Meat Judging Study Guide How to Judge Classes of Meat

What to Look for in a Carcass, a Wholesale Cut, or a Retail Cut No matter what you are judging you are always looking for the same three things: Muscling Trimness Quality. In any class of meat that you are judging you are looking for the cut of meat that combines these three characteristics the best.

What is muscling? -the amount of muscle tissue that an animal has -the muscle is the most valuable part of the cut, not the fat or the bones Which carcass or cut has more muscle as compared to the amount of bones or fat?

What is quality? -a measure of how good the muscle tissue is -color is an indicator of quality -the amount of marbling is an indicator of quality -age of the animal at the time of slaughter is an indicator of quality -whether the cut of meat is from a mature male of the species (bull, boar, or ram) as opposed to a castrated male or female of that species (cow, steer, heifer, sow, barrow, gilt, ewe, whether or ewe lamb) can effect quality Which carcass or cut came from a young animal of that species and shows good coloring and adequate marbling?

What is trimness? -the absence of excess fat -some fat in a carcass or cut of meat is good; it gives flavor -too much fat is bad; it is bad for people’s health and people tend to avoid very fat cuts of meat when they are choosing which piece of meat to purchase Which carcass or cut of meat has enough fat to give the cut of meat flavor while not having so much fat that it is unhealthy and loses consumer appeal?

What are you looking for in a cut of meat? You are looking for the carcass or cut of meat that best combines heavy muscling, good quality, and appropriate trimness.

Judging Beef -look first at quality -look for marbling. This is very important. Remember that marbling is the fat that is scattered inside the muscles of the carcass or cut of meat. The more marbling the better the quality. -look for good coloring. Remember that beef should be cherry red in color, not so light that it is almost pink and not so dark that it is almost black. -look second at cutability. Cutability is the combination of trimness and muscling that will allow various cuts of meat to the made from a carcass or retail cut. A high cutability carcass or wholesale cut would be trim and very heavily muscled.

T-Bone Steaks Look for differences in quality, trimness, and muscling. Which best combines these three features?

#1 best combines the characteristics of quality, muscling and trimness. Let’s look at the other 3 steaks and see what characteristics they are lacking in.

#2 still has plenty of muscling and quality, but this steak has problems with trimness. There is too much outside fat along the loin eye muscle (the larger muscle) and the tenderloin muscle (the smaller muscle).

#3 is alright in the areas of muscling and trimness, but this steak is lacking in quality. It has poor coloring and not enough marbling.

#4 is lacking in muscling. It has plenty of quality and is trim enough, it is just has less muscling and therefore less edible meat.