Lean meat

Sunset, Nov, 1987

Lean meat

We're hearing more about it today, but meat has actually been getting leaner for some time. Years ago, when Westerners first began to prefer lighter diets, ranchers began breeding for leaner meat, favoring more muscular, larger-framed animals that reach market weight earlier.

Compared to 30 years ago, beef cattle have 40 percent less fat, yielding meat that's 8 to 10 percent leaner. Hogs have 50 percent less fat, and pork is 6 to 8 percent leaner. Lambs have almost doubled in weight, producing more lean meat in relation to fat.

Old charts listing nutrients and calories in meat are obsolete, and not only because meat has changed. A comprehensive update of existing nutritional information on meats, begun in the late 1970s, is nearly finished, and it's far more detailed and accurate than anything available before.

For one thing, we now know how important the cut of meat is--now widely fat content varies from place to place on the same animal. Park tenderloin, for example, is one of the leanest meats, with about 140 calories in a trimmed, cooked 3-ounce serving; a same-weight portion of pork sparerib meat has about 340 calories. A chart on page 186 gives the new calorie counts and fat and cholesterol values for a sampling of meat cuts.

Most people realize how important it is to cut back on fat in the diet. The problem, as cooks have discovered, is that meats can lose tenderness and flavor as they become leaner. And the wrong cooking method can put the fat right back on the plate again.

In Sunset's own kitchens, we've done extensive testing to discover the best ways to cook lean meats without adding high-calorie ingredients. Cooked with the appropriate techniques, these meats can be made almost as tender and succulent as fatter cuts. On pages 94 through 97, we explain six basic cooking techniques we've found give good results. By varying meats, seasonings, and serving accompaniments, you can use these six techniques to produce a whole repertoire of low-calorie meat dishes.

But our lean-meat strategy really begins with a new way of looking at meat cuts in the market--assessing their yield of lean meat and its potential for lighter meals. On the pages that follow, we show you which cuts of beef, veal, pork, and lamb usually offer a good proportion of lean meat. Most of the meats need some further cutting at home, and we tell you how to do it. When you cut meat at home, you can often trim off extra fat and still save over the price of ready-to-cook packaged meats--and you can use the bones and trimmings for making soup.

When you don't have time to do your own cutting, you can buy meats already sliced thin for scaloppine, cut into strips for stirfrying, or cubed for skewers.

Shopping for beef

New, leaner breeds of cattle are also being fed differently, and for shorter periods. Less time in feed lots results in meat with less marbling (the tiny streaks of fat you see interlaced with lean muscle).

Marbling is still the main indicator of quality used in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's grading standards for beef. Of the three top grades, Prime is the fattiest, followed by Choice, then Good-- although the difference in fat content between well-trimmed Choice and Good beef is now quite small. Very little Prime beef is produced today, and most of that is sold to restaurants. If all beef were graded (it's not: grading is optional, paid for by packers who choose to use the service; all meat, however, is inspected for wholesomeness), most beef sold in the West today would be rated Good.

The tenderest roasts and steaks come from the loin and rib sections. However, many parts of the less expensive round and chuck can be tender and succulent if prepared by our techniques. The leanest beef comes from the round, but carefully trimmed cuts from the loin, rib, and chuck can also be low in fat.

The beef cuts described here are usually economical sources of lean meat. You can divide these larger cuts for several different meals, freezing what you plan to use later. More expensive cuts of boneless lean meat include the all-tender rib eye and tenderloin roasts and flank steak.

Chuck: blade and 7-bone roasts. Both have a lot of seam fat, but it's easily trimmed away. Blade cuts include some of the tender "eye' muscle (a continuation of the rib eye) and usually have a little more separable fat than 7-bone roasts.

To have pieces thick enough to cut as directed below, buy a 4- to 5-pound roast. Select the blade roast with the smallest blade bone and largest eye. Chose the 7-bone roast with the longest 7-bone; cuts nearest the neck have a shorter bone but less tender meat. The grain runs perpendicular to the surface of these cuts; after trimming away the fat and connective tissue, turn meat and slice parallel to the original cut.

Chuck: boneless shoulder. The whole muscle, weighing 10 to 12 pounds, is usually divided to make several roasts or thick steaks. In California, they're opten called cross-rib roasts, and the tapering end is often sold as diamond or Diamond Jim roast. Most of the meat is tender when cut across the grain.