Experimental cookery

Classes of meat. Bovine animals are divided, because of characteristics at different ages, into veal, calves, vearlings, and mature beef. Sometimes baby beeves are given as a separate group between calves and yearlings. The usual trade practise is to group baby beeves with yearlings. Sheep are divided into lambs, yearlings, and mutton. The division into classes is based on sex. Thus the classes of beef are steer-, heifer-, cow-, bull-, and stag- beef. Carcasses from each class are further subdivided into grades. Grading divides, in so far as possible, the carcasses, or subdivisions thereof, of the uncooked meat into groups, the various grades indicating the relative desirability of the meat for ultimate consumption, there being no exact dividing line between one grade and that just higher or lower. Basis for grading. The basis for grading is on what the grader calls quality, conformation, and finish. Quality in so far as appearance can fore- tell includes relative tenderness, juiciness, and palatability. By conforma- tion is meant the form or shape, animals having broad, large, full muscles, with relatively smaller proportion of bone, being graded highest. Finish refers to the amount, quality, and color of fat w^ithin and around the muscle. A few points considered in grading do not always affect the palatability of the meat. For example, the fat of beef usually becomes more yellow with age, so that whiter fat is graded higher than creamy or more yellow fat. Yet in animals of the same age the deeper yellow color of the fat indicates that the animal with more yellow fat had more carotene in its feed. If conformation and finish both rated high, the meat from the animal with yellow fat would undoubtedly be as palatable and also have more nutritive value than meat from an animal with white fat. Grass-fed ani- mals, because the meat is darker in color, may be graded lower, even when all other points rate high. 194 MEAT 195 Courtesy Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Dept. Agriculture. Fig. 19. — Showing the manner of branding for the hind and fore quarters of United States graded beef. The small round marks are inspection brands. 196 MEAT United States grading is a promiscuous service. The grading may be done by federal graders or by the packers, but if by the packers only for packer grades. If done by federal graders the meat is stamped with the class of animal and the United States grade. See Fig. 19. The service is paid for by the buyer of the meat. Grading is not a compulsory service but a promiscuous one. Davis states the cost of grading varies in different establishments in proportion to the number of carcasses graded and stamped. But the cost is small, being less than 1/20 of a cent a pound. Hence, any extra cost to the consumer should be largely for the quality obtained rather than the cost of stamping. Grading insures the purchaser of uniform quality, and both buyer and purchaser use the same terminology for specifications and qualifications. In Seattle and in some other cities, all retail cuts must be plainly labeled with the United States grade.