I ran across this on the web site Chowhound and I wish I could give this lady a STUPID SIGN
I split a baby beef sandwich. And we had a very interesting chow-talk with the deli owner. Apparently baby beef is a unique-to-Toronto food item - you can literally only get the stuff here.
Baby beef is veal (duh). The producer uses veal shoulder, and cooks it with paprika to give the meat a characteristic red colour. Apparently they used to use a red dye (way back when... and it sounds like they've been making this stuff since about the '30s), but health regs made them cut it out.
The U.S.D.A defines baby beef as follows: "Baby beef" and "calf" are 2 interchangeable terms used to describe young cattle weighing about 700 pounds that have been raised mainly on milk and grass. The meat cuts from baby beef are smaller; the meat is light red and contains less fat than beef. The fat may have a yellow tint due to the vitamin A in grass.
I cut so much baby beef when I first started I had nightmares about it LOL Thur, Fri, Sat I would cut 10 hinds, do the boning, cut 10 fronts, doing the boning, then do it again. old people bought the hell out of it.
"Veal" is meat from a calf which weighs about 150 pounds. Those that are mainly milk-fed usually are less than 3 months old. The difference between "veal" and "calf" is based on the color of their meat, which is determined almost entirely by diet. Veal is pale pink and contains more cholesterol than beef.
I consider veal as you do. Slaughtered at no more than 3 months and weighing no more than 200 lbs. Anything older or heavier is considered baby cow. The color, texture and flavor are completely different than true veal. Most of what you see in the retail markets of the U.S. is really baby cow. You can tell by the color. Veal meat has the hue of chicken thigh...more or less.
60's 70's fresh baby beef, veal, lamb were big sellers, seems like when the 80's came in the younger women didn't have time to cook. then came only veal rounds, frozen lamb. veal was priced to high, lamb wouldn't hardly sell because of being frozen.
it seems like half the time i would open a case of veal anything it would smell like something pissed all over it. . Veal Loin always sold well for me. sometimes the shoulder did too if it looked nice.
