Food Cost / Yield Test

Class was again Chef Ted breaking down proteins. This time, he had a two sides of beef, and we did a yield test on them -- weighed before, then the trim was weighed, then calculated the real price of the edible portions. It was pretty straightforward stuff, but had it been intended for a full menu with many moving parts and recipes embedded within recipes, it would be quite a bug bear. I would have been more involved in the discussion, but I was sleepily checking in and out.

The waste on a large tenderloin of beef is amazing. We started with 9 pounds, and after the fat was cut off, the different muscles that didn't belong to the tender portion, the silver skin and connective tissues, we were left with less than 5 pounds. I asked Chef Ted out of an entire cow, how much is usable. There is relatively little prime meat on a cow, but everything is usable. From the skin into leather, the bones into gelatin, the organs and offal to vendors overseas, to stomach bile for cheese making and paint, it's all used. The meat, the steaks and burgers, are really a very very small part of the cow that we use. And the meat that is graded "prime" is only 1% of all meat produced.