Let’s Talk About It: Meat Judging
I’ve tried many different career development competitions, but none of them has my interest the way meat judging does. Let me explain the meat judging competition and why I continue to place an interest in it.
Growing up my dad always told me stories of his adventures in FFA. He told me how his favorite Career Development Event was meat judging. As I grew up I knew I was intrigued with the competition and wanted to try it out for myself.
I first started meat judging around two years ago through 4-H. My FFA chapter did not have a team at the time and they were just deciding to put together a team for our county through 4-H. I decided to join to see if I really was going to enjoy it. As my extension agent puts it “meat judging is black and white, it either is or it isn’t.” Now this may not make any sense now, but it will later.
Meat judging consists of retail ID, placing classes, questions/reasons (depending on whether you are competing through FFA or 4-H), yield and quality grading (for FFA only), and a written exam (for FFA only).
Retail ID
The hardest portion to learn is retail ID. This is because you have 99 different cuts of meat to memorize. There are four parts to a retail ID scantron. You have to be able to memorize the species, primal, retail cut name, and cookery method. This seems like a lot at first, but with some time and practice, you become very familiar with each cut.
The species can either be beef, pork, or lamb. The primal refers to the big portion of where a cut of meat comes from. For example, the ribeye steak comes from the rib primal, and the T-Bone steak comes from the loin primal. The retail cut name is the individual cuts. Examples of these is T-Bone steak, ribeye steak, 7-Bone roast, and sliced bacon.
With cookery method you have three different options, dry, moist, and dry/moist. Dry cookery refers to things like grilling and pan frying. Dry cookery meats are usually tender, like a ribeye and tenderloin steak. Moist cookery refers to stewing or braising; something that deals with submerging the meat in liquid. Moist cookery meats can be stew meat, oxtail, and big roasts. Dry/moist cookery refers to any meats that can be cooked either in a dry or moist setting. Examples of these would be pork back ribs, cubed steak, and major organs.
Placing Classes
In placing classes you are shown four parts of pork, lamb, and beef carcasses. This can be anything from four beef carcasses, to four T-Bone steaks. Your objective is to place the class in the correct order. Nearly 90% of the time we place these classes based upon the amount of fat they have. The less amount of fat something has, the better. If two in a class are fairly similar in the amount of fat is seen then we move on to judging the amount of muscle present. The only difference lies in cuts of meat that shows the ribeye. Any cut of meat that shows a ribeye is judged off of the amount of marbling it has, or the amount of fat within the meat.
Question/Reasons
In FFA meat judging we have questions. While we are going through our placing classes we are informed that there are two classes we have questions on. While we a judging a class that has questions on it, we have to take as many notes as possible. This is because we will not be able to review or see the classes while answering the questions. In a separate rotation someone will either read the questions aloud, or they will hand us a slip of paper with the questions on it. We read the questions and fill out our scantron.
In 4-H we have reasons. It is the same format as questions, except instead of answering questions, we have to come up with a small verbal explanation on why we placed a class the way we did. We are given some time before we go into speak. With this time, we have to memorize what we want to say, as we cannot have our notes card. Normally, at the district level, we have to give three sets of reasons. When you advance to higher levels, you have to give a greater number of reasons.
Yield and Quality Grade
In FFA we have to be able to know yield and quality grade. Yield grade consists majorly with mathematics. It is nothing complicated, but we are in charge of depicting the cutability of a beef carcass. We are given two classes with three beef carcasses each. Our job is to walk up to these carcasses and guess how much back fat they have, and how big the ribeye is. With this information, as well as given information like carcass weight and kidney pelvic heart fat, we do some math to determine the yield grade. This number can be anywhere from 1-5, with 1 being a very lean carcass, and 5 being a very fatty carcass.
Quality grade deals with the amount of marbling in a carcass. We have all heard of “prime rib”. Well, the word “prime” refers to the meat’s quality grade. In meat judging we have six options: prime, choice, select, stand, commercial, and utility. Within each of these options you have suboptions like high choice, average choice, and low choice. It is our job to look at the ribeye of a beef carcass and determine the quality grade. We do this by looking at the amount of fat within the ribeye. Prime has the most amount of marbling, followed by choice, then select, standard, and so on.
Exam
Lastly, in FFA we have to take an exam. It is usually a 30 question exam pertaining to information on meat science. All of the questions are based off of an ICEV powerpoint. There are a total of eight different topics on this powerpoint: legislation and history, animal care and handling, meat nutrition, purchasing meat, meat storage and handling, meat cookery, processed meats, and food safety. These eight topics are split in half. Every odd year we study four topics, and every even year we study the other four topics. We are given one rotation of time to take this exam.
my take away
Meat judging will help you grow your knowledge of meat science and allow you to recognize a good steak at the grocery store. You learn many skills no other competition can grant you. Even if you do not go into a career in meat science, you will be able to gain knowledge no other will have.