Back in post #2,012 I said I was cleaning out my freezer so I could pick up my side of beef. Right after finishing that & we picked up our side. The farmer we get our beef from was talked into using another processor by their Grandson who we bought a pig from back in the early spring. I wasn't real happy in the way the pig came out, but since I can't control who does the processing we went with the flow.
Before the cow was processed, we went to the shop & went over the cut sheet with them & thought any potential problems had been headed off. They had our phone number if there was any questions. We got no phone calls. So ... when we picked up our side the first thing I said to the man was that was an awful lot of ground beef. He said that is a good thing.
We started to load the coolers in the truck & I found the whole beef tenderloin & checked it over. It was still in one piece & looked good. I kept thinking, I don't have a lot of whole cuts of pot roasts, steaks, etc. When we got home I started to make my list & I ended up with (108) 1# chubs of ground beef, less roasts, less steaks & everything was deboned when we asked for steaks to be gone in. I had 33# more ground beef with this smaller side which was 36# smaller than last years.
The cut sheet told them to cut the chuck section ALL into roasts. They questioned that & I said I did not want the BEST cuts & the rest turned into ground. They said there would be bone & some grisle in small end & I said I know & I want all roasts. Also, at no time were they to cut out the bones out of any roast or off the steak.
I always log the number of roast & their weights as they go into the freezer. I found out I was diffently short on the cuts, cut thinner & all weighed less than the should have. Now I know how I had more damm burger.
The next day we called & checked to see if the cutter would be in because we wanted to talk to him. He was so we drove back to show him the past sheets from the other processor & what I had logged from his work.
He said they''re inspected by the State of Ohio Ag & not the USDA, so they use different names for the cuts. First I heard of Ohio doing inspections & if they use different terms, them give all of your customers a sheet explaining this who only have uses USDA butchers. I told him none of the cuts you have us look like the USDA cuts, so does Ohio require you to cut the meat differently too. I wasn't being nasty, I wanted to know why the meat didn't look like what you find in the grocery or I've gotten from other processors.
I also wanted to know why I was short on roasts/steaks & had so much ground. He tried to tell me it was because I had the NY strip & rump turned into burger. I told him for the past 10 years, those have always gone into burger so I know how much that adds to ground. I asked why was my meat deboned & showed him pictures of meat without bone. He said there was bone in them. WTF, I'm not blind.
I also said I'm short on all of the chuck/arm roasts, sirloin, swiss & round steaks. He gave an excuse he could only get 2 swiss steaks & stopped talking. I said it was marked cut ALL on the primal cuts & not the BEST out of the primal cuts. He had no reply to the last question. At that point, I said thanks & walked away.
We told the lady we get the cow from what happened & that we weren't happy. I told her it wasn't her fault that the butcher did what he did. I hope they go back to the other processor next year & not these yahoos. If they don't switch, I will most likely pass on the beef for the first time in 20 years.
Now I have to figure out what to do with 108# of ground beef.
Thanks for letting me vent, folks!