pat781•4d ago

Just found out USDA yield grades are mostly based on fat thickness, not marbling

I always thought a steak with heavy marbling automatically graded higher, but I read a study from Oklahoma State that said yield grades mainly come from ribeye area and backfat. That means a lean cow with a big eye can beat a well-marbled one on paper for cutting yield. Has anyone else had customers get mad when they see the grade stamp and the steak looks different than what they expected?

4 comments

4 Comments

jamie8043d ago

Read a piece from Meat Science journal a while back that said yield grade is mostly about how much saleable meat you get from a carcass, not how pretty the steak looks. So a cow with a big ribeye and thin backfat can grade higher on yield even if it doesn't have as much marbling. That's why you'll see a "Choice" steak that looks way better than some "Prime" ones the fat got trimmed off. It's all about the numbers on the whole carcass, not the individual piece you're buying. Butchers know this and play the game, but the average customer just sees the stamp and assumes it's a guarantee.

viola_lopez303d ago

Had a friend who bought a prime grade strip from a local butcher and it was all fat cap, barely any marbling inside. He was so ticked off he drove back and demanded a refund, but the guy behind the counter just pointed at the stamp and said it's prime, that's the grade. He ended up trimming half the steak off and still had a tough piece of meat. Made me rethink trusting the grade stamp alone for sure.

jamie8043d ago

Look up the actual USDA prime standard. Prime just means the meat comes from a younger animal and has SOME marbling in the ribeye or loin area. It doesn't mean every single cut from that carcass is gonna be a beauty. Your buddy probably got the end of the strip loin where the fat cap is thicker and the marbling drops off. Butchers know this and will sell those pieces cheap or grind them. Any decent shop would have warned him or marked it down. If the guy behind the counter just shrugged and pointed at the stamp, that's a bad butcher not a bad grade. The stamp is just a starting point, you gotta look at the actual steak in front of you.

lunah123d ago

That's rough, your buddy got totally burned by that butcher. Really makes you wonder why some places just hide behind the grade instead of being honest about what they're selling. Seems like the stamp means way less than actually looking at the meat.