11.2 Inspection, grading and storage

Inspection is not grading

In the United States, the USDA runs two separate programmes. Inspection checks that meat and poultry are wholesome, which means safe and fit to eat. It is required by law and paid for with public money. Grading judges quality. It is voluntary, and the producers who ask for it pay for it. The agency that inspects is the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Early inspectors looked mostly for sick animals. Today they also look for dangers nobody can see, such as germs and chemicals.

Meat that passes is stamped with a round purple mark, made with a food-grade vegetable dye that does no harm. The mark goes on carcasses and large cuts, so it may be trimmed away before a steak reaches you, but a package from an inspected plant shows a mark naming the plant. On poultry, the round stamp is on a tag on the wing or printed on the package. An inspection stamp tells you nothing about quality or tenderness. Animals the law does not cover, such as bison, rabbit, elk and deer, can be inspected on request for a fee.

Beef grades

Beef is graded as a whole carcass, in two ways. Quality grades judge tenderness, juiciness and flavor, from the marbling, the color and the age of the meat. Yield grades judge how much usable lean meat the carcass holds. Marbling is the white flecks of fat inside the muscle. More marbling means a higher grade, because it makes beef more tender, tasty and juicy.

USDA beef quality grades.

Only about two percent of graded beef is Prime. It is the most tender and flavorful, and also the fattest. Most graded beef in shops is Choice or Select. Protein, vitamins and minerals are much the same in every grade. Yield grades run from 1, the most lean to fat, down to 5. Cooks rarely see them, except when buying a side or a whole carcass. The words Prime, Choice and Select may not be used for raw pork or poultry.

Veal, lamb and pork

Veal has five grades: prime, choice, good, standard and utility. The top two are juicier and tastier. Because the animal is young, the meat is pale, from light grayish pink to light pink, with a firm, velvety feel. Its bones are small, soft and red. Chops can be roasted, grilled or broiled.

Lamb also has five grades, but shops usually sell only prime and choice. The lower grades, along with mutton (meat from older sheep), are seldom marked. Lamb quality changes with the age of the animal, so graded lamb is the safer buy. Most prime and choice cuts can take dry heat; the breast, riblets, neck and shank are braised.

Pork does not get USDA quality grades, because it comes from young animals bred and fed to be evenly tender. Choose it by eye instead: a thin layer of outside fat, firm grayish-pink meat, and a little marbling.

Poultry grades

Poultry is graded A, B or C, and the grade appears on a shield-shaped tag or on the package. Grading is voluntary, yet nearly every bird is graded. A Grade A bird:

• is well shaped;
• has thick flesh and a good layer of fat;
• has no pinfeathers, cuts, tears, broken bones or discolored patches;
• if frozen, shows no damage from handling.

Nearly all poultry sold is Grade A; Grades B and C go into processed products. Necks, wing tips, tails, giblets and ground poultry have no grades at all.

The grade says nothing about tenderness or flavor. The class does: a young turkey is younger and more tender than a yearling.

What color tells you, and what it does not

The red of meat comes mostly from myoglobin. Cut meat kept away from air, as in a vacuum pack, is purplish. Air turns the surface bright red. Over time, light and air turn it brownish red. None of these changes alone means the meat has spoiled.

Each fresh meat has its own best color:

• beef: cherry red;
• lamb: dark cherry red;
• pork: grayish pink;
• veal: pale pink.

Ground beef can be red outside and grayish brown inside simply because air has not reached the middle.

Spoiled meat does more than change color. It smells off, feels sticky or tacky, or turns slimy. Do not use it. White, dry patches on frozen meat are freezer burn. The meat is still safe, but those spots are dry and tasteless and can be cut off. The red juice in a package of beef is not blood. It is the meat's own water mixed with protein.

Ground beef

In the United States, beef fat can go into hamburger, but none may be added to ground beef, and neither may hold more than 30 percent fat. Grinding spreads whatever germs were on the surface all through the meat, and exposes more surface to them. E. coli O157:H7, a dangerous germ linked to undercooked ground beef, survives the refrigerator and the freezer.

Ground meat must reach 70°C (158°F) inside. Check ground beef with a thermometer. Grinding beef at home is best avoided, since whole cuts are usually not tested for E. coli the way beef trimmed for grinding is.

Buying poultry

Poultry comes in many forms:

• fresh or frozen;
• whole or cut up;
• with or without bones;
• ground;
• portion-controlled (P.C.);
• individually quick-frozen (IQF).

Whole fresh birds cost less than cut or frozen ones, and they are easy to cut up yourself. Let your menu, your labor costs, your storage and your staff's skills decide which form to buy. Buy only from approved suppliers you trust. Whole birds save money but take labor. For large batches of fried chicken, buying cases of cut pieces makes sense; for a fine-dining airline breast, a cook's own knife work beats a pre-cut one.

Storing meat and poultry

Receiving, cold storage and rotation are covered earlier. see chapter 2: Receiving a delivery

Refrigerated food is kept at 4°C or colder, and raw products always go on shelves below cooked or ready-to-eat food. The rules for meat and poultry:

• Carcass meat is unwrapped and hung so air moves around it, at 1°C to 3°C, in a walk-in, with absorbent paper underneath to catch drips.
• Boned meat keeps no more than three days. Individual cuts are used within two days, and best on the day they are cut.
• Steaks, chops, stewing meat and ground meat sit covered, on trays of plastic or stainless steel, at 2°C to 4°C.
• Fresh poultry is packed in ice and kept in the refrigerator.
• Frozen food is kept at −18°C (0°F) or colder. Meat burns easily in the freezer if it is not wrapped well.

How long poultry and meat keep:

• Chickens and other small birds: up to two days on ice or at 32°F to 34°F (0°C to 2°C).
• Larger birds: up to four days.
• Frozen poultry kept at 0°F (−18°C) or colder: up to six months.
• Ground beef and variety meats (liver, kidneys, tripe, sweetbreads, tongue): only 1 or 2 days.

Set poultry on drip pans so the water drains away, and lay bagged ice over it to keep it colder than the refrigerator alone.

Thaw frozen poultry slowly in the refrigerator: two days for a chicken, up to four for a large bird. Never cook poultry that is still partly frozen. It will not cook evenly, and the frozen spots may never get hot enough to kill bacteria. Beef can also be thawed in cold water in a sealed bag, with the water changed every 30 minutes, or in the microwave; meat thawed either of those ways is cooked straight away. Never thaw meat on the counter.

Raw poultry on the board

Poultry is a potentially hazardous food. It spoils fast and is especially likely to carry salmonella. To keep it from contaminating other food:

• Clean and sanitize every surface, board, knife and tool that touches it before it touches anything else.
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• Keep its juices and trimmings away from other food.
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• Never put cooked food in a container that held the raw bird.
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• Sanitize kitchen towels used during butchering before using them again.

It is not necessary to wash raw beef, because cooking destroys any bacteria on the surface.

Because poultry tastes mild, cooks often marinate it for extra flavor and moisture, especially before broiling or grilling. A mix of white wine or lemon juice with oil, salt, pepper, herbs and spices works well. Poultry soaks up flavor fast. In an acid marinade, two hours is often enough; small pieces need less, and more than a few hours can make the meat too soft. Allow about 240 mL (8 fl oz) of marinade for each double chicken breast. Drain an oily marinade well, so the grill does not flare, and wipe the surface dry so it browns. You may baste with the marinade during cooking, but never serve leftover marinade uncooked or use it again.

Stuffing is a potentially hazardous food, and cold food is stored at 4°C (40°F) or colder. When stuffing a bird:

• Every stuffing ingredient should be cold and stay cold while it is mixed and packed into the bird.
• Stuff the bird as close to cooking time as you can.
• Stuff it loosely, because stuffing swells.
• Close the openings with skewers and twine or by trussing.
• As soon as the bird is cooked, take all the stuffing out and store it on its own; left inside, it cannot cool and bacteria can grow.

Stuffing large birds in quantity is impractical and can be dangerous. It is hard to control the temperature inside, it takes labor, and the longer cooking can dry out the meat.

Is it done?

Poultry must reach 74°C (165°F) inside for 15 seconds, and stuffing cooked in poultry must reach 74°C (165°F).

There are four signs that a roast bird is done, and it is best to use more than one.

• Temperature. Push an instant-read thermometer into the thigh, the last part to cook, and keep it off the bone. It should read 165°F to 170°F (74°C to 77°C) at the coolest point. For a stuffed bird, push the thermometer deep into the stuffing.
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• Loose joints. When a bird is done, the leg moves loosely in its socket.
• Clear juices. In a bird that is not stuffed, tilt it with a fork: clear juices from the cavity mean it is done; cloudy or pink juices mean it is not.
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• Time. Time alone is the least reliable sign, though it helps plan large batches.