- [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided in part by the RE Synergy Foundation, content for the sustainable world.

G&C Foods, quality at every turn.

Pittsburgh Spice and Seasoning Company, making life taste better.

The Allen family, Robert, Ashley, Carol, and Fred.

And viewers like you.

(upbeat rock music) - [A.J.]

I'm the "Son of a Butcher."

(upbeat rock music) - You might be a son of a butcher, but I'm the original butcher.

(upbeat rock music) - Some ask me, "What is the meat industry to you?"

For me, it starts at a place where my family runs a grocery, butcher shop, and a catering business.

I'm sure it's about the business side of things, but for me, at its core, it's a story about relationships.

(upbeat rock music) Yeah, this is my father Gale O'Neil, he's had the store since 1989, when he started it, and he's been butchering since fall of '78?

- '75.

- Fall of '75.

- '75, I started in senior year of high school.

(upbeat rock music) - Oh, I'm just putting on my coat for cutting the meat, gives me a little bit of protection on my arms whenever I'm handling the bones and I grab a hold of the meat.

(air conditioner humming) Okay, so we're here with a grass... This is one of my grass-fed Devon steers, carcass is weighing at 779 pounds.

We're gonna break this animal... This animal was broken between the sixth and seventh rib, and then, it would've been broke here between the 12th and 13th rib, that would've been part of the hind quarter, so when we talked earlier about the bacon and what part of the bacon I use, we'll show you more in there on the saw whenever I cut it, but I typically like to use the bacon portion from here to here, I'm gonna have... That muscle's gonna carry and I'm gonna have a meatier piece of bacon, where a lot of guys will come across here and give this part to me, which... It's... It doesn't have near the muscling as you're gonna have towards... Underneath this, this brisket muscle is gonna carry back into that bacon, and that's what I'm trying to capitalize on for making my best bacon.

(air conditioner humming) (saw cutting meat) (air conditioner humming) (light clattering) (air conditioner humming) (dull thudding) (air conditioner humming) (dull thudding) Okay, the first cut I'm gonna make is get this brisket and that arm off of there.

(machinery whirring) I wanted to get that off there first, so that way, I got some... A smaller portion that I got to move around with, and now, we're gonna trim this up and get it ready to make the rest of the roast cuts.

(machinery whirring) (dull thudding) So he's gonna want the tomahawk.

(light clattering) So yeah, right here is where I'm gonna... I like the beef bacon on this side, like I say, the brisket muscle kinda carries back into here and a lot of people will try to give you this part of the rib as the bacon, but we prefer this muscle this size, it's got more muscle in it.

(saw cutting meat) - [Person] You have to be pretty strong to do this.

- [A.J.]

(laughs) Yeah.

(air conditioner humming) (loud clattering) - Okay.

Clean these up a little bit to let the bone look pretty.

- [Person] How many dogs do you have in your household?

(Gale laughing) - Just one.

(laughs) We could feed a few, but just one.

- [A.J.]

Hey, let... Will you save me the...?

We're gonna do ossobuco, we'll do cross-cut shanks out of that.

Yeah, just clean that up a little bit.

- [Gale] The tomahawk steak is basically, you just run up right between your bones, and then, you can cut it right across your ribeyes there.

(machinery whirring) (upbeat guitar music) (cartoonish sliding) (spring bouncing) (upbeat guitar music) - [Narrator] Butchery is one of the world's oldest professions, with evidence of human ancestors butchering animals for survival found from as far back as 2.9 million years ago.

(upbeat guitar music) - And this would be the short ribs also out of this, but we find the beef bacon definitely sells way better than the... The bacon sells better than the beef ribs, for sure.

(air conditioner humming) And there's your beef bacon.

And there's your ribs that make your dog happy.

(loud clattering) Here's your brisket.

Back when I was younger, we always just cut it across this way 'cause it was like soup meat for it, now, everybody just kinda, like, wants the whole brisket to throw on their smoker.

We'll just pull that out real quick.

(air conditioner humming) (knife scraping table) - [Person] Okay, now, tell me about this right here.

- This right here is the brisket, that's your front shoulder.

- [Person] That kinda fat there, this is the fat we're looking at?

- Oh, that's your brisket off your fat.

Or... Basically, you just trim all the fat off here.

Right there is... This is what you call your brisket flat, it is just all meat through there, and from this point up here, they call it the point, that is where the fat... It's a lot of fat through there, but people will slow-cook that and just mix all the fat together, it makes a real juicy piece.

(upbeat guitar music) (chicken clucking) (upbeat country music) (spring bouncing) - [Narrator] In the Middle Ages, butchers formed some of the first professional guilds to protect quality standards, share trade knowledge, and maximize meat processing for the wealthy.

(upbeat guitar music) - This would be the other side of where... This is the chuck side of where the ribeye would be, so between the sixth and seventh and 12th ribeyes over here, so what we'll call this... This is our chuck Delmonico, so this chuck is gonna carry down in here, you'll get a couple steaks off of it before you really get into the chuck, and where... Before that muscle really starts to take on a different look.

And we're gonna cut out the flat iron here out of the shoulder blade.

(light clattering) (loud clattering) (machinery whirring) This is the start of where the English would start and that flat-iron muscle would come down in there.

(machinery whirring) That'd be your arm roast.

(machinery whirring) This is... I'm gonna do cross-cut shanks for this guy so we can make some soups and have some nice meat to go with it.

(machinery whirring) - There's another one with corn roast too if you need stew meat, pull these nice little pieces out, it has no gristle.

If you go with something like that, you have a little bit of gristle and it will give you a little bit of toughness to it, but you can see where the gristle is, it's just cut in-between 'em.

Let the grinder take care of the rest of that.

I like to keep a little bit of fat on, like, some of our stew meat, that definitely is flavory but also, we'll throw a lot of lean in it too, so you don't have any... Believe it or not, I still have all my fingers.

- [Person] How long does it take to...?

If you're doing a full steer, the average size, how long does it take to go from start to finish?

(faint speaking) - If you got A.J.

and I, you can do that probably in an hour-and-a-half, bone everything out and... (indistinct) - [Person] And you're tired afterwards after that, I bet.

- Well, we try to get one-and-a-half to two, we get two a day, we're doing pretty good, but we're out in the store taking care of customers.

(upbeat guitar music) (cartoonish sliding) (spring bouncing) (upbeat guitar music) - [Narrator] The term "butcher" comes from the Old French word "bouchier," which originally referred to someone who slaughtered goats.

(upbeat guitar music) - [Person] Now, do you do all kinds of different animals?

- Yeah.

- [Person] Which are the ones that are not easy?

I mean, I know size is a difference, but if you have... - Oh, that's a bear.

- That's easy.

(laughs) A bear.

(laughs) - Their fat bones are not like this, they have all kind of curves like this the whole way around their back.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music continues) (upbeat guitar music continues) (upbeat guitar music continues) (machinery whirring) - [A.J.]

These are just neck bones, some customers want the neck bones like that.

- It makes everything just nice and juicy.

There is also another steak that come in... It's right underneath this, it's on the inside towards your ribs, your cow, it's called a English medallion, it's really tender, there's no gristle, anything like that in it, so that's another cheaper steak that is really popular.

- I still have it intact over here.

- [Gale] What's that?

- It should still be here.

- [Gale] Okay.

- [A.J.]

You wanna show 'em?

- Okay, there's the chuck tender that I was telling you about on the other shoulder, the shoulder sits right here and you can pull that out there, people will make... I just like to make a roast out of it 'cause it is juicier, it's, like, a dark meat and it is juicier on that one.

(air conditioner humming) You got rid of your tender there somewhere along the way.

Yeah, that's pretty much where your other... Comes out of the other side of that for your flat iron.

(loud clattering) Basically, there's your flat iron, and your hip, and your shoulder bone because it's right in the middle of that.

When I was telling you about the gristle, there's a little piece of gristle that starts out real heavy here, but it comes down and thins out, down in this part, it will just melt, up in this part, it won't, so if you want your real good flat-iron steak, you wanna do the tail end of 'em.

Any butcher can do that for you, just give you the tail end, not the other end, but you can cut that up into your beef tips, just makes that work.

- [A.J.]

Spencer steaks.

- Yeah, your Spencer stakes, once in a while, we'll just do a change-up and we will cut... Are you using it?

- [A.J.]

Yeah, I'm gonna use the bottom.

- Okay, but anyhow, if you just cut it straight across here, your meat... You're cutting across your green, which it will make tender and it just gives you the nice... The steaks are... They look like that, so... - [Person] What are you cutting right now?

- This is really an arm roast, a lot of people like... (indistinct) Burger once in a while, so we'll just pull the real lean, where there's no gristle in it, and make stew out of it.

(air conditioner humming) (dull thudding) There's another with arm roast stew, but if you need stew meat, pull these nice little pieces out, it has no gristle in it.

If you go with something like that, you have a little bit of gristle on it, it will give you a little bit of toughness to it, but you can see where the gristle is and just cut in-between 'em.

(air conditioner humming) Let the grinder take care of the rest of that.

(air conditioner humming) (upbeat guitar music) (cartoonish sliding) (spring bouncing) - [Narrator] In colonial America, traveling butchers provided fresh meat to growing towns and cities.

(upbeat guitar music) - Yeah, this is off the brisket there, all the marbling in that, that's where you get a lot of your tenderness and juiciness out of it.

I was really surprised when A.J.

first started doing the grass-fed, that it had this much marbling in it, 'cause I was always told the corn on the dairy farm is what gives you your fat in your product, but when we first... A.J.

first started into it, I went with him to one farmer in New York and we got a sirloin, which is kind of a so-so steak being tender anyways, so we brought her back and threw it on the grill out back here in the store and it was awesome, I said, "Oh, no, this can't be it," so we ended going to... (indistinct) To another Devon farmer that did the same thing, and they come back tender like that, and I said, "This went against old grain that I was brought up on from the dairy farm to meat-cutting," so yeah, after that, it had me sold, then you get the... How docile they are, how it seems like they're easy to take care of, but I left that for A.J.

to figure out.

- [Person] But from a butcher's perspective, that difference in the meat, is that really truly something that you notice?

Because... Yeah, I've been told that is definitely a difference.

- You can tell that, you... I mean, being in the business all these years, I could pick it up right away, but if you actually told somebody, and then, they could pick it up, you know, there's a big difference, flavor-wise, yeah.

(indistinct) - Well, they're actually doing, like, genomics testing now where they're seeing tenderness traits in the genes, and so, now, they're starting to test animals for this tenderness trait, and so, this kinda just goes to show a little bit that there's something else going on besides just the feed there, that an animal does have the ability to do it if it's given the right nutrition.

- [Person] It's one thing to say, "Hey, might be for fantastic and I think they're wonderful," and it's a conceptual thing, but when you have something quantifiable, it does take all of the, "Yeah, you're a Devon farmer," out of it, right?

- [Gale] (laughs) Yeah.

- [A.J.]

Right?

- Yep.

Yeah, and I've seen it time after time here... (indistinct) I can say I keep... (indistinct) I've seen the other side and I keep analyzing as they do come in, as A.J.

slaughters them there, and I'm just pretty impressed.

- [Person] It's... That's not just because it's your kid and your basically grandkids' beef, or your kids'...?

What do you call the beef of your...?

That your son raises, right?

(laughs) - Yeah.

No, that's... I'm probably tougher on him than I am anybody, so yeah, that's not that one.

Here's the flat iron that we pulled off your front shoulders, these are actually one, and then, we just cut it in half, make a smaller piece, this is more or less the tail-end of it, that's your leanest, juiciest part, you can see there's a lot of marbling in that piece of meat, and we did the stew meat, I also like to put some fat in the stew meat for the flavor, it definitely jumps up the flavor on that.

This is the arm roast, it's off your front shoulder, you can see it has a marrow right in there for your flavor and the juice, there's English roast, it's a little more leaner than you got your chuck roast or your arm roast, but a lot... Ladies like that, it's a little drier part of the roast.

The chuck roast.

This here is the chuck roast, this is some people... We took the bone out of it, some people call it the seven-bone roast, which basically, it is hanging onto beef like this, you have your ribeyes right here, and then, your next steak is your chuck, that's called a seven-bone roast, but it has the characteristics of the ribeye in there, so that... A lot of people like that, you roast that and it just is tender and juicy, it's like you're doing a ribeye.

The shank meat also has all the marbling in it, you have your marrow bone in it for flavor, people use it for soup, they use it for chilies when they just shred the meat up, which works real well, I'd rather do that, and then, a hamburger.

There's the beef bacon, we are... We do a lot of beef bacon anymore, it seems like it's leaner, it's not as fat, people are into that a little better than the fat on the pork, then we come over here to the tomahawk steaks, these are... They're really big in restaurants anymore, people were eating them up, it's more or less, like, a two-person steak, but it's just the idea, it looks big and fancy, and it's definitely really tender.

You're also doing here, this come off the shoulder blade, that is the chuck tender, it's all lean, no gristle, it's juicier, it's part of the darker meat, but it's a real good piece, I myself like the chuck roast, I like the fat in it, I think it gives you a little more moisture in your product... Your end product, I'm 100% on chuck roast.

You just flip over here to your brisket, like, from here up is what they call the point, that has a lot more fat in it, a lot of flavor, it's juicier, people will use that as... To cook it really well and just shred it, and mix all the fat right in it, from here back is what they call the flat, that is just all lean, most people do that on a barbecue grill, get your smoke flavor into it, then turn it down and slow-cook it 'til it's nice and moist, we bring 'er down to about 160°, 165 when we finish it, then it's sliceable and tender at the same time, so... And your burger, it's a 85/15, what we usually do all of our burger in, some people want it a little leaner, so we'll trim more out of it, and we've actually had people want a little fatter, we will throw more fat into it off our own red Devons, but other than that, we'll make beef patties, we have a patty machine that we make beef patties, some people want... (indistinct) Made, ring bologna, we've done jerky out of it, all kind of beef sticks, so it's pretty much whatever you wanna do with it, it's unlimited, so that's about all I have.

(upbeat guitar music) - Like I say, I think it's pretty hard to beat a good, thick ribeye steak on a grill, yeah, in summertime, yep, that's a good time.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music continues) (upbeat guitar music continues) I'm a "Son of a Butcher."

(upbeat guitar music) - That's right.

(people laughing) (upbeat guitar music) That's all, folks.

(laughs) (upbeat guitar music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided in part by the RE Synergy Foundation, content for the sustainable world.

G&C Foods, quality at every turn.

Pittsburgh Spice and Seasoning Company, making life taste better.

The Allen family, Robert, Ashley, Carol, and Fred.

And viewers like you.

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