Bought a whole case of pork shoulders that were all blade burn

Picked up a case of 8 pork shoulders from a new supplier last month. Saved about $15 per case compared to my usual guy. Turned out every single one had blade burn, dark dry spots all over the muscle. Had to trim off at least 2 pounds per shoulder. Ended up losing around 40 pounds of usable meat total. Not worth the savings when you factor in the waste and the extra labor. Anybody else run into this with cheaper suppliers?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.robert14d ago

Brian hit the nail on the head there. Those discount suppliers know exactly what they're doing, pushing the culls to people they figure won't complain. I've seen it with pork shoulders where the blade burn is so deep you're basically paying for fat and scrap instead of meat. The time spent trimming and the extra cleanup makes that $15 savings disappear real fast.

the_brian14d ago

Grabbed a case of brisket from a discount place once, thought I was being smart. Every single flat was so thin and ragged I lost like a third of it trying to get a decent trim. The point parts were okay but the flats were basically just waste. I mean, I get wanting to save a few bucks but when you're spending an extra hour just hacking off bad meat it kind of defeats the purpose. Idk, maybe some suppliers just push out the stuff they know is trash to unsuspecting guys.

shane_bell14d ago

Same thing happened to me with a big box store prime grade, ended up just making chili out of half of it.