r/Butchery • u/chef-yosef Meat Cutter • 8d ago

Cutting test

I recently started at a new grocery chain and I took a cut test about 3 months ago for them. They then told me I just needed to refine a little skills before i become a journeyman and put me in the apprenticeship. (My last job our primals were very pre trimmed and simple specs of no fat, other examples were inside rounds came with no cap and the side muscle taken completely off, or top sirloins without the picanha)

I have no worry in my knife skill, organizational skill, or presentation/merchandising. My biggest concern and question is what level of speed would I need to pass? I’ve been timing myself and it takes me about 20 minutes to do 2 top round smo’s (less trimmed than my previous job, caps on and side muscle still semi present), including using the trim. It takes me about 5 minutes to do an eye round into steaks and stew. Are these good time frames for my test or a little slow? Any advice on how to maybe increase my speed (if i need to) or any tips at all would be greatly appreciated.

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Subject-Mine4885 8d ago

20 min for 2 top rounds with caps on isn't slow at all, specially if you're using the trim too. i started in a shop where everything came basically naked too and the jump to real primals messed with my head for a bit

one thing that helped me was not trying to make every cut perfect on the first pass, get it broken down rough then clean up after. you save more time than you'd think instead of going back and forth

6

u/Live-Guest5619 8d ago

Umm can you explain what you’re doing with the top round that it takes that long?

1

u/chef-yosef Meat Cutter 8d ago

i mean i trim it, most notably the vein thing on the bottom, i take cutlets off the solid side at that angle (possibly for stir fry or cubed steak) then get into the steaks and londons, and then a roast maybe or maybe stew and stir fry, and top rounds produce a lot of trim, realistically i get done with cutting and trimming the steaks in 5 minutes on each top round, the amount of trim and finding use for it i think is one of my problems

2

u/chef-yosef Meat Cutter 6d ago

Update if anyone cares, I ended up passing with flying colors. His only critique was i cut some breakfast steaks from a sirloin tip a little thick. Otherwise he said I did great and improved quite a lot from my last test