The Kids and Kahlie

I have been reading a barbequing blog recently. It is called The BBQ Report. the writers post recipes and other stuff related to barbequing. I like it because they discuss, at times, about something they call ‘barbeque culture.’

You might appreciate a recent post on how the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) classifies beef. There are 8 levels of beef quality in the US and I list them here from best to worst. (Love the names …)

Prime
Choice
Select
Standard
Commercial
Utility
Cutter
Canner

They follow the list with this juicy summary:

Studies suggest that beef graded at least USDA Select are likely to acceptable in eating quality for most consumers, so this is usually the lowest grade you’ll ever hear mentioned by name in the supermarket. (Mmm! 100% UTILITY GRADE BEEF!) Unlabled cuts of meat are either commercial or utility grade, or more likely were never graded in the first place. The lowest grades, cutter and canner, are used in disgusting things like potted meat and those meat sticks you find in the gas station. Let’s look a little closer at the three primary grades of meat you’ll likely to be selecting from.

But what else is fun about this post is the game where you get to try and assign USDA quality levels to photographs of actual steaks! Does it get any more fun on a hot summery afternoon? Try the game by clicking HERE. (Hint: It has to do with amounts of fat and marbling.)

By the way, there’s lots more mouth watering information in the original post.