US Beef Meat Up Stockholm

US Beef

Meat Up Stockholm

14 dec 2015 

I recently attended US Beefs Meat Up at Restaurang AG in Stockholm, an industry meet bringing suppliers, distributors, agent and the restaurant industry together, a great initiative from US meat giving all an opportunity to mingle and discuss ideas, challenges and to offer feed back direct to the industry.
US Meat is exporting their prime and choice quality grain fed beef into Europe as part of the external EU quota. What % of the total quota is from the states or how its split between the different meat exporting countries or which countries are buying US Beef was not clarified.
Sweden I believe is a major player in this market, their beef now is often represented in well stocked supermarkets their top end products cut to order at the meat counter.
US Beef has expanded significantly over the past 15-20 years in Sweden, primal cuts like flank steak, flap meat, hanging tender, short ribs & chuck steak have changed the local restaurant scene, offering meat of a quality and consistency way above the quality of local products. Affordable menu prices and interesting beef cuts in combination with kitchen technology & slow cooking have impacted the restaurant scene and customer buying trends at the supermarket.

A hands on butchering demonstration of four "new"focus cuts that US Beef want to push "picanha" seen above, was one of these cuts, picanha was introduced a few years ago by Brazil as a Brazilian cut, why US Beef have chosen to introduce their own picanha by its Portuguese name is a bit of a mystery, the cut previously available sporadicly in Sweden by its German name Tafelspitz, or as rostbiff lock a byproduct or the local rostbiff charcuterie joint. We in Australia know it as part of the Rump steak which is an every day grill steak.

The local Swedish picanha isn't consistent enough to be a successful grill alternative, this US Beef example should change that.
Brisket was also featured commonly boiled from raw or brine pickled the consistent US Beef brisket offers almost a different cut to work with.   

The iconic blade steak with its telltale sinew,  we trimmed it down to flat iron steaks, part of US Beefs drive to push front end beef, a great and versatile joint that shouldn't have any problem establishing itself in the market.

Ball tip a new joint or new name for me, different countries butcher their beef their beef slightly differently, and call the joints for different names. The ball tip down around the knuckle on the hind quarter, a joint usually used for stewing steak pot roast ect. comes to age with marbling  consistency and proper portioning,   

Lunch
Of course the new primals were the star of the show all cooked differently and presented on  communal platters a la Restaurang AG, a nice little start to the day. The overall quality & consistency of US Beef will ensure that these products are around for a while.

Great Napa Valley wines from Beringer and Black Stallion were supplied by Californian Wines.