A Glimpse Into What I Do...

I've been meaning to make this post for a while. Its a little glimpse into what I do. Most people know that I cut meat but I don't think anyone really knows how it works. Over Christmas I worked a few overnight shifts to get ready for Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve. All I did was cut, trim, and tie tenderloins and standing rib roasts. I don't remember the exact totals but it was a few hundred of each. So, here's a look into my "tent-making" job.

The tools of the trade:
6" boning knife, 10" cutting knife, and a sharpening steel. The key to doing the job correctly and efficiently is having sharp knives all the time. A dull knife leads to cut fingers and a tired hand.


These next two pictures are all of the the cases of Angus and Hereford beef tenderloins and roasts that we went through.... in two days! That's a lot of bovine.



This year we also got some USDA Prime Tenderloins (Filet Mignon). Super expensive yet very rewarding to cut. This is the Ferrari of the meat world. These things pretty much just melt in your mouth.


This is how I operate. I line up about 12 of these babies and work in an assembly line fashion. Trim all of the fat off one by one and then come back and tie them up....


....like this.



These are the rib roasts. Some people call them Prime Rib or Bone-in Ribeye Roast. All the same. This is my favorite piece of meat. They weigh about 17lbs each. Don't get freaked out if/when you ever buy one just because they are big. They're really easy to cook.


This is what one looks like after we trim it. Trim it? But there's still a ton of fat on there right? Yep. The fat is where the flavor is. You can cut it off when you serve it but that stuff just melts over the meat while it cooks *drool*. The butcher twine is to hold the bones on the meat. We cut the bones almost all the way off - partly with the saw and partly with the knife - so that when you serve it you can just clip the strings off and have a boneless roast to slice. You get all the flavor from the fat and the bones without the hassle.


Here's 20 something of these things. These were just the Angus orders for Christmas Eve. I had another cart like this loaded up with the Hereford Beef. We would then cut these down into whatever size the customer ordered (3 bones, 5 bones, etc.). These 20 probably covered about 75 orders. (Notice my radio. Hey, it gets boring in that cold room by yourself for 10 hours).


Anyway, that's what I do. 3 years ago (yep. 3 years I've been doing this) I never would have imagined myself as a butcher. The Lord has amazing ways of doing what He does. If I never learned how to do this I'm not sure how we'd be paying for school right now. So anyway, I just "celebrated" my 3 year anniversary at The Fresh Market. I really enjoy the "work" part of what I do and I like to think I do it pretty well - at least I try to. The Lord has used the Fresh Market to teach me a lot about myself and the gigantic world of lost people that are around us. I'm thankful to the Lord that he has taught me how to "make tents." I'll do it as long as I need to - but truth be told, I'll be glad to move on - one day.

*Disclaimer: no cows were harmed in the taking of these pictures. They were already dead.*