"No roll" primal beef cuts

[Damascus Duck]

Restaurant Depot currently has NY Prime loins for $2.99 a pound, and since I had never heard of them being this inexpensive I went out and bought one. I butchered out some Manhattan steaks and a couple of roasts and I have a roast on my Mak 2 star now.

During my research on how to butcher the loin, I found a term I hadn't run across before. "No roll" apparently means the meat supplier hasn't bothered to have the meat graded, and this is usually because the meat isn't prime or choice, and so it isn't worth having it graded. Sure enough, the RD flyer says "no roll" in the ad for the loin. I have had a couple of bad experiences with select grade briskets, and so now I'm wondering if I've wasted my money and time. I guess I'll find out in a few hours.

Have you had any experience with "no roll" cuts of beef? The meat looked pretty good and had some great marbling within the structure of the muscle. But because the meat is "no roll", I have this image in my mind that the cattle were somehow abused or treated in a way that would let the supplier not pay for USDA grading.

Thanks for your insight!

- Chris

https://www.restaurantdepot.com/docs/default-source/regional-flyers/rd---november-2019/nov19_nw.pdf?sfvrsn=16df46b1_4

[Jerod Broussard]

Grading is not a sign to say the cows aren't abused. Course we don't know how every cow is treated or spoken to, statutes (laws) exist in the form of Humane Handling on how they must be treated once they get to the facility. If you selling meat off OLD cattle, you might just "no roll" them rather than have someone break out the Standard stamp.

[Murdy]

I worked for a meat company many years ago that operated a few butcher shops. We would buy no-roll beef from suppliers we trusted. As it was explained to me, sometimes a grader doesn't grade something out as choice and does not roll the meat withe the corresponding label (the blue ink you sometimes see on meat). Sometimes its for a technical reason and sometimes the packing house just disagrees with the grader. If you can trust the packer, you can get some good deals on good meat. As you state, it also could be just because the packer does not want to go through the expense of the grading process, which probably comes with a lot of other strings attached (particularly if they just ship in state and don't have to deal with the USDA at all).

[Dan Deter]

When I was in junior high/high school we raised beef that we sold direct to customers as quarter, half, or whole cows. While we fed them out to to high choice, we never had them graded because we only sold locally and there was no need for the expense.

[Damascus Duck]

I appreciate all the great insight, Jerod, Murdy and Dan. I'm not sure I'd go "no roll" again in the future, but given the meat must still meet the safety standards I'm fairly confident (with your info) a personal inspection before purchase is always a good way to go.

I took the roast off the smoker about a half hour ago and it's resting. I snuck a piece and it's terrific!

[Jerod Broussard]

FYI- not to knock Graders, but many people think Graders and Inspectors are one and the same. They work for different agencies.