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Watched a master butcher break down a whole cow at a fair and it changed how I work
I was at the Iowa State Fair maybe 5 years ago and this old timer named Hank was doing a demo with a half carcass. He was using a 10 inch breaking knife that looked like it was older than me, and he just flowed through the primals without even stopping to wipe his board. I remember he said 'you're not cutting the meat, you're just finding the seams that are already there.' That stuck with me because back then I was fighting every cut, forcing the knife through and wasting a lot of good trim. After watching him I went home and started paying way more attention to the natural separations between muscles. It slowed me down at first but after about 2 weeks my yield went up maybe 15 percent. Has anyone else had a moment where watching someone else work completely changed your technique?
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wright.leo2mo ago
Man, that's the truth. @emma_bee61, that line about seams really does stick with you. I gotta ask though, did you find yourself having to unlearn a bunch of bad habits at first? Because when I started looking for those seams, I kept trying to force gaps where there weren't any, just because I was used to muscling through everything with a cheap knife. Took me a solid month to stop fighting the meat and start listening to it.
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wood.uma2mo ago
Read somewhere that in Japan, chefs train for years just to learn how to sharpen a knife before they even touch meat. Makes sense when you think about it, because a cheap blade just makes you fight everything.
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sean_barnes242mo ago
@emma_baker61 that line really does hit different doesn't it. Wright.leo yeah man I had to unlearn a ton of bad habits. The biggest one was gripping the knife too tight and forcing angles that didn't exist. For me the real game changer was realizing that if you're having to muscle through a cut you're probably on the wrong path. Once I started letting the knife find the way instead of me trying to force it everything got smoother. My shoulder stopped aching at the end of the day too which was a nice bonus.
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