Goodbye pork chops, hello Denver steak!

[ReynardMuldrake]

WTF did Denver and Boston do to get a steak named after them?

BBQ fans, brace yourselves: "Pork butt" will soon be a thing of the past.

In an effort to boost sales just ahead of the U.S. grilling season, and make shopping at the meat counter a bit easier, the pork and beef industries are retooling more than 350 names of meat cuts to give them more sizzle and consumer appeal.

The revised nomenclature emerged after two years of consumer research, which found that the labels on packages of fresh cuts of pork and beef are confusing to shoppers, said Patrick Fleming, director of retail marketing for trade group National Pork Board.

A stroll down the meat aisle had become baffling for shoppers looking for a steak. When they would see packages of "butler steak" or "beef shoulder top blade steak, boneless, flat iron" - they would walk away with an empty cart, said Trevor Amen, director of market intelligence for the Beef Checkoff Program.

So recently, the National Pork Board and the Beef Checkoff Program, with the blessing of officials with USDA, got the nod to update the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards, or URMIS. Though the URMIS system is voluntary, a majority of U.S. food retailers use it.

So pork and beef industry officials say they hope the new names will show up in stores nationwide by this summer's grilling season.

If it does, the lowly "pork chop" will be gone. Instead, grocery retailers could be stocking stacks of "porterhouse chops," "ribeye chops" and "New York chops." The pork butt - which actually comes from shoulder meat - will be called a Boston roast.

"One of our biggest challenges has been the general belief among consumers that a pork chop is a pork chop," said Fleming. "But not all pork chops are equal, and not all pork chops are priced equally."

So much for pork being known as the other white meat--a label the pork industry used for years to lure consumers away from chicken.

In the beef aisle, a boneless shoulder top blade steak will become a flatiron steak, a beef under blade boneless steak will become a Denver Steak. Not all names in the meat counter will change - ground beef will still be ground beef.

The new retail names will also come with new labels for retail packages, which will tell consumers what part of the animal's body the cut comes from, as well as include suggested cooking instructions.

This marketing move comes at a challenging time for the nation's livestock sector, which has wrestled with historic high grain prices and devastating droughts.

Also domestic sales have been slow as the relatively cool spring has quashed consumer interest in breaking out the backyard grill.

While fresh beef and pork cuts have official names that are approved by USDA, compliance with using those naming conventions is voluntary for the industry, said Sam Jones-Ellard, spokesman for USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.

"There won't be any changes to our naming conventions, but we're supportive of this," Jones-Ellard said. "Anything that simplifies the names of cuts of meat is a good thing for consumers."

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/us-m...eyes-1C9213219

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Boston Butt is a specific way the shoulder is cut, it's not the entire pork shoulder.

Correct. I should have been more specific.

[Chief_For_Life58]

230am illegal petes is the only place in denver worth eating at

[BigMeatballDave]

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by Dave

The 'Butt' refers to how it was stored.

That may have been true 200 years ago, but it's a specific cut now. You don't buy pork butt because it's stored in a certain manner.

[Dayze]

No Cap Special - Drink all the beer you want for $50. There's no limit on how much you can drink if you don't get caught

[Nzoner]

"ground beef will still be called ground beef."

[Beef Supreme]

Soylent Green is people.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by Stewie

That may have been true 200 years ago, but it's a specific cut now. You don't buy pork butt because it's stored in a certain manner.

I'm just saying that is how the name came about.

Boston was the style of cut, and Butt is how they were stored.

[Frazod]

Shouldn't a Denver steak be made out of horse meat?

[Dayze]

the probably have huge toothpicks.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

"ground beef will still be called ground beef."

"fun time cookout sludge"

[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

"ground beef will still be called ground beef."

Unless it comes from ground up manatees. Then it's called sea beef.

[Stewie]

What the hell kind of cut is the "Denver Steak" anyway? A "beef under blade boneless steak" has always been 2nd on my list after a ribeye. WTF?

[Demonpenz]

cincinatti bowtie

[Fish]

WTF is the point?

In the beef aisle, a boneless shoulder top blade steak will become a flatiron steak, a beef under blade boneless steak will become a Denver Steak.

What does that change? Are people going to know what cut a "Denver Steak" is if they didn't know what a "Beef under blade boneless steak" cut is?

How is "Flatiron steak" or "Denver Steak" more descriptive about the cut or what section it comes from? Seems like the opposite to me.

Knowing where your food comes from is too confusing. We'll just call this the Happy Meat, and that one is the Liberty Steak, and that is ground Freedom burger. Hooray for Idiocracy...