"Hello, Me and a buddy have went in together and bought a 1/2 beef. The whole cow is going to butcher on Decmeber 9th and shortly after we have to contact the butcher and give them how we want it cut. We have never done this before and have no idea how we what to tell them to get every inch we can. so please help. first everything will have to be split between us. so keep that in mind. this is what we know. 1.) we both want one roast. Best slow cooked in crock pot or oven with veggies. so two roast enough to feed three. 2.) we want as many steaks as we can get! 3.) was told not to add ribs to burger?? agree? 4.) everything left in burger. Now if you can suggest other options, ideas, or the way you would cut it we will listen to everything you recommend! Also can you give it to me so that the butcher I call will understand what I am saying too. thank you!!"
"Hello, Me and a buddy have went in together and bought a 1/2 beef. The whole cow is going to butcher on Decmeber 9th and shortly after we have to contact the butcher and give them how we want it cut. We have never done this before and have no idea how we what to tell them to get every inch we can. so please help. first everything will have to be split between us. so keep that in mind. this is what we know. 1.) we both want one roast. Best slow cooked in crock pot or oven with veggies. so two roast enough to feed three. 2.) we want as many steaks as we can get! 3.) was told not to add ribs to burger?? agree? 4.) everything left in burger. Now if you can suggest other options, ideas, or the way you would cut it we will listen to everything you recommend! Also can you give it to me so that the butcher I call will understand what I am saying too. thank you!!"
Here are a few choices as to how you might want your half beef cut. There are a bunch of other ways too. I’m just listing the most common.
If you want a lot of ground meat, you can have the butcher grind certain things.
Keep in mind that if you order everything lean and boneless, you’ll of course get less take home weight. For example if you choose extra lean ground beef and boneless chuck and boneless loin, you’ll have less weight than the customer who asked for bone in chuck, bone in loin, and fatter ground beef. I know some customers ask why they got a 59% yield while their friend got 70%. That is always the reason.
Forequarter:
Chuck: Bone in thick, for large pot roast (sometimes called 7 bone roast), or thin for steaks. Two chuck eye steaks if you want and that will leave you a little more ground beef.
Or instead, you can get smaller boneless underblade roasts and steaks. If you ask for that, you will also get a flat iron for steaks, roast or stew, and a very lean mock tender for roast, steaks or stew. Two chuck eye steaks if you want and that will leave you a little more ground beef.
Rib: aka "prime rib" about 15 inches of any way you want it. all bone in steaks, or all boneless "rib eyes". If you choose boneless rib eyes, you also get a slab of beef back ribs (7 bones). You can get some of it for roast, but it will cost you some steaks.
Boneless shoulder: (aka cross rib) maybe 15 lbs for 3 decent roasts, or one huge roast, or two end cut roasts and some center steaks. or all steaks, stew, and ground meat. Some picky eaters might not like cross rib steaks, but I love em. Or you can get it all sliced thin for carne asada.
One huge brisket:, if they remove it in one piece.
One skirt steak.
6 good sized short ribs
1 plate for ground meat, or 50 years ago, for soup meat. Why not today?
4 good center cut foreshanks and two decent end cut foreshanks. (you'll get more shanks from the hind 1/4)
Neck meat for grond beef and/or stew
neck bones for soup.
Hind quarter:
Short Loin: maybe 15 bone in steaks 1 inch thick (6-7 porterhouse and 8 T-bones average)
or boneless "New Yorks" (aka top loin). If you chose boneless new yorks, you also get filet mignon steaks or roast. the filet (tenderloin) can be made extra large(for a huge roast) if you leave the head loin section on it. But then you'll get no fillet mignon steaks.
Head loin: Includes about 2.5 lbs of filet mignon (mentioned above in short loin section) for roast or steaks. The tenderloin is long and goes along both the head loin and short loin. The butcher may remove it in one piece, or split it when he/she removes the short loin.
Also in the head loin, about 8 inches of top sirloin. Often you’ll cut one or two at 2 inches thick and the rest one inch thick.
And one tri tip for roast, or about 5 “Coulotte” steaks.
Also, one ball tip. From less than a pound to 3.5 lbs, depending on where the butcher breaks it. It’s actually part of the sirloin tip.
Round: 4 sections
Top round: for thick London Broil, or thinner steaks great tenderized for chicken fry. Also great sliced for jerky or “beef scallopini”
Eye of round: Roast or cube steaks.
Rump (bottom round) great for roast.
Sirloin tip: one roast, and then use solid side for steaks or very thin sandwich steaks, scallopini, carne asada.
One (only one) flank steak.
Instead of all the above cuts from the round, you may also choose “full cut round steaks” which will all have a piece of top round, bottom round, and eye of round. Done that way, you can still have one rump roast. Sirloin tip will still be separate.
4 center cut hind shanks and two decent end cut shanks (remember you get foreshanks too).
-- Edited by Burgermeister on Tuesday 29th of November 2016 06:34:01 AM
I'd like to know a little about the beef you're buying. You called it a "cow", but surely it's a steer, right? Where was it living? Is it a family owned steer raised in someone's large (2 acre?) back yard and they had only the one steer? They raised it real cheap, letting it eat mostly the grass that grew in their yard?
Is it a steer from a huge muddy dusty feedlot with no grass growing for the last 50 years? Is it from a small group of cattle living in a giant pasture? How old was it? What was it fed? What breed was it?
Some so called "half beef" aren't really a complete side of beef. The meat cutter will piece together a complete side from boxes, giving one piece each of all the primal sections. That isn't what will happen, right?
Sometimes it's hard for two people to share a side of beef exactly 50/50 because of the things you get only one of. 1 flank, one skirt, one tri tip, one ball tip, one chuck tender, one hanging tender (IF it's from the left side and if it's still there). You said you want at least 1 pot roast each. You'll get a lot more than that if you are feeding 3 people (no left overs) per roast.
What does this side of beef weigh? 350 lbs? you might get 4 chuck roasts each if you get boneless underblade with no chuck steaks. Also, the cross rib will give you even more pot roasts. Another two each there since they will be small.
Sometimes people like huge pot roasts, big enough for a 2nd meal for everyone. Pot roasts make great left overs. My figure of 6 roasts each is assuming no left overs.
If you like leaner roasts, there's rump, sirloin tip, and eye of round too, but for pot roast, I recommend shoulder cuts. You'll get lots of roasts it you want.
burgermaster, thank you for the reply. I'm the person who first asked this question and now that I am a member here I thought I would come and try to answer your questions. First YES it is a steer! I am not a city boy, but it has been a LONG time from my days working on a farm as a teenager. My bad for not catching that. The Steer is a black Angus and has been raised on a private farm in Oakdale Tennessee. It's a family farm passed down for generations. I think it's around 200+ acres in size and has both open green grass fields, ponds, and even some wooded areas. he has around 30 head that he moves throughout the year to different sectioned off fields on the property. He raises these for both his own family and for sale. We did sample many of the cuts from his own freezer and were very impressed. He grain feeds as well as grass feeds up to a point and then pushes more grain mix closer to the end. I cannot remember the percentages or times but I do know these are not only grass fed. I do not know the age. I'm told he is set to take ours and others to butcher on December 9th. Thats when he informs that one (his selection) is marked as a half. the butcher is supposed to dress and set our half to the side until we contact them for how we want it cut. As for this steers current size I got this txt the other night. Yours will be $2 a lb. weighing around 1200 lbs. and you got a half so 600 lbs. at $1200 minus the $200 deposit for $1000 + butcher fee. Now knowing this would you do anything different?
Me and the person I am splitting this Half with just decided that "lets get as many steaks as we can! Also get as much burger as we can! Then get one roast each "the best cut" for slow cooker style roast, and see how things come out. Yes both of our families probable eat more roast during the year and we will get more down the road but if we can get another 30-40 1" steaks this time why not! We both plan to increase next May to getting a half each or maybe even a full each. but out of this first time we thought why not max it out in steaks and burger. He wants all of the heart, liver, kidneys, tail, etc. and I want the brisket. after that would like like to slice it up and split it as close to 50/50 as it can be done.
The 350 lbs I asked about would be hanging weight. Your figure of 600 must be live weight. Usually, a side of beef is sold by hanging weight. It sounds like that's a very high quality beef you're buying
We never included offal in the sides that we sold. Except 1 kidney that's inside the clump of fat (suet) on the short loin. No liver or heart. Any home grown animal brought in the shop was killed by a middle man who gave the offal to the owner that same day rather than bringing it to our shop
so do you think we got a good deal or do you think the numbers are wrong? 300lbs still sounds like a good size but 600lbs sounds better... hehehe
I don't know what your final weight is going to be. That's the important figure. Probably 60-65% of the hanging weight and far less than the live weight.
I don't know what current prices are. Haven't sold entire sides since 1981. Back then you could buy a side of beef for about $1.49 per pound hanging weight, no liver, no heart. Just meat, fat, bones and one kidney.
That might sound discouraging, but prices have gone up tremendously for meat in the last 20 years. 80% Ground Beef is now about 4.69 a pound in my area. I remember in 1998 I was selling it for 99 cents a pound (regular price). So if you are paying 2.00 a pound for live weight when you know you could had paid 1.49 a pound for hanging weight 35 years ago, it might sound scary, but it is probably right for the times
300 Pounds of ground beef today would be about $1400.00. Out of this side of beef you are getting quality steaks and roast that would normally be priced higher than 4.69 along with ground beef. You will be saving money.
We have a few members who do this sort of butchering more often. Maybe we can get some more accurate pricing information from them.
I hope you will tell us about it when its all done and how much the final weight came out to be.
