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Shoutout to the older guy at the farmers market in Knoxville who asked for a specific cut
I was working my stall last fall when a man, maybe in his seventies, asked if I could cut a pork shoulder for him the way his grandfather did. He described it as a 'cross-rib roast' with the bone left in a certain way, a method I'd never heard of. He was so patient, drawing a little diagram on a scrap of paper right there on my cutting board. I followed his instructions as best I could, and when I handed it over, he just nodded and said, 'That's it. You got it right.' It wasn't a big sale, maybe $18, but the way he trusted me with that old knowledge really stuck with me. I've tried to find more about that cut since, but it doesn't come up in any of my modern books. Has anyone else had a customer teach them a truly old-school, regional cut that's fallen out of common practice?
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the_jessica1mo ago
Oh man, that's a cool story. Makes me think of the time I tried to carve a turkey like my grandma showed me and ended up with something that looked like it lost a fight with a lawnmower. It's neat how those old ways of doing things just live in people's heads.
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mason_reed471mo ago
I mean, that's a nice moment and all, but it's just one pork shoulder. @the_jessica is right that it's mostly just a memory thing. It's not like that one old cut is some huge lost secret that changes everything. Maybe the guy was just being nice and it wasn't even exactly right. People get really into this stuff but idk, it's just meat. It got sold and eaten like anything else.
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