Coalcracker wrote:

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Jim Henry, you brought back some memories with your turkey cutlets story.  One day when I was working in an A&P market in Bridgeport Conn. I had this customer come in and ask me if he were to buy 2 whole fresh hams would I make cutlets for him. I said sure but we are going to have to price it accordingly. He said no problem and you can keep the skin, bone and trimmings. All he wanted were cutlets. So we made the deal and  he came back in a couple of days for the meat. I had pretty close to 15 pounds of really nice pork cutlets. Back then whole fresh hams were selling for $.99 per pound.

As he was picking up the meat I asked him if he was having some kind of an event. He said no I have a small catering business and I use the pork cutlets as veal cutlets. At that time veal cutlets were pretty expensive at around $4.99 per pound. I said you've got to be kidding, he said no I'm not and I have been doing this for many years and all my customers rave about my veal parmesan!!

You know Jim Henry, I started to make fresh ham cutlets for myself and when ever we had family or friends over for dinner my wife would call it veal parmesan. They would all say I guess being a butcher has its perks. LOL> But try to find a fresh whole  ham today!!

-- Edited by Coalcracker on Monday 5th of September 2016 10:19:53 PM

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 Unless a published ad specifically says otherwise, I'm surprised that you had to, or chose to reprice the cutlets from the original fresh ham price. Usually, ad or not, no matter the price, you do what they want and go with the original price. Sure, its a PITA, but that's the way it is with some customers. For sure, that's not something I'd like to do with no notice (not pre ordered) when I'm alone and behind on my work. It's the kind of thing that can put you in a bad mood if you let it. I assume you were the manager and can make that call. But a regular employee can get in trouble for not going with the original price. For sure, it depends on the store. For example, I doubt you could get it done, price change or not at Costco

Hi Phil,

Yep, the reality is that veal cutlets by themselves have very little taste. They are always jazzed up with mozarella, marina sauce, and seasoning, making this possible.

Coalcracker wrote:

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Jim Henry, you brought back some memories with your turkey cutlets story.  One day when I was working in an A&P market in Bridgeport Conn. I had this customer come in and ask me if he were to buy 2 whole fresh hams would I make cutlets for him. I said sure but we are going to have to price it accordingly. He said no problem and you can keep the skin, bone and trimmings. All he wanted were cutlets. So we made the deal and  he came back in a couple of days for the meat. I had pretty close to 15 pounds of really nice pork cutlets. Back then whole fresh hams were selling for $.99 per pound.

As he was picking up the meat I asked him if he was having some kind of an event. He said no I have a small catering business and I use the pork cutlets as veal cutlets. At that time veal cutlets were pretty expensive at around $4.99 per pound. I said you've got to be kidding, he said no I'm not and I have been doing this for many years and all my customers rave about my veal parmesan!!

You know Jim Henry, I started to make fresh ham cutlets for myself and when ever we had family or friends over for dinner my wife would call it veal parmesan. They would all say I guess being a butcher has its perks. LOL> But try to find a fresh whole  ham today!!

-- Edited by Coalcracker on Monday 5th of September 2016 10:19:53 PM

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Bikeshooter, how about this one. Disgusting as it is. Taking case pulled ground beef that turned dark opening it up and putting it in a aluminum tub. Then put a heavy weight on it after you pressed it down with the guide from the band saw. Putting it in the coldest part of the cooler. The middle of the pressed ground beef after a day or so and it would be bright red. Dump pan on flat cutting table then cutting into squares. You did have to trim the brown stuff of the surface. This would give you about 5 extra hours of selling time.

And nobody ever got sick!

Fdarn, just keep digging those graves. LOL>LOL>LOL>

fdarn wrote:

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Coalcracker wrote:

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Bikeshooter, how about this one. Disgusting as it is. Taking case pulled ground beef that turned dark opening it up and putting it in a aluminum tub. Then put a heavy weight on it after you pressed it down with the guide from the band saw. Putting it in the coldest part of the cooler. The middle of the pressed ground beef after a day or so and it would be bright red. Dump pan on flat cutting table then cutting into squares. You did have to trim the brown stuff of the surface. This would give you about 5 extra hours of selling time.

And nobody ever got sick!

-- Edited by Coalcracker on Friday 16th of September 2016 07:33:55 AM

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 I am glad I didn't practice those methods.  I wouldn't want that on my conscience. 

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jimhenry2000 wrote:

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Phil,

I must admit that  I did this, when I worked for a chain of independents. Once I went to the big chain (Pathmark) that would have meant a one-way ticket out the door. 

We called it "the Press". Fill an aluminum lug with yesterday's left over ground beef.  Next, put another lug on top of it and fill that lug with short hooks to get some weight on it then put 3 boxes of boxed beef to add at least 200-250 more pounds on top of it. Let it sit in the cooler for TWO days.  Then scrape off the brown slime that will surely be all over the top of the lug.  Next dump the lug into the blender/grinder, put it on mix then LEAVE the cooler for 15 minutes.  The reason for leaving is that it will smell like an entire herd of cattle farted in unison. After 15 minutes run it out into the boat of your choice, wrap, weight,  and sell. The color will be the brightest red of any ground beef you have ever made.

Coalcracker wrote:

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Bikeshooter, how about this one. Disgusting as it is. Taking case pulled ground beef that turned dark opening it up and putting it in a aluminum tub. Then put a heavy weight on it after you pressed it down with the guide from the band saw. Putting it in the coldest part of the cooler. The middle of the pressed ground beef after a day or so and it would be bright red. Dump pan on flat cutting table then cutting into squares. You did have to trim the brown stuff of the surface. This would give you about 5 extra hours of selling time.

And nobody ever got sick!

-- Edited by Coalcracker on Friday 16th of September 2016 07:33:55 AM

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Although this is a terrible sin IMO, it's not close to the worst thing I've seen or heard of. If the meat is cooked properly, It's probably very safe.

I've seen this done once. Around 1994, I think. I'd never heard of it before that, and haven't heard of it again until now. The manager who did it, called it "the brick" and he was very proud to show us this method. I guess anyone involved in this sort of thing deserves to get sick when they go to a restaurant and eat something they thought would be good. You trust the restaurant, just as people trust us. If you (anyone here) ever gets food poisoning, remember what you used to do. I say that you're guilty if you knowingly allow it to be sold. If you wrap it, cut it, put it in the case, fail to remove it from the case, you're guilty. I have to admit, I've been involved in some things I'm not proud of. The main problem is fear of getting in trouble for not complying. Trouble from throwing anything away. It's a good way to lose a job. You can do the right thing and be unemployed. There's no black and white, It's all shades of gray. I think I read that in a meat book once. You have to draw a line somewhere. There has to be a point where you refuse an order.

Not a bad idea Fdarn. I am sure even the younger cutters have stories as well!

-Burgermeister your right! I know for my self in my era the G.P. was the meat managers "report card", and boy you didn't want to bring home a bad one. Supervisors that I reported to were focused on meat department policy and G.P. The customers where an after thought. One of the A &P stores I worked at in the small community of Avoca, Pa was more like a neighborhood store. The store was 30 feet wide and a mile long. The store manager was an old timer, I was in my med 20's and he was a hundred, LOL>

He would always smoke his pipe in the 4 x 4 office in the corner of the front of the store. When I walked around my meat cases and looked up the produce isle I could always see just the top of his head. I remember once when I first started at this store a grocery clerk came down to the meat dept. and told me The Manager wanted to see me in the Office.

Wow, I thought, we have an office here, its probably upstairs! So I go up and there was only room for one person. LOL> "Him". He said, last week we had smoked picnics on sale and you ran out. I said that's right Frank. Then he shows me a piece of paper and says, is this your handwriting, I said yes. Well Mr. V. your in "big" trouble. Gosh almighty my knees almost gave out. It took me a year to get a job as a meat cutter  at the A & P. You literally had to know someone. Why Frank I asked? He said what the hell is a "rain check"? Well Frank its something we use to do at my previous job. Well Mr. V. this is the A & P and we have policies and this here isn't one of them.

He went on to say, Mrs.. K came up to the check out with a smoked picnic this morning and there was a "scene". The price this week is .99 cents lb. and she wanted last weeks sales price which was .69 cents per pound. How many of these so-called rain checks did you give out. I said about a dozen. Holy crap, when Mr. S (grocery supervisor, a real "P") comes in this week you could get suspended or possibly fired. My knees started shaking again. LOL> Don't you give a damn about your G.P> LOL>

Well in the end I was vindicated because the A & P did have a rain check policy but they never printed forms. They never wanted to publicize it. So what was done back in the day and especially in neighbor stores,  you simply told the store manager that a few customers may comeback for the special price. lOL> And they were taken care of on a one- on- one basis. But whoa to the "cherry picker" they were told Out-means Out, you missed your chance comeback again when they are on sale. LOL>

fdarn wrote:

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Burgermeister wrote:

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fdarn wrote:

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So what is the worst practice you all seen or heard of? We could make a contest out of that.

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We had a thread about that once. It may still be here Maybe we can "bump" it. I think it was called "what's the worst thing you ever saw, did, or was part of?"

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 I vaguely remember that. I might even had been the one to start it.  

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 I found one thread where we discuss this sort of thing. http://meatcuttersclub.activeboard.com/t41668649/shady-stuff/

I think it's master meat sawman who mentions pressing old ground beef into a luggar. In this thread, I mention the older one "what's the worst thing you ever did, saw or was part of" It was in the original board 

BANDSAW BOB wrote:

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I had a lot of stores back in the 70’s and 80’s that would simply pull anything, I mean anything, outdated and mix it straight into the morning grind. I asked a meat manager one time why he did that, he said it was all about the numbers. He went on to explain “ I try to use only beef, but you know. Anyway, brown is OK, but we do take out any bone, and trim anything black or green. That just wouldn’t be right. It”ll sell “

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 I really can't see why we care so much about making the company owner richer while she or he is doing everything they can to cut our pay and benefits. I know some managers are "bonus babies", so I can see why they want better profit. But you still shouldn't sell bad products