Post by BBQ Butcher on May 8, 2016 11:35:54 GMT -5
So you finally decide to visit that cool new butcher shop—the one that’s breaking down whole animals that sound like they had a better childhood than you did—but the meat case is full of a bunch of cuts you’ve never heard of, let alone cooked, before. Is this some kind of butchers’ conspiracy to keep you from subscribing to this “buy better meat” movement everyone’s been talking about?
Well, not exactly. Unlike your local supermarket, which buys cases of familiar cuts like rib-eye, tenderloin, and pork rib chops, a butcher shop typically orders whole animals—which means the butchers have to break cows, pigs, and lamb down a lot more creatively if they’re going to move all that muscle. If a butcher shop gets one cow a week and there’s only one hanger steak per cow, well, you get the picture, hence all those cuts you’ve never seen before.