Hot take: most butchers over-trim their ribeyes and it's costing them money

I was reading through some USDA yield grade data last night and found out the average butcher leaves nearly 8% more fat on the cutting room floor than they need to. That's like $2-3 per steak at current prices. I got curious after a guy at the shop in Austin showed me how he trims his Prime ribeyes with almost no waste. Makes me wonder how many of us are just doing it the way we were taught without actually checking the numbers. Anyone else ever run the math on their trim loss?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora_martinez2mo ago

Three years in a deli showed me people just follow the old ways without question. My boss trimmed brisket the same way for twenty years even after grain prices changed everything. It's like people forget that methods were set for a different time and different customers.

blakem822mo ago

Wow, that really hit home @cora_martinez. I actually read a piece in a food science blog about how grain fed vs grass fed beef started shifting in the 90s and most butchers never adjusted their trim for the different fat content. Your boss sounds like he was stuck in that exact trap.

grantnelson27d ago

That bit about grain fed vs grass fed is the real key that most people miss. The whole industry shifted when they started finishing cattle on corn because it marbles differently and the fat cap gets way softer. A guy I knew in KC ran a test where he trimmed ribeyes the old school way from a grain finished steer and lost almost a quarter pound per primal cut compared to grass fed. Butchers learned their technique from guys who were cutting a totally different animal and nobody wants to admit their mentor was wrong. It's like trying to use a 1980s recipe for chicken when the birds themselves are twice as big now. The whole system needs a reset but good luck telling some old timer he's been wasting money for thirty years.