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Hot take: stop cutting steaks cold straight from the cooler, let them sit 20 minutes first
I run a small counter in Reno and for a long time I was pulling ribeyes and strips right out of the walk-in at 34 degrees and cutting them immediately. The cuts looked fine on the board but the edges would tear, the marbling smeared around, and I was losing maybe a quarter inch of yield on every piece just from ragged edges. A guy named Sal who ran a market in Sparks gave me a hard time about it one morning and told me to park the subprimals on the block for 20 minutes before I touch them with a knife. I tried it the next week and the difference was night and day, the blade just glided through and the slices held their shape instead of turning into mush. My yield went up almost 4 percent in a single weekend, which on a couple hundred pounds of beef is real money for a shop my size. I know the food safety crowd is going to jump on me for leaving protein out, but 20 minutes on a cold board is not the same as a picnic table in July. Does anyone else warm up their subprimals before cutting, or am I the only one doing this?
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the_jennifer1mo ago
Sal telling you that trick saved you that quarter inch, and I feel you on the food safety crowd giving grief over nothing.
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brian_jackson1mo ago
Man, I gotta disagree on the food safety thing. Yeah some folks get way too worked up, but that quarter inch trick is exactly the kind of shortcut that gets people sick, and Sal acting like it's genius bugs me. Half an inch of margin isn't paranoia, it's just how you keep your food safe without having to worry about it later.
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