA
Utility being a little lower in quality than Commercial.  Mass-
processed industrial chubs of ground beef are often processed from
USDA Commercial-grade beef.  USDA Utility is  often used for things 
like canned soups and stews (hello, Campbell's and Dinty Moore).

USDA Cutter and USDA Canner - These grades are the bottom of the
heap, and when a supplier has meat of this low quality, they very
rarely submit it for grading to begin with.  According to some 
stats I found on the USDA's website, less than .025% of graded beef
came in as USDA Cutter in 1989 - and none at all in any year since
then.  Similarly, less than .008% of all graded beef in 1989 
was graded USDA Canner, and none at all in any year since.

The lowest-quality stuff - pretty much from USDA Utility on
down - goes into things like hot dogs, lunchmeats,
vienna sausages, potted meat food product, and the like.  It's 
safe to say that you will never, ever see it for direct retail 
sale.

As I promised, here is a PDF which will give you an accurate track 
of the percentages of graded beef that went into each grade:  

http://bit.ly/beef-amounts  

That historical record contains annual data going back to 1930.





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