Meat Cuts And Cooking

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31206, 2 November 1966, Page 2

Meat Cuts And Cooking

The cheapest cuts of meat were of the same nutritional value as the most expensive, and with long, slow cooking could become as appetising a dish, Miss P. Ireland, home science instructor with the Agriculture Department, told members of the Electrical Association of Women recently.

“Many housewives have the false impression that they must buy the most expensive meat to get the best food value, but nutritionally they are equal,” she said. “Only the tenderness, flavour, and palatibility varies.” Advising women with large families and who owned a deep freeze to buy a side of mutton and store it. Miss Ireland explained that this method cut costs for individual cuts by half. “Cutting the side isn’t too difficult. You will need a saw, and a sharp butcher’s knife to divide the side into a fore-quarter and hind quarter.

“For the fore-quarter cut at the fourth or fifth rib. The rest is the hind. The forequarter is a cheap cut, but has a lot of bone and most people can't be bothered boning it. If you don’t want to buy a side, then it is the most economical buy. With a chart to illustrate her points Miss Ireland showed the fore-quarter consisting of shank, breast and shoulder.

“Saw it in half leaving the shank and shoulder, and the breast and neck. “I don’t know whether it’s imagination but it always seems to me that the meat is sweeter in the forequarter than the hind,” she said. Dealing with the hind quarter, Miss Ireland told her audience that from the fourth rib to the hipbone were to be found the loin chops which could be roasted or cut individually. “The flap can be stuffed and rolled, but it is very fatty,” she said. “Cutting the leg depends on the size of the rueal required. For smaller meals, cut the lower half into leg chops. This section of the hind quarter is one of the choicest parts of the sheep and is equal to rump steak. It can be boned, cut into steaks and grilled.” The cheapest steak on the market was gravy beef, said Miss Ireland, discussing cutting and cooking a side of beef. “It looks a bit bitty because the butcher has to cut it away from the bone, but it’s ideal for a stew, casserole or mince. “The shoulder has blade and chuck steaks. The blade steak has the appearance of a leaf with a stem of gristle, and gristle and fat fanning out from the centre. Braise the blade steak, and stew chuck steak.”

For the first method plenty of moisture was needed to soften the meat, less was required in the latter. Cuts from the breast bone were brisket, usually rolled and corned and sold as corned brisket, and prime and brisket ribs; which were also often boned and sold as a roast.

On the wing rib, or sirloin, were a variety of very expensive steaks—fillet, T bone, and porterhouse. “Some people buy these costly cuts and stew them—a complete waste of money and time. They should be cooked only by dry heat—grilling and frying,” she said. The rump section, which was sold as rump steak, should be fried or braised.

From the leg, silver side was boned, corned, then boiled; topside steak and the thick flank roasted or braised.

“The shin is usually mince or the bones can be used for stock. There are two types of mince, gravy beef mince, or topside steak mince,” said Miss Ireland. “Topside mince is the best quality as it has little fat or gristle, but for most purposes the gravy beef mince is quite adequate and cheaper.”