?? New Cut of Beef at Costco??

Folks,

On Saturday I bought this cut of beef at Costco:


It carried this labelling:

"Beef Chuck Short Ribs". Any idea what it is? Looks sort of like a hanger steak to me. Wonderful beefy flavor, with just the perfect amount of toothiness. I'm going to do it again and again.

Geo

The beef industry has been doing a lot of research in recent years as to new ways of cutting beef that make formerly tough, sinew-laden cuts more tender and useable for quicker cooking methods. Most of the new cuts have come from the chuck, which used to be mainly relegated to braising and grinding for hamburger.

The first new cuts to be introduced were the flatiron steak (a new book-shaped cut different from the old arrow-shaped flatiron), the ranch steak and the petite "tender." Now they are looking at further ways to get more use out of the shoulder, including these boneless "ribs."

Here is a chart that shows the location of the chuck on a steer and a guide that shows how the "ribs" are cut. Here's a prep guide, which suggests braising and then grilling.

The chuck is a very flavorful part of the animal and, in general, these new cuts are very good. The one drawback is that they tend to be high in myoglobin, which can contribute to a "livery" flavor some people are sensitive to.

Tnx LAZ, that's good info. I'm familiar with the new flatiron, and, in fact, am a fan--but the price is already going up on this cut!

We just gas-grilled it very hot and fast. It was delicious, as chuck (per your note) pretty much is. But it had just the right amount of toothy-ness. Surprizing at first, perhaps, but by the second bite one knew that all was going to go well. No gristle, no unpleasantries at all.

Interesting stuff...

Geo

Boneless flanken-style short ribs, like the label says. They're the same meat as short ribs, they're just cut across the bone instead of along it. We braise them like we would any other short rib, and they turn out great.

That looks like a much higher price than I've paid at Costco in the past. And, in the past year or so, we've noticed that they're cutting them much thinner than before, so they aren't quite as nice in a braise.

gleam wrote:Boneless flanken-style short ribs, like the label says. They're the same meat as short ribs, they're just cut across the bone instead of along it.

No, they aren't. Totally different part of the animal. Flanken come from across the ribs. This is a cut from the chuck roll, at the shoulder.

There are boneless short ribs cut just as you say, but that's not what this cut is. See the chart linked above.

Nary a bone in these. And they look exactly like those in the chart LAZ linked. Actually, I much prefer the official nomenclature: these are *very* similar to the pork "country-style ribs" that we get everywhere in KC. Where Costco got the "short ribs" nomenclature, I dunno.

Geo

LAZ seems to be right, my bad. I'd still braise 'em.

We've braised 'em and also marinated them for kalbi before (thinking they were flanken short ribs as well).

The price has indeed gone up, but they tend to fluctuate - Have bought them as cheap as $2.99/lb, but more typically in the $3.49-$3.99/lb range, but definitely has been in the current $4.99/lb range.

I buy 'em if they're cheaper/close to the prices found in Korean markets for kalbi - they're boneless and choice after all - which isn't always the case in Korean markets.

Geo wrote:Tnx LAZ, that's good info. I'm familiar with the new flatiron, and, in fact, am a fan--but the price is already going up on this cut!

A lot of it depends on the market. Skirt steaks can be expensive in Chicago where there is a strong market for the cut versus other midwestern cities where the cut is relatively unknown.

Jay K wrote:thinking they were flanken short ribs as well

I do think it's unfortunate that the beef industry has chosen this misleading nomenclature. They've done it to give consumers an idea of how to use the meat, but it's still dumb to call something a "rib" when it never came near the ribcage.

They were already pushing it with the petite "tenders," which are meant to evoke beef tenderloin even though they come from the other end of the steer. (That means they can be kosher, which tenderloin is not, although I have no idea if you can get this cut at a kosher butcher. For all I know, kosher butchers are still calling skirt steak tenderloin.)

LAZ wrote:They were already pushing it with the petite "tenders," which are meant to evoke beef tenderloin even though they come from the other end of the steer. (That means they can be kosher, which tenderloin is not, although I have no idea if you can get this cut at a kosher butcher. For all I know, kosher butchers are still calling skirt steak tenderloin.)

"Only the forequarters of a kosher animal are allowed to be eaten by those that follow the rules of kashrut/Jewish dietary laws."
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/522911

Very interesting - I did not know that fact... so what do Kosher butchers do with the hindquarters of an animal? Does that mean there's discount tenderloins to be found at Kosher butchers?

I wonder if there are equivalent practices with Halal butchers re: forequarter/hindquarter...

Now that I think about it, this is very interesting... what do they do in Israel? Do they butcher the animal and then immediately send the hindquarters off somewhere for sale?

What other "cuts" are considered from the hind-quarter?
No T-bones or Porterhouses?

Pretty much any "loin"-labeled steak (sir, tender, etc.) is going to be off-limits for Kosher. To my knowledge, Halal does not have this limitation (I could be wrong), but has similar requirements for the butchering of animals for food. I have also been told that there are ways of butchering/preparing the "back half" that makes it Kosher (removing large nerves and/or blood vessels), that basically turn it into hamburger.

Remember that not all of Israel are observant Jews -- there's going to be plenty of folks ready to buy "inedible" meat at a discount.

But this restriction did mean that there were few options for a good, tender cut of meat in my granparents' households, as LAZ points out above (my parents didn't keep Kosher in our home, I certainly don't, but my future daughter-in-law does). Lots of tough cuts you have to braise all day (mmm brisket, but pot roast not so much), lots of ground beef.

Never seen this sort of cut before, though. I may have to try it from Costco. I wonder if it has nearly the flavor of boneless short ribs, though. A ragu made with short rib is a wonderful thing (getting to be time to do that again).

The rib is kosher so therefore, ribeye steaks are kosher. Also I remember a steak called beauty steak in kosher butchers which is cut from the chuck as are the tenders. And yes skirt steak was called tenderloin, but going into kosher butchers today I see skirt steak advertised. You can kosher the entire cow by removing the siatic nerve. I don't know if this is done in Isreal or not.
Paulette

paulette wrote:You can kosher the entire cow by removing the siatic nerve. I don't know if this is done in Isreal or not.

My understanding is that in Israel kosher butchers do remove the sciatic nerve, rendering cuts from the back of the animal kosher. The wife of the Israeli Consul once gave me a recipe for leg of lamb.

However, this is a fussy, time-consuming procedure, so in America, kosher butchers just buy forequarters and don't bother with the rest. I assume that kosher slaughtering plants sell the back half of carcasses to goyim.

Saw these yesterday at the Cermak Produce store on Kedzie at Berteau labeled as boneless beef short ribs. USDA choice $3.79 lb.

JSM--

Did you buy some?

Geo

I could be wrong but a couple of weeks ago I ordered the short rib plate at the Brauhaus in Lincoln Square and it was this cut. It was braised and very good. I may be adding this cut in the fall/winter repertoire...

Geo wrote:Did you buy some?

Not this time. I was on a pork mission, country ribs and a butt for the smoker.

Mission Accomplished, I hope!

Geo

Mission accomplished !! the last of the pulled pork ended up on home fried tostadas with beans and cheese....

I chanced on the boneless "short ribs" at Costco the other day. Not having read this, I was a bit puzzled by their large size...now I know that they weren't short ribs at all.

But, they were delicious cooked as if. After reading a Bittman blog about short ribs I used strong coffee with red wine, onions and garlic in a long braise. DH was thrilled with them. I found the braising liquid a bit lacking in something, so as I was making pasta sauce for canning at the same time, reduced the liquid after removing the oil and onions, then added several dollops of the cooking pasta sauce.

The best part, I think, was a CI tip I'd read recently. Bloom some gelatin - 1/2 t maybe - in a bit of water and add it to the reduced braising liquid. It gave it a bit of thickness and added the mouth feel that is missing from not having the bones in the pot.

I kept two of these "ribs" for adding to chili con carne I was making to add some extra flavor besides the ground beef. In retrospect I should have braised them an hour by themselves before adding to the chili, but instead I browned them and added them right into the chili post with everything else.

It took over three hours for the "rib" meat to break down the collagen nicely. I'd started with relatively good size chunks, but after about 2 hours, I used scissors to cut them into small bites, hoping it would speed the cooking process.

I didn't taste the chili when it was finished - about midnight - but stuck it in the fridge after it'd cooled a bit. This afternoon I came downstairs to find DH with camera in hand, taking pictures of the chili to send to his brother, taunting him about the meat lover's chili I'd made and his brother didn't have. His words when I asked if it turned out well were something like, "OMG" so I guess that adding these worked well. I suppose it's just like using chuck steak in your chili which I've not done before.

I got these too. So far here's what I have done - will be adjusting seasonings and having for dinner over the weekend. I browned them, then put into the crock pot. In the browning pan I sauteed onion, carrot, celery and garlic. That went into the crock. I deglazed with a bottle of wine, and simmered it a while (should have done so longer, probably). I added the wine, some turkey stock and water (didn't need the water) and a can of chopped tomatoes with their juice to the crockpot. Cooked on low overnight. This morning I separated out the liquids and the solids - refrigerated both, with the liquids in a tall skinny container - and will recombine after skimming the fat tonight.

Will probably add some herbs and spices and salt and pepper. Any suggestions are welcome

leek, given what you've got so far, I'd add some garlic (well, duh! , some good oregano, a pinch of thyme, and, toward serving time, some fresh basil. In other words, push it towards the Italianesque.

I bet it's going to be great!

Geo

sounds tasty to me. Some diced carrots and potatoes cooked in the liquid for 30 minutes or so would be nice

Buying meat at Costco is tough for me, being a single guy (though I do buy their briskets to make pastrami, as my coworkers go through it quite quickly), but I did just spot this cut at Whole Foods. Normally I don't buy meat there, it being too expensive given the quality (being the exact same corn-fed feedlot cattle as everywhere else), but at ~$5/lb, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I got one (perfect portion size for me), added salt, pepper, fresh garlic, a bit of olive oil, vacuum sealed it, and tossed it in the immersion circulator at 133 degrees. We'll see how it turns out in ~36 hours. I'll likely sear it, deglaze with some red wine and maybe saute in some mushrooms or something.

I've got this silly thing (the immersion circulator, that is) and I'm trying to make more use of it, so this type of cheap cut that needs a long cooking time seems like the perfect use case. I wouldn't go to all of the trouble of doing a traditional braise for a single portion, but in a vac bag it's easy. And at the same time that I've got the short rib going, I've got some shallots and garlic poaching in butter and carrots in with "warm spice" honey, salt and butter.

Anyway, I'll report back on the results.

-Dan

dansch wrote:Buying meat at Costco is tough for me, being a single guy (though I do buy their briskets to make pastrami, as my coworkers go through it quite quickly), but I did just spot this cut at Whole Foods. Normally I don't buy meat there, it being too expensive given the quality (being the exact same corn-fed feedlot cattle as everywhere else), but at ~$5/lb, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I got one (perfect portion size for me), added salt, pepper, fresh garlic, a bit of olive oil, vacuum sealed it, and tossed it in the immersion circulator at 133 degrees. We'll see how it turns out in ~36 hours. I'll likely sear it, deglaze with some red wine and maybe saute in some mushrooms or something.

I've got this silly thing (the immersion circulator, that is) and I'm trying to make more use of it, so this type of cheap cut that needs a long cooking time seems like the perfect use case. I wouldn't go to all of the trouble of doing a traditional braise for a single portion, but in a vac bag it's easy. And at the same time that I've got the short rib going, I've got some shallots and garlic poaching in butter and carrots in with "warm spice" honey, salt and butter.

Anyway, I'll report back on the results.

-Dan

I'm enjoying your stories about the fancy schmancy immersion thingy. I don't have one, and I've never cooked with one. Sort of goes against my principles. But I used tapioca maltodextrin recently, so I might be coming around. Anyway, keep the stories coming.

dansch wrote:I did just spot this cut at Whole Foods. Normally I don't buy meat there, it being too expensive given the quality (being the exact same corn-fed feedlot cattle as everywhere else)...

Perhaps Whole Foods beef is indistinguishable from other choice grade grocery store beef in terms of taste, but it is not the exact same as what you get elsewhere. Specifically, cattle used for Whole Foods beef are not given antibiotics or growth hormones and no animal byproducts are used in their feed. Whether that matters to one is, obviously, a matter of personal preference and/or belief.

Matt wrote:

dansch wrote:I did just spot this cut at Whole Foods. Normally I don't buy meat there, it being too expensive given the quality (being the exact same corn-fed feedlot cattle as everywhere else)...

Perhaps Whole Foods beef is indistinguishable from other choice grade grocery store beef in terms of taste, but it is not the exact same as what you get elsewhere. Specifically, cattle used for Whole Foods beef are not given antibiotics or growth hormones and no animal byproducts are used in their feed. Whether that matters to one is, obviously, a matter of personal preference and/or belief.

That's actually news to me, and it does matter to me, so thanks for passing along the info. I simply hadn't seen any information displayed about that, and find that usually Whole Foods is pretty keen on advertising when a particular product is "better" (organic, spray free, fair trade, whatever) and stays silent when it's not.
I just went and looked at their website, and they do in fact state "No worries about animal byproducts or antibiotics in the animal's feed or added hormones".

The difficulty I have with places like Whole Foods is that they'll often mix messages that have to be precisely parsed - for instance the sixth paragraph on that page where they mention offering organic meats and then move on in the same paragraph to talk about their various prepared meats, kabobs, stuffed meats, etc. I read it as trying to imply that all of their meats, including the mentioned kabobs and such are organic, when really they mean "we've got a ton of good stuff including things like kabobs, and offer a small selection of organic stuff too". Again, it's not false advertising, but it does leave a casual consumer with the notion that all of their meat might be organic - I guess I've gone a bit too far in the other direction as a skeptic assuming it's the same old stuff everyone else has unless explicitly plastered with labels to the contrary.

Cheers,
-Dan

Kennyz wrote:I'm enjoying your stories about the fancy schmancy immersion thingy. I don't have one, and I've never cooked with one. Sort of goes against my principles. But I used tapioca maltodextrin recently, so I might be coming around. Anyway, keep the stories coming.

So, tapioca maltodextrin is fair game, but poaching inside of a plastic bag is somehow against your principles?

-Dan