Quality Of Meat You Buy (1971 circa)

buying meat is an important job for any Homemaker you know we spend about 25 cents out of every food dollar for meat so it's very important from that standpoint also meat is a food that we all like especially when it's tender and juicy and flavorful and whenever you're buying meat to prepare a beautiful entree such as this it's important that you know about two things in particular about the meat quality and then it's important that you know about the cut of meat that you buy now to talk first about quality there are the USDA grades for meat to help you in buying this roast is grad USDA choice and you can see the little purple Shield shaped grade stamp on the outside fat covering this tells you that you're buying a certain degree of quality also it assures you of a of buying consistent quality because this Riv roast is going to be just as tender and juicy and flavorful if you buy it today or if you buy it two weeks from now when you buy by quality grade so the grade stamps or uh the grades are there to help you in selecting now these are the top three grades that you'll find most often in today's Supermarket the top quality grade USDA prime and then this one which is the most popular and one which you're most familiar with USDA Choice you'll find this all over the country uh in today's meat counter and the third quality grade USDA good and very often a store will offer two grades if you were going to buy a beef roast to prepare as a pot roast you went in the store and there was USDA choice and USDA good available and this one being a USDA Choice blade check roast and this roast being a USDA good blade check roast and this one's selling for a few cents less per pound than this now if you're going to prepare it as a pot roast why not buy the USDA good for a few cents per pound less because the way you cook it cooking it slowly and adding liquid you're going to tenderize it the way you cook it so it's to your advantage to uh choose the grade according to how you're going to uh cook the particular cut that you select so the grades do help in buying you see now meat grading is strictly voluntary it's a service that's provided by the US Department of Agriculture and it's provided by the request of Meat Packers and others who pay a fee for the service and a specially trained Federal meat grader uh judges the quality of the meat and then rolls the purple Shield shaped grade stamp all along the back side of a carcass and across the shoulder and up the brisket and he rolls the grade stamp this way so that it appears on the outside fat covering of your retail Cuts now this roast you can see the purple Shield shaped grade stamp on the outside fat covering of the roast and um this is what tells you the quality of meat that you're buying so I say it represents a certain degree of quality and also assures you of consistent quality now all not all meat is grated only uh beef and calf and ve and lamb are grated for Quality pork is not grated now in addition it's important to know the various cuts of meat that you buy and how to properly prepare because the cuts will vary uh within the animal for example in a side of beef you have the more tender cuts along the center back portion of the side of beef and then in this front section the Chuck you have your shoulder and blade cuts which are less tender and then in the back section in the round you have your round steak and sirloin tip Roose also less tender so you have to prepare according to cut and as I say the cuts will vary in tenderness within uh one animal or within a side of beef now there are booklets to help you that have been published by the US Department of Agriculture one entitled how to buy beef roast the other how to buy beef steaks and in each of these booklets there's an identification chart in the center fold illustrates all of the popular retail Cuts just as you see them in the meat counter and you can write for your single free copy of each write to stakes and roast agriculture TV Washington DC zip code 250 and you'll find with the help of these booklets that you'll be a much wiser Shopper at the meat counter and you can serve your meat cuts with [Applause] pride for