Meat Judging Study Guide

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Meat Judging Study Guide

• How to Judge Classes of Meat

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What to Look for in a Carcass, a Wholesale Cut,
or a Retail Cut
No matter what you are judging you are always
looking for the same three things Muscling Trimn
ess Quality. In any class of meat that you are
judging you are looking for the cut of meat that
combines these three characteristics the best.
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What is muscling?

• -the amount of muscle tissue that an animal has
• -the muscle is the most valuable part of the cut,
  not the fat or the bones
• Which carcass or cut has more muscle as compared
  to the amount of bones or fat?

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What is quality?

• -a measure of how good the muscle tissue is
• -color is an indicator of quality
• -the amount of marbling is an indicator of
  quality
• -age of the animal at the time of slaughter is an
  indicator of quality
• -whether the cut of meat is from a mature male of
  the species (bull, boar, or ram) as opposed to a
  castrated male or female of that species (cow,
  steer, heifer, sow, barrow, gilt, ewe, whether or
  ewe lamb) can effect quality
• Which carcass or cut came from a young animal of
  that species and shows good coloring and adequate
  marbling?

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What is trimness?

• -the absence of excess fat
• -some fat in a carcass or cut of meat is good it
  gives flavor
• -too much fat is bad it is bad for peoples
  health and people tend to avoid very fat cuts of
  meat when they are choosing which piece of meat
  to purchase
• Which carcass or cut of meat has enough fat to
  give the cut of meat flavor while not having so
  much fat that it is unhealthy and loses consumer
  appeal?

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What are you looking for in a cut of meat?

• You are looking for the carcass or cut of meat
  that best combines heavy muscling, good quality,
  and appropriate trimness.

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Judging Beef

• -look first at quality
• -look for marbling. This is very important.
  Remember that marbling is the fat that is
  scattered inside the muscles of the carcass or
  cut of meat. The more marbling the better the
  quality.
• -look for good coloring. Remember that beef
  should be cherry red in color, not so light that
  it is almost pink and not so dark that it is
  almost black.
• -look second at cutability. Cutability is the
  combination of trimness and muscling that will
  allow various cuts of meat to the made from a
  carcass or retail cut. A high cutability carcass
  or wholesale cut would be trim and very heavily
  muscled.

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T-Bone Steaks Look for differences in quality,
trimness, and muscling. Which best combines
these three features?
1.
2.
4.
3.
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1 best combines the characteristics of quality,
muscling and trimness.
Lets look at the other 3 steaks and see what
characteristics they are lacking in.
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2 still has plenty of muscling and quality, but
this steak has problems with trimness. There is
too much outside fat along the loin eye muscle
(the larger muscle) and the tenderloin muscle
(the smaller muscle).
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3 is alright in the areas of muscling and
trimness, but this steak is lacking in quality.
It has poor coloring and not enough marbling.
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4 is lacking in muscling. It has plenty of
quality and is trim enough, it is just has less
muscling and therefore less edible meat.