USDA - BEEF GRADES / RATINGS - Auto-Trend Repairs and Service Information Forums

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

USDA - BEEF GRADES / RATINGS

Rastus · UNSTOPPABLE!

Yo,

Obviously here in Oz, we have our own beef industry, & I can honestly say, that all the animals I've ever seen in the "outback", from cows, to pigs & sheep, is that they grow HUGE...You'd think they were dinosaurs from another time...

Anyhow, all our BEST meat is exported away, though we still get some nice food...

The problem today is the price...$50:00 per kg approx. for reasonable rib-eye / scotch-fillet steak...

The solution is to learn the animal, the names of the selected sections of meat, & then buy-in-bulk as a roast, where the slab-of-meat is uncut. This will save you around 50%, and you get to cut your own size steak when you get home.

A typical "Top-side" roast here can be bought for around $20:00 per kg...This will slice into around 5-6 massive steaks, or however many you choose.

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

Those are really good prices Rastus! $50 per kg isn't bad considering there is over two pounds in a kg!

Here it's usually $20-30 PER POUND for cut filet! (even more if it's prime)

They also do sell the whole beef loin too, however I have found that by the time you trim it to Chateaubriand stanards, it's about the same anyway! Plus you're throwing away a lot of meat and fat that would otherwise be ground into hamburger.

Just finished the last of my tenderloin tips for lunch... Anymore, that's almost a $20 savings from not having to take out lunch... Pound for pound it ends up being much cheaper when you're buying in bulk, as with most other things.

Usually I will save my roasts for winter, and of course some shellfish from September-March. I like the English roast the best, it's the stringy kind... I find the sirloin roast to be a bit on the tough side.

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

I'm going to put the "Prime vs Choice" in action over here and see if there is any difference.

It's almost like Sam's was reading my post on the Webcrawlers thread and was like HELL-NO, we aren't going to be out-done by Trump or Desi!

So they had Prime selections for me this time!

Which is very odd because I never seen Prime available before. I must admit I have only had my Sam's membership for a month or so... but Sam's Club was having a sale and for $8 you got a membership for an entire year! First thing I noticed was these nice big packs of tenderloins at a pretty good price... so I bought one and I was hooked! This will be my first time trying the "Prime" beef from Sam's. They don't look much different, do they? The prime is about $5 more per pound.

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

Well... I cooked up a pound of the "Prime" beef tenderloin into beef tips and OMG! They are so tender and juicy!

Don't know if I can go back to "Choice" anymore! LOL!

I'm shocked at how much tender they were! Even when mixing them on the grill they were sticking to the tongs, they were just that tender! I've cooked a lot of beef tips over the years and I have never made any that were that tender that they stuck on the tongs I was using to mix them! It's really quite amazing!

For $5 more a pound I'd say they are for sure worth it!

Stellar007 · Member

I have to admit, I been partial to the Prime every since I tried it... It's just softer and easier to chew!

Although the prices have gone up! I've also noticed that the quality has gone down! What used to be marbling is just ourtight fat veins or poor trim... I don't know if I'm going to renew my Sam's membership or not... might check out some of the other places even though I really don't need to buy in bulk anymore since it's just Brandee and I...

It's still half the cost to buy a whole pack that will last two days than to eat out one night at a steakhouse... I hope the prices go back down and the quality goes back up! But I'm not holding my breath.