Unpopular opinion: whole muscle is way easier to break down than people make it seem
I was reading an old trade bulletin from the Ontario livestock board last month and it said the average new butcher wastes about 18 percent of a subprimal on bad cuts and trim on their first 50 animals. That number hit me hard. When I started at a shop in Boise I was terrified of the seam work on a top round and I over trimmed everything trying to play it safe. But watching a guy with 20 years on the rail showed me he barely uses the tip of the knife, he just follows the natural seams and lets the muscle tell him where to go. I tried his way on a whole sirloin last Tuesday and my yield went up almost two pounds just by slowing down and not hacking at it. My old habit was treating every primal like a puzzle I had to force apart. Now I want to know if any of you track your yields per animal or just eyeball it like I used to?