Consumers like tender steaks. If the Choice cuts at $12.99 eat like the Prime at $21.99, fewer people will splurge on Prime.
Frankly, the Choice/Prime distinction isn’t all that. Beef are graded by the USDA inspector based on the visual of a single cut between two ribs.
Next time you’re in a market that has both, sort through the Choice bin. Find a package with really good marbling. Schlepp it over to the Prime bin and compare. You’re likely to find that the cherrypicked Choice pack is as marbled as the average Prime pack. I’m not saying Costco is passing off…
Today at one of my local Costcos, they had a single package of ribeye cap, priced at $22.99/lb. It was between whole ribeyes and capless ribeyes, both priced at $21.99/lb. All had the label indicating they’d been needled.
I would have purchased the package of caps had there been either two or four on the tray, but as there were three, and we are a household of two, I didn’t want to have to any math whatsoever. Maybe next month when Spawn1 comes home for a few days…
I was going to say the drive to Stockton would be well worth it just for the cheaper cap, but yours is American wagyu (whatever that is). I’m pretty sure the label didn’t specify any kind of wagyu in Stockton. ISTR it said ‘prime’, but I think I’d remember wagyu.
脖仁(boren )：it is a piece of meat on the neck of a cow with marble-like lines, accounting for only 1% of a whole cow. After cooking 4-6 seconds, it tastes very fresh, sweet and crisp.
I re-watched the episode on beef hot pot from flavorful origins on Netflix.
I regularly ‘graze’ the meat counter/bins at supermarkets and Costco.
never yet encountered the cap sold separately.
I was however stupefied / dumbfounded at seeing USDA graded prime cuts as “mechanically tenderized.” the retailer is not authorized / allowed to ‘make up a grade’ - only a USDA inspector can assign a “prime” grade - and one of the very veddy basic reasons for buying “prime” is the marbling and accompanying ‘tenderness’
I think Costco needles all thin beef cuts, no matter what.
Having worked in my dad’s processing plant, and having raised and butchered my own cattle, I’ve always been sceptical about grading. It obviously is of some utility, but considering how it’s done, and considering that some Choice-graded cuts are better marbled than the same cuts graded Prime, the utility is limited.
People should remember that it’s the animal that gets the grade, not the cut, and it’s based on the inspector making a single cut between ribs.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
77
Most steaks are needled at Costco, but in a prior discussion here someone said tenderloin was not, and I think (?) there was one other.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
80
Hahaha.
@kaleokahu - also their “prime” NY strip steaks are needled. My FIL used to buy those a lot. I don’t like the mealy or spongy (not sure what to call it), texture it imparts, but I’m a polite guest and didn’t complain if that’s what was on the menu when we visited. I did at some point mention the health risks (given his age), but not during a time he was serving them.
