Now don't run back to your store in the mooring and grind your shop trimmings 10 times and make your own version of Steak Umm's. It will be a disaster. However, I have done it and it does work if you work the ground product so it becomes a "paste." I tried putting it in plastic bags to fit a size 4-s tray container and put it in the freezer and let it freeze hard then taking it out and tempering it then slicing it. It was an excellent product. I made it and had it sampled for my customers and they loved it and wanted to know where they can buy it in my department. I simply told them it was a pilot program and I was looking for feed-back about the product.
Here is a list of both pluses and minuses I found out during my experimentations.
1) My trimmings were to lean so we had to focus on good meat cutting procedures. We worked hard to "leave the red meat on the beef-cut" rather than to manufacture more lean trim. Our goal was to produce a trim for the new product no leaner than between 50 to 60% lean. No gristle,bone chips or blood clots.
2) We had a grinder mixer so we ground the product through a coarse grind plate (first grind), then mixed it until the meat began knobbing up. Then we ground it a second and third time and mixed it some more.
3) Instead of using plastic bags we bought several aluminum cake pans and pressed the "meat paste" into the pans covered them with aluminum foil and put them in the freezer until they were frozen solid. We then took them out and let them temper for a period of time and sliced the product on a deli-slicer, (that's all we had"). That slicer worked but I think we needed something with a thinner blade.
4) We knew that we couldn't simply over wrap the trays and put them in the freezer because before long the meat looses its color. So that is where we stopped! However, we succeeded in the process and the flavor and bite mirrored the Steak-Umm's product.
What we did do that worked for us instead of a Steak-Umm product was making chipped beef from our shop trim. We took our trim that was leaned-up and stuffed them into plastic bags and pressed the trim down hard then stick it in the freezer and freeze it hard. Take it out and temper it then slice it on the deli slicer and put the meat into deep trays. When you chip-fresh beef on a deli slicer you get a real big pile that doesn't even weigh a pound. This alone is a physiological-sale for the customer. You can get a lot of Philly steak sandwiches from a pound of chipped beef. To tell you the truth we couldn't keep it in the case.
But you have to be smart, you can't fill a section up and walk away because when the chipped beef begins to thaw, you put out 4 maybe 6 packages and keep them rotated. You will need some good signage to promote the item. One comparison you can make is that "Steak-Umm as 9 grams of total fat in a 1.1 ounce serving". If you have an 80/20% trim to produce your chip steaks then each serving of" 3 ounces only contains 15 grams of total fat".
Tomorrow or when you get a chance, and before you experiment. Take a walk out to the frozen food case in your store and check out the Steak-Umm product. Buy a box and check it out take it home and do your own cooking and taste test. I know you can make a better product!.
Why do I know this? Because you, me, we are meat cutters and cut millions of pounds of meat to feed our people in what ever country we live in. We are innovators, we have a passion for our work, we work hard, in abnormal conditions. Every single meat related product idea that appears today in our meat cases came to bare because of us. We always put the meat where the money is, despite how much non-sense is thrown at us from the "ivory towers" of our companies. There isn't another retail-department like ours anywhere, any place, serving the public at large by providing, variety, workmanship, freshness, nutrition, personal service and food safety like meat departments. We are short on labor but long on perseverance!
I've had Steakumms and similar products and they can make a half decent sandwich, BUT if you are from Philly it just won't do! A REAL Philly cheese steak is thin sliced rib-eye with Cheese Whiz! For me, I prefer thin sliced rib-eye but with provolone rather than Whiz. Nothing less is worth buying IMO. (and Whiz is also great)
Jim
Coalcracker wrote:
Now don't run back to your store in the mooring and grind your shop trimmings 10 times and make your own version of Steak Umm's. It will be a disaster. However, I have done it and it does work if you work the ground product so it becomes a "paste." I tried putting it in plastic bags to fit a size 4-s tray container and put it in the freezer and let it freeze hard then taking it out and tempering it then slicing it. It was an excellent product. I made it and had it sampled for my customers and they loved it and wanted to know where they can buy it in my department. I simply told them it was a pilot program and I was looking for feed-back about the product.
Here is a list of both pluses and minuses I found out during my experimentations.
1) My trimmings were to lean so we had to focus on good meat cutting procedures. We worked hard to "leave the red meat on the beef-cut" rather than to manufacture more lean trim. Our goal was to produce a trim for the new product no leaner than between 50 to 60% lean. No gristle,bone chips or blood clots.
2) We had a grinder mixer so we ground the product through a coarse grind plate (first grind), then mixed it until the meat began knobbing up. Then we ground it a second and third time and mixed it some more.
3) Instead of using plastic bags we bought several aluminum cake pans and pressed the "meat paste" into the pans covered them with aluminum foil and put them in the freezer until they were frozen solid. We then took them out and let them temper for a period of time and sliced the product on a deli-slicer, (that's all we had"). That slicer worked but I think we needed something with a thinner blade.
4) We knew that we couldn't simply over wrap the trays and put them in the freezer because before long the meat looses its color. So that is where we stopped! However, we succeeded in the process and the flavor and bite mirrored the Steak-Umm's product.
What we did do that worked for us instead of a Steak-Umm product was making chipped beef from our shop trim. We took our trim that was leaned-up and stuffed them into plastic bags and pressed the trim down hard then stick it in the freezer and freeze it hard. Take it out and temper it then slice it on the deli slicer and put the meat into deep trays. When you chip-fresh beef on a deli slicer you get a real big pile that doesn't even weigh a pound. This alone is a physiological-sale for the customer. You can get a lot of Philly steak sandwiches from a pound of chipped beef. To tell you the truth we couldn't keep it in the case.
But you have to be smart, you can't fill a section up and walk away because when the chipped beef begins to thaw, you put out 4 maybe 6 packages and keep them rotated. You will need some good signage to promote the item. One comparison you can make is that "Steak-Umm as 9 grams of total fat in a 1.1 ounce serving". If you have an 80/20% trim to produce your chip steaks then each serving of" 3 ounces only contains 15 grams of total fat".
Tomorrow or when you get a chance, and before you experiment. Take a walk out to the frozen food case in your store and check out the Steak-Umm product. Buy a box and check it out take it home and do your own cooking and taste test. I know you can make a better product!.
Why do I know this? Because you, me, we are meat cutters and cut millions of pounds of meat to feed our people in what ever country we live in. We are innovators, we have a passion for our work, we work hard, in abnormal conditions. Every single meat related product idea that appears today in our meat cases came to bare because of us. We always put the meat where the money is, despite how much non-sense is thrown at us from the "ivory towers" of our companies. There isn't another retail-department like ours anywhere, any place, serving the public at large by providing, variety, workmanship, freshness, nutrition, personal service and food safety like meat departments. We are short on labor but long on perseverance!
Hi there and thanks for keeping involved in The Club. I don't have a meat shop, I am a retired from the beef industry after working in many different positions and I enjoy helping others from my past experiences. Today I write for our Club and promote it where ever I go, but to stay busy I help my daughter in her candle shop. We make our own candles and ship them all over the world.
Hey Jim hope all is well with you. Yes you are correct, we use to sell load lot quantities to Philly and also to Baltimore. Back in the day a company by the name of Georges International in Baltimore used the cow rib-eye as well. Another company in the Florida Market in D.C. a Korean firm bought half loads. I visited the Korean firm one day to see what they were doing with our products. Here they had 20 men all on their own baloney slicer slicing the rib eyes. They made a fortune doing that as well as the others. They would buy the cow rib eyes for $1.50 frozen, slack them out then sliced them thin and resell them in 10 pound bag for $25.00 to the local restaurants that made the Philly Steak Sandwich.
jimhenry2000 wrote:
Hey Fred and Phil,
I've had Steakumms and similar products and they can make a half decent sandwich, BUT if you are from Philly it just won't do! A REAL Philly cheese steak is thin sliced rib-eye with Cheese Whiz! For me, I prefer thin sliced rib-eye but with provolone rather than Whiz. Nothing less is worth buying IMO. (and Whiz is also great)
Jim
Coalcracker wrote:
-- Edited by Coalcracker on Wednesday 10th of August 2016 08:02:42 AM
The ones with Ribeyes sound better. Are they expensive?
Hey Fred,
I will be back in Michigan Friday night 8/13. Overall though I will be out of Michigan for good by September 30. I still would love to meet you for lunch or dinner in the Brighton area if you could be available!
jim hendry send me flight money from ireland ill come over for this dinner date too you can show us the power cleaver dance you did when that machine hopped over the floor :)
I don't think I've ever seen pre-packaged thin sliced frozen ribeye for sale for making cheese steaks (though maybe there are). What I have done is buy a ribeye and slice my own. However at least in the Philly area there is a product sold known as Landis Steaks, named as Landis is the packer.
These are thin sliced, frozen, peeled knuckle. They are WAY better than Steakumms! But still they don't compare to ribeye of course.
When I first joined the trade, one of my first jobs as an apprentice (when I wasn't cutting up chickens) was running our stacker and slicing frozen peeled knuckles for our own cheese steak product. Same as Landis only we sold them for only $1.99/lb. I sliced, sold, and packed (60-75) sixty pound boxes of peeled knuckles per week back then! I'd first square them off on the bandsaw and the trim went right into lugs to use the same as we used bull meat, to lean up and chill our grinds. BTW this was just at one store of a 4 store chain of independents known as Fernwood Markets in case anyone has ever heard of or remembers it.
fdarn wrote:
Hi Jim,
The ones with Ribeyes sound better. Are they expensive?
I'm game. I see that is about 1 hour north of me in Brighton. I have to admit that after 5 1/2 years in MI, I really don't know my way around anywhere other than Brighton! At least as far as restaurants. Please email me at jhenry@airpower.com so we can exchange phone numbers and work the details.
Jim
fdarn wrote:
Jim,
I am almost two hours from Brighton. How about Davison? I really don't know my way around Brighton.
