Meat Inspection

By law, all meat and meat animals (including poultry, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equine animals) in the United States must be inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the USDA, or a state inspection program which is monitored by the USDA. Inspection ensures that the meat is fit for human consumption. Animals are inspected before and after slaughter for signs of disease so that only the meat of healthy animals is sold as meat or meat products. Each step of production is also scrutinized to guard against contamination and misrepresentation of meat products.

Mandatory meat inspection is paid for out of tax dollars. Animals which are not covered by the mandatory inspection laws (such as buffalo, rabbit, reindeer, elk, deer, antelope) may be inspected by an FSIS inspector for an hourly fee which is paid for by the requester of the inspection.

Meat Grading

Meat grading is a voluntary service which may be performed after inspection for wholesomeness. Meat grading is requested and paid for by meat producers and processors. Meat grading refers to the segregation of carcasses, meat, or meat products based upon expected quality (palatability characteristics such as tenderness, juiciness, and flavor) or yield.

Whole butts can be pot roasted, bone in or boneless, hot smoked, BBQ’d and made into pulled pork in sauce. Cut up sliced into pork steaks, chunked for stews, skewered for kabobs or made into carnitas. Cuts can be fried, broiled, braised, smoked, grilled, or steamed. They can be breaded, encrusted, glazed, or sauced.

Whole boneless butts cured, tied, and cold smoked are a great variation creating a well marbled ham-like product.

Butts can also be ground for pork burgers or seasoned and made into sausage. I use them for country pan sausage, bratwurst, smoked polish sausage, and many more varieties.

One of my favorite products made from butts is Butt Bacon. I will share directions on how to make this delicious bacon in an upcoming post.

De-boning butts is not difficult since the small blade bone, or scapula is all that needs removed. For the benefit of those who may not have the experience I’ll try and walk you through it here.

I start with the fat side down and the cut edge of the bone facing me. This leaves the flat side of the scapula up.

First inspect the surface of the butt for small bone fragments and remove. Then, using the point of your sharp boning knife make your intital cut in this area.

Cut the meat free from the flat side of the scapula shaving as close as possible to the bone.

Cut the meat free from the edge of the bone and work around to the scapula spine going up and over, staying as close to the bone as possible.

Continue around to the curved edge of the bone and cut it free.

Thats about all there is to it!