Another road trip to the abattoir in Dashwood, we have been here before for a whole hog. Mary has always treated us well and when given enough lead time selects the best of the best. However, today is about Dave's beef, I have tried his product before at Mac's and it is way above commercial grade. Dave is a no nonsense Ontario farmer, who take's pride on what he produces. Not a big operation, just the right size for him to control the quality of what he sells. Dave uses all natural feed, no hormones or steroids, and lots of pasture. The beef is slow grown to develop it’s flavour and allow for just the right amount of marbling. The entire carcass is hung for 21 days, and is then tailored butchered to the needs of his customers.

Today, Pit Boss and I arrived eager to see what we were getting; on order for us was brisket, short ribs and flank steak. As usual we are welcomed in to see what is being cut and there hung the entire side of beef. I had thoughts of just dragging the whole thing out to the truck but my freezer is already full. Our butcher carved through the front plate and within seconds the brisket and sternum was on the cutting board. Zip zip and there was the plate section, a few seconds on the bandsaw our short ribs were detailed. Back to the side of beef hanging, some incredible knife skills, the flank steak dropped like butter and soon rested on the cutting board. The meats were trimmed and we were left standing with 26 pound of heaven.



Dave will have the butcher cut down the other side and flash freeze our selection of cuts, we have all we need for now. As for this weekend, Pit Boss will be doing a competition style brisket, the hams from the Berkshire and a rack of the short ribs. I will braise another set of ribs for our own comparative analysis (great, another fracking throwdown).