020218 New Steak Cut Compares to NY StripFebruary 9, 2002Denver, CO - Call it a rare to medium-rare find: Researchers claim a new cut of steak is just as tasty as a New York strip for about half the price. “Value cut” steaks are expected in supermarkets this spring or summer at about $4 per pound, said Betty Hogan, new products director for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. New York strip steaks, by comparison, are typically $8 per pound. “This is a way of creating steaks out of more of the carcass,” Hogan told nearly 200 ranchers and beef marketers Wednesday at the 2002 Cattle Industry Convention. The new value cuts come from the chuck or the round, meat traditionally used for hamburger and meat loaf. They are leaner and come in smaller portions, Hogan said. Researchers from the universities of Nebraska and Florida spent three years developing value cuts, examining 5,500 cow muscles for color, fat, moisture content and a way to cut them. Experts said hamburger meat was rarely used as steaks before. So far, only a few grocery chains are selling value cuts, but one chain manager said she likes what she sees and her customers taste. Leann Saunders said her Ukrop's Supermarkets, a 28-store chain in Virginia, has already sold more value cuts than expected and plans to sell more this summer. Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant with eight Colorado locations, put value cuts on its menu in November, selling the steaks for as little as half the price of more expensive cuts. “Our guests are loving it,” said Jim Broyles, who supplies value cuts to Texas Roadhouse. “They're tearing these things up.” Researchers are still trying to come up with a better name for the steaks and some conventioneers worried they might decrease demand for more traditional cuts. R.J. Jolly, a rancher from Kit Carson, thinks value cuts will increase cattle prices because meat would be worth more to processors “Chuck (meat) has been dragging on the cattle market for years,” he said. “It looks very promising to me.”
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