Question for meat cutters

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justpassingthru

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
OTBS Member
Feb 7, 2009
950
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Pamatai, Tahiti
Since all of our beef is imported from New Zealand and then renamed into the French system of meat cutting I'm kind of at a loss as to what the American names are.

There is a cut of beef that we really like alot, it's called bavette d'aloyau, yesterday we found some that the New Zealand sticker wasn't obscured and it's called PS-Inside Skirt.

Can anyone tell me what this cut of beef is in the American meat cutting system?

Thanks, Gene
 
FIU, yep, that's exactly what mine looks like, where did you find the beef chart in French?

Meat Hunter, thanks, now I know what it's called.

Since FIU provided a chart, does anyone know what the hampe is called in English, it's very tasty, but very expensive.

Gene
 
The skirt steak actually comes from the plate off the forequarter; it's that strip of meat that, on pork spareribs, you trim off prior to pulling off the membrane. Kmart capitalized on the skirt steak and featured it in their steak dinners in the 60's and 70's.
The piece of meat shown highlighted comes from the flank, off the hindquarter, above the flank steak. It is similar in properties to the skirt steak, but wider and thicker with long, very apparent strings of meat fibers, and is an extention of the tails on T-bone and Porterhouse.
 
WOW Pops and Fire it up... great replies. I wish I had as good of an understanding of the different cuts. I have looked before for a chart like the one in French only in American of course. I couldn't find anything good. Would love to have one in Beef and Pork. Any suggestions?
 
Thanks FIU, I'll try that search, never thought about trying a search in French on American Google, duh...

Thanks Pops, very informative, now can you tell me what the hampe is in the diagram above?

Gene
 
I believe you can get the charts that show the different cuts of meat for all domesticated animals thru the USDA. I remember I asked someone about that some time ago and if I remember right, they told me to contact them.

Actually, I just looked myself and several places pointed me to this site. Looks pretty good.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/meatcharts.html
 
As stated the skirt comes from the forequarter.

There is a membrane inside the cow or hog or deer that seperates the heart and lung area from the stomach and intestine area. This membrane is made up of two layers to skin and where these two layers of skin meet the ribs there is the long flap of meat you see with the spareribs. If the skirt is cut off the beef it will have skin on both sides that has to be peeled off before using.

Usually on a beef the skirt is about 3 inches wide and 18 to 20 inches long, or longer.

You can lay the skirt out flat on the table. You will see that one end of the skirt will be thicker then the other. Starting at the thin end roll up the skirt like a jellyroll, and hold it in place with 2 toothpicks. You can now slice it down the middle, and have two skirt steaks about 1 1/2 inches thick. The toopicks will hold it together while to cook it on the grill. By putting the thinner part of the inside and the thicker part to the outside, it will cook fairly even. Just unroll as you eat.

The skirt is a little on the tough side, but has some of the greatest flavor around.
 
I agree with what Reinman has said. When we got the Front quarters of beef the skirts were removed at the processing plant. If we wanted them we had to order them. They did have to membrane skins attached to them just like a Flank Steak. The end result was a strip of meat about 3" x 15" apr. We would also cut a little bit of Beef Suet and run them both (Skirt & Suet) in the meat tenderizor, roll them up in meat scewers and then slice in between the meat scewers. The end result would be a nice looking Cut we would call a "London Broil". A London Broil is a way that you would cook the meat and not a cut of Beef. In fact we did the same thing with the Flank Steak with making them into London Broils. There for two different kinds of cuts of meat that were made into a London Broil the way that we made them at the meat market I worked at. We would label them London Broils made from either Skirt Steak or Flank Steak. Now I have seen in different parts of the country and at different markets they tend to call London Broils by using different cuts of beef.

Thomas
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Hello Pops,
I took notice of your thread in cutting up a chicken. Was going to make a remark about it there. Guess I will have to do it here in the Beef section since the thread is closed for comments. Nice Job! I also would like to say and point out to everyone that if you took notice on the Chicken that Pops got, it has a real nice Yellow Color on the skin. That tells me that it is of good quality and that it's fresh.

Again Pops Good Work on the Poultry Thread.
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I hope that you like the information I put out for the Beef section and the Beef Hind Quarter.

Thomas
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reinman, thomas, rick,

Thanks for the info and thanks for the tip on how to roll and cook it, gonna try it that way next time, I have a great marinade that I use, it's always very tender.

Gene
 
Jesper, you have stumbled upon a thread that hasn't had any activity on it since Aug. 2009. JustPassing Thru hasn't been on line since March of this year.

You might try sending him a PM about the marinade. Most members get an email notification when they have a personal message waiting.

Also please swing by Roll Call and introduce yourself to the reset of the SMF members.

Thanks~
 
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