# Beef Hinquarter



## mise_en_place (Apr 12, 2021)

Decided I'd do a step by step on how we break a beef hindquarter where I work. It's all board breaking. This isn't the end-all-be-all of beef cutting, of course. Happy to hear how you do it, but spare any outrage, please-- mostly in regards to my camera work.

Almost right away I smudged the lens with beef fat, but it's a new phone-- and I thought it was some stupid camera filter setting. So the first couple photos and very last are OK. Maybe I can do it later and upload new photos.

This animal is part Limousine, but I believe it was mostly Jersey. Hanging weight was 803 lb. By the way, a hindquarter in the US goes from the thirteenth (and final) rib of the animal to the back leg







Above is the drop loin or flank of the beef hindquarter. On the right you can see a portion of the hip bone. That knife is stuck in suet (visceral fat). The blue outline is of the flank steak. The flank steak is one of the abdominal muscles on the cow.




Flank is now out.




Flank is out and some of that connective tissue underneath has been removed.




More complete trimming of the area. Ready to move to the next step, which is removal of suet.




The area outlined is where the bavette steak lies. The fat clod above that is called suet and it needs to be removed before continuing.




Suet out

1. tenderloin
2. bavette still attached at hip
3. extraneous flat meat -- an oblique muscle that's very, very tough.




The dotted line is where the suet used to be. The drop loin is beginning to be separated up off the hip (compare to previous photo). This exposes the trip tip (#2)
1. Tenderloin
2. Tri Tip
3. Drop loin containing bavette and other flat meat.




I continue to pull out the drop loin by peeling away the bavette and making a straight cut from the hip (left point of tri tip #3) to the thirteenth rib (#4).
1. Tenderloin
2. Bavette
3. Tri Tip
4. 13th rib




The bavette and one extraneous muscle has been removed. The area labeled 2 is the remainder of the drop loin or sometimes called flank primal. It will be removed. The arrow labeled 1 shows the thirteenth rib before separation.


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## mise_en_place (Apr 12, 2021)

Rib has been sawed through. Rest of drop will go to trim. 

1. 13th rib
2. Remainder of drop




Sorry, didn't get a good shot before I split the short loin (#2) from the sirloin (#3), but that's what I did. I look for the intersection of the sacral and lumbar vertebrae, and count up one lumbar and split. This is a very common technique referred to as quartering. Some butchers quarter in different spots, however, it's all around that same area.

The solid line on the right shows the line between sirloin and round.

1. tenderloin
2. Short Loin (that would be the strip towards the top, and the tenderloin below the backbone in the photo)
3. Sirloin
4. Round (the leg of the animal)




There's the face of the porterhouse after splitting the short loin from the sirloin.
From left to right:
Sirloin, NY, Tenderloin




There's the shank on the left and the round on the right. The dotted line is where I plan to separate with a knife through the knee joint. This was a pretty big animal and I didn't care about chasing the merlot steak, so I just cut straight through the knee. You can seam the "heel" as Americans call it away from the shank and then chase the merlot steak, but like I said, I didn't that day.




1. Where shank used to be
2. Round




Now I'll chase the tri tip
1. Tri tip
2. Round




Peeling the tri tip.






Same photos, one with annotations. Tri tip is off. Tri tip can be tricky because it sits so closely to many desirable cuts. 

1. Tri tip
2. Knuckle (part of the round)
3. Tenderloin (filet head)
4. Sirloin


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## mise_en_place (Apr 12, 2021)

Sirloin and round before separation.

1. Sirloin
2. Tenderlion (filet head)
3. Round
4. Knuckle (part of the round)
5. Where tri tip used to be.







Same photos above. Sirloin now separated with combination of handsaw and knife. 

1. Sirloin
2. Round
3. Picanha (part of sirloin)
4. Tiny bit of knuckle (now part of the "bottom sirloin")
5. Tenderloin (filet head)
6. Part of the head of the femur
7. Part of the hip bone.

And that's it! That's how we break a beef hindquarter where I work. From there the various primals and subprimals are cut to get ready for sale. Thanks for looking.


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