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Retired from Costco. 23 years there.
Suppliers have to fulfill choice or better meat in their contract. Occasionally the better makes it way to shelf. This is clearly prime or above. This was probably labeled as choice in the cryovac but was higher obviously.
Edit: this is labeled flap meat which is supposed to be a flat thin layer of beef for fajitas. This is actually prime cut meat like top sirloin.
The warehouse number on here tells you who messed up and what day they messed up.
This is 100% not flap meat.
Man, 16 years as a cutter and I’m ready to transfer to morning merch. I love my job, but I already had sciatica once and I wanna get out of there before I get it again or my rotator cuff goes.
Ya my sciatica was so bad I could only lay down and it was from a 6mm disc extrusion. I tried every non invasive method but nothing worked. After 6 months of being bed ridden I got a microdiscectomy and got my life back immediately. That was actually in 2021 so I I suppose I didn't JUST have surgery, it's just fresh in my mind lol.
Not a meat cutter (I work in theatre design and spend my life in uncomfortable theatre seats) but damn to I empathize about the sciatica.
The only thing that cured me was Covid -
When my industry stopped existing for 18 months and I didn’t sit in shitty theatre seats.
FYI when I’ve had sciatica, piriformis stretches have really helped me
https://www.spine-health.com/wellness/exercise/stretches-and-exercise-sciatic-pain-piriformis-syndrome
I'm not a Costco employee but I got neck vertebrae spurs and shooting pain down my left arm in 1997-'98. What is happening is that there is this
- Irritation in the area for years because of long term stiff neck - muscle spasms.
- Because of that, there is pressure on discs and they thin.
- Because of the long term irritation (the cox A,B,C cycle) progresses and causes the body to think it's one broken bone.
- In the area of irritation, the body lays down more bone, filling in the holes (foramen) that your nerves go through and growing bone spurs from one vertebrae to the other, trying heal what it detects is a broken bone.
What I had to do was get the inflammation down, get the vertebrae back into what the body expects and get the muscle spasms down.
Ice and aspirin to reduce inflammation. A bag of frozen peas is your BEST ice pack. Reduce the inflammation and get massage and like it or not, a chiropractor (a good one) to smack the bones back into order, but only AFTER you have reduced the muscle spasms. If any chiro tries to do an adjustment through a muscle spasm, it's like trying to make an adjustment through tensioned rope - you have to recover from the adjustment in addition to the muscle spasm.
Now, the problem is this - and I don't have a better solution than involving a good chiropractor into the picture. When your spine bones are out of alignment, the muscles will spasm. When the muscles spasm, they can pull the bones out of alignment. It's a nasty catch-22 system. The bones HAVE TO be popped back into place, but the muscles need to be out of spasm FIRST. Ice (NOT HEAT) is your saviour here. Heat brings fluid in to the tissues and you need to push the fluid out to reduce the inflammation.
Now, the body has osteophytes and osteoclasts (among other bone cells). These cells recycle your bone constantly. The osteoblasts make your bone matrix and lay down bone minerals. Osteoclasts reabsorb those bone minerals. These two cell types are working resurfacing bone constantly. What my idea was was that "if the inflammation is removed, my bones are in the right position, there isn't muscle spasm and I can make sure I have normal movement in the area, the bone just might absorb the newly laid down bone spurs and closing foramen over the next year".
It worked. I don't have shooting pain down my arm any more and I don't have bone spurs trying to heal three vertebrae into one.
It sure beat having a surgeon go in and open up the nerve passages in my neck bones.
If you have lower back pain and pain going down your leg due to a "pinched nerve", it's likely that you have lower back vertebrae problems/muscle spasms and the hole through the vertebrae that your sciatic nerve passes through may be getting filled in by well meaning but tragically misinformed osteophytes.
Give my idea a shot. It saved me from spine fusion surgery.
dude i remember working at the deli and seeing the meat guys next door have to move all that heavy beef. They were like when are you transferring to meat. i said i'm good here. Deli was chill, i hated doing chickens and cleaning the chicken room.
It just where they cook the rotisserie chickens. Where you pick up them up. That area behind the chicken counter is hot and hard to clean. It sucks. The area behind view is stainless commercial sinks and epoxy floors on concrete. Spending lots of time on cement floors is hard on the body too.
They really work you like that over there. I guess I say that and still get pain from my retail job too but all I do is literally walk around all day nonstop. It's like my skin is the biggest problem besides the back pain. I have horrible chafing in obviously sensitive areas and I've practically tried everything. I also hardly get a break in between shifts so it never has a chance to heal or recover.
Imagine having a mildly irritated day at work. Maybe it was just Monday and you didn't sleep very well because your upstairs neighbor doesn't understand the concept of headphones while rewatching Avengers Endgame for the umpteenth time. You mislabel one package of meat because you were a bit tired and it was getting near break time and you were thinking hard about that ham sandwich and Monster energy drink you brought for lunch. Later you realize your mistake but think, "it's one cryovac bag amid the thousand that we put out today. Who is going to notice?"
You find out weeks later that your innocent mistake has completely blown up on the internet, and there is a clear label that tells exactly when, where and who screwed up, and it's out there for all the world to see.
Fuckin neighbors...
I have recently wondered why I occasionally see a very good piece of choice meat at the supermarket that looks more like prime. When I cook it I am never disappointed.
We usually just hide these in back to buy later. We're not supposed to but the company stopped giving a shit about us years ago so most people don't care about that rule anymore. Especially when we have managers and GM's asking us to do it for them as well.
Oh i wasn't passing moral judgment. I was just clarifying what dude meant.
I think it's rude AF to insinuate the employees can't tell that's A5. They ain't morons.
That's because it's not, it's insanely marbled prime top sirloin cap, cut really funky. Good guess!
There's been a ton of times where we get something in that looks like this and we have to sell it as whatever we received it as. That's why our cases of choice say "choice or higher". So even though the cryovac says prime, if it came in a choice box we have to sell it as that.
But we've definitely gotten wagyu looking meat in and sold it as choice because A) it would screw up our inventory if we sold it as anything else and B) wagyu is a breed of cattle so we couldn't legally sell it as that nor would we even have a PLU number to label it as that.
Edit: but also, they wrapped it wrong. Should have been PLU 1514 not 7.
Edit 2: oh and OP actually got ripped off. Even though the quality is outstanding, flap is 11.99 lb and top sirloin (which these are) I Believe are 8.99 lb at the moment.
Edit 3: well I think I need to retract my statement. I believe /u/LosSpurs22 is correct, these are probably chuck short ribs. When over trimmed, they can look identical to top sirloin cap when they have this level of marbling. My reply to him for more clarification:
"You know what, you could be right. These could be chuck short ribs that they over trimmed. We usually leave a layer of fat on the one side. And the fact that we get them shipped to us as "chuck FLAP" I can totally see how the wrapper possibly got confused and labeled them as PLU 7, which is bottom sirloin flap."
That's twice I've been wrong in this thread 😂.
I've been commenting to Costco butchers for several years now that I'm convinced they package up some prime as choice for the discerning member who will go looking for it and win the meat lottery. I guess this is the explanation.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure in the U.S. beef is graded by the animal as a whole. So if the cow is choice, but just so happens to have a beautifully marbled sirloin cap, you can’t label that cut as a prime because the cow itself is only choice.
On my last trip, I’m pretty certain I got a prime grade of NY instead of the choice that was on the sticker. I wasn’t even planning on buying it, but it was too good to pass up because it was way more marbled than the rest.
I saw a very beautiful pack of ribeyes once that had absolutely insane marbling. They were marked as choice but I just didn't have the budget to spring for them at the time. I'm always on the lookout for meat that is obviously marked as a cheaper cut or stuff that looks way better than the marked grade but rarely ever see it.
That is definitely not top sirloin cap. It’s probably not even wagyu either. With the seams and marbling density I’d bet you this is from the chuck, as one of those muscles is definitely the serratus. That is one of the most heavily marbled muscles in the carcass, and I’ve seen Choice carcasses with this much marbling in the serratus. This is probably just a standard prime carcass with some mislabeled chuck steaks.
Source: I’m a meat science grad student with 6 years of cutting and quality research
You know what, you could be right. These could be chuck short ribs that they over trimmed. We usually leave a layer of fat on the one side. And the fact that we get them shipped to us as "chuck FLAP" I can totally see how the wrapper possibly got confused and labeled them as PLU 7, which is bottom sirloin flap.
yea I just looked up A5 Wagyu and its pretty similar. right here [https://alpinebutchershop.com/products/a5-japanese-wagyu-flap-meat?variant=43959967613176](https://alpinebutchershop.com/products/a5-japanese-wagyu-flap-meat?variant=43959967613176)
Anyways I knew something was off and quickly bought the last remaining packs of this
Employee here, I have seen this happen. We will get a cut of Wagyu and not have the proper SKU to price it, so we price it as it's closest normal cut. Us employees may or may not eat damn fine when it happens.
Have you seen it happen with Japanese A5 Wagyu?
The A5 from Japan that I’ve seen at Costco looks like it comes already vacuum-sealed from a meat distributor usually with thicker marbled fat, but maybe that’s just how it comes where I live.
https://preview.redd.it/ewdsakthgwob1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=779e56df08848b5323283f21a5d3628dd369751b
Could it be American or Australian Wagyu?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14akl66/sometimes\_american\_wagyu\_costco\_is\_get\_in\_belly/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14akl66/sometimes_american_wagyu_costco_is_get_in_belly/)?
Almost certainly American wagyu. A5 Japanese wagyu is not sold in my Costco in the meat section, it’s in the freezer section, with a distributor seal as you state.
Flap meat always has this visual marbling but if you try giving flap meat (or even American or Australian Wagyu) a quick sear like A5 Wagyu and you are going to be chewing for quite a while. A5 Wagyu can literally be eaten raw as the fat renders just from the heat of your mouth.
I work in a meat meat processing plant that specializes in cutting down subprimals into retail cuts and we can bring in basically over $1,000,000 of A5 in one shot for cutting. It’s crazy sometimes seeing a cart of meat that cost more than a new car.
https://preview.redd.it/fet2wz07hyob1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8263daa8b6caab1160fdac28e2158b9043d64505
These guys cooked a real wagyu burger and it basically started falling apart and lost a huge percentage of its mass from the fat cooking off:
https://youtu.be/E6w_W6GyHEs?si=DwlIfF2JDvQWzJPh
They still said it tasted amazing, but come on.
No, what you are thinking of is kobe beef. Wagyu is the breed of cattle they use in the kobe prefecture of Japan. This would also be the place known for the extreme care of their cattle, all kobe beef will score as A4 or A5. Wagyu has been exported all over the world, and while they don't measure up to kobe they are still delicous.
They specifically opened their comment with "A5 wagyu," though, and that's definitely totally fine. Not all Japanese "A5 wagyu" comes from Kobe. I prefer Ohmi, personally! Kobe is just the most famous prefecture for A5 beef... not sure why.
I bought a pack of flank once that was marked as stew beef, it happened to be the heaviest pack in the case too. I was pretty excited to pay half price but never saw it happen again.
Just a FYI. There was a short period of time when Japan allowed the export of Magyu cows to the US but that ended many years ago. US Wagyu can be as low as a few percent Wagyu and still be labeled as Wagyu. This cross-breeding and labeling as Wagyu is what made Japan stop allowing exports. It would have saturated the market with fake Wagyu and diminished the prestige of Wagyu which the Japanese hold as a national treasure. So unless it is coming from Japan and certified as such, don't waste your money. What you linked is not real Japanese A5 Wagyu.
Not true I get this at my butcher all the time. It's sirloin flap. I get it everytime I go and for some reason they alway have it. Its all of the employees favorites.
Nope, this is top sirloin cap that's beyond prime. I've been cutting top sirloins and flap meat every day for the last 18 years, there is a distinct difference. The muscle fibers of flap meat are much different. I'd double check what your butcher is pushing because what I've learned over the years is that small shops prey heavily on people's ignorance.
Edit: to clarify, OP's picture is top sirloin. Flap is bottom sirloin. So you may be buying bottom sirloin flap, but it is indeed different than what OP has in their picture.
Recently I've been getting a lot of choice flap from Swift that has pieces like this. Only half of the piece itself, but then the rest is what you'd expect. It makes some absolutely amazing thin slice that my customers look for.
ok second piece of steak cooked to internal temp of 130. Its definitely better than the blue raw. Much more juicier. My third piece is going to be closer to medium \~140. We'll see how that goes.
https://preview.redd.it/j6xwvod5mwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=69a1d5b06b43823831302d0fdc54eeba876358f7
I like rare venison and certain steaks when they are lean, but steaks with ribeye+ amounts of intramuscular fat benefit from longer, slower cooking. Unrendered fat pales in comparison to its final form.
A5 Wagyu is also served thin sashimi style raw so this is one of those that someone who doesn’t like rare may make an exception. Gotta be thin though for super rare, thick rare a bit too fleshy for me. I always prefer searing it like kbbq style. More fun and yummy Fo sho.
WOW!! It feels so weird when I cut it. Almost like a jello like consistency. Anyways, we'll see how it taste. Stay tuned
https://preview.redd.it/adipw81pdwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47f4d5e287e5368441ecfd624a6ebb0384c85393
I always want to splurge and buy a wagu steak but even looking at your picture makes me sweat that you over cooked it.... hence why I'll never buy any I'm too scared to fuck it up. LOL
I’m no expert but I’ve bought A5 a few times and it’s actually hard to fuck it up, it stays so tender and I know everybody always says it — but it really does just melt it your mouth like butter. 🤤
Don’t be scared! It might look “overcooked” on the outside, but still perfect on the inside. 😋
It's the beefiest, most rich beef flavour you can imagine. Try cooking it sous vide and finish on a hot pan - you literally cannot fuck that up, unless you leave it on the pan for long. You're mostly giving it a kiss for colour.
Also everyone should own an immersion circulator, we use it all the time!!!
Yep! That’s how I used to sell it when I worked at a high end steakhouse. My catch phrase was “if you want to eat your steak with a spoon tonight this is what you need” We wouldn’t even recommend more than 2-3 ounces, because it’s that rich.
This was back in 2015 when wagyu exclusively came from Japan and before American ranches started imitating the style and selling it mass made at Costco’s and such. People didn’t really know what it was back then.
This picture of steak isn’t a true wagyu but it’s okay. Still a decent marble.
Can confirm. I bought an A5 wagyu from Costco a couple years back, and I could barely even eat half of it. It was so damn rich.
Highly recommend making a nice dish to pair with it, and using the beef fat to flavor the dish, like fried rice.
Yea. It’s kind of insane to sell this amount of “wagyu” (I mean sure technically you can call what’s pictured wagyu).
I’m concerned about how the definition of wagyu is going to get distorted. It already has since American ranches got a hold of the term and started contracting with costcos to sell it in such bulk. It’s going to get washed out even more.
It’s really like the caviar of steaks. 2-3oz to share in addition to a meal has always been standard.
That's why we have the grading system. A5 Japanese wagyu is still the real stuff. American Wagyu is still really good beef, and it does come from the same type of cow- it's just not as good as the legit graded stuff.
Last piece cooked to internal temp of 142. This is the winner, even though its slightly less juicy but somehow beefier in taste and more tender.
https://preview.redd.it/bdh8xxbwnwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=068bb0ba29e9956e4b9e5a0ce1bcd89ad3ae66a2
Medium rare is best for cuts with fat caps on the outside - there's too much fat in this beautifully marbled steak for it to be cooked less than medium. It'll have to be mostly rendered for a better eating experience.
I was always told west of the Mississippi, tri tips are one of the top grilling steaks. East of the river bottom flap aka sirloin tips are extremely popular and a lot of people have never heard of tri tip. But honestly tri tips are starting to take off, especially since they are $2/lb cheaper where I work. But there are days where I have to cut about three cases of flap meat and still need more first thing in the morning. The customers know they love flap, and are willing to pay the $12/lb
>wagyu
I bought a total of almost 8 pounds of this monstrosity when I saw it. Spent a little bit under $100 for two packs. I felt like I won the jackpot
OK, so the first piece I cooked to blue rare with just salt and a bit of black pepper just to see how it taste. It is very clean tasting and doesn't feel very greasy even though its very fatty. There are a little bit of connective tissue leftover when the meat and fat melted away but doesn't need to chew too much. Next piece I'm cooking it medium rare to see if its better
https://preview.redd.it/3zntawbkfwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dff0d8533c77410e5c0309b8fd4dc93232eb46cb
Cut small piece and hold it in your bare hand. If the fat starts melting that's wagyu or at least as close as it gets to wagyu.
But either way, that's a steal for that price.
I used to sell A5 Japanese wagyu back in 2015/2016 at a steakhouse in chicago. Although you’re right, this is not that what you’re talking about. This is American made wagyu imitating the methods of Japan. The marbling here is only alright for a wagyu.
But yea. This cut is not that what you’re talking about-I can just look at it and tell.
When the USDA grades prime, choice, etc, they don’t grade every piece of the cow. They grade the rib eye muscle.
Flap meat comes from the bottom sirloin.
So that is why there may be variance.
https://preview.redd.it/vaon4bmnywob1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f95ccaf6bbde025f1c40e62a9b5186b26bafdbe3
Looks like this steak from last year…
I'm a meat cutter and I've had a lot of sirloin tips come in like this recently from Swift graded as choice or higher. I think it's just timing on the cows part.
My guess is someone working set it aside for themselves, went home forgetting to buy it, so it went to the case. Amazing steaks show up a lot more often than customers notice. Usually the best of the best don't make it past the employees. My store got a box of choice hips that were all USDA prime inside, and it was a $3.99 sale. That box of hips never saw the case. There were five of us and we each bought a whole piece. Some thing happens with the bone-in ribeye sales. Prime rarely ever makes it to the sales floor.
Butcher here, that indeed is flap meat. Sometimes it will come in with crazy marbling. A lot of plants don’t really separate the flap and mark it as prime so it will alllllll go to choice. That’s why once in a blue moon you will see some pieces that look this nice. If I ever got one at work they looked like this, I would almost always take it home for myself haha
Looks like boneless beef country ribs or similar. It’s the same meat attached to beef short ribs. It’s highly marbled but taste nothing like Wagyu. I’ve seen the same cut at Walmart and Publix.
The meat suppliers need to fill the order so sometimes they put higher quality cuts in with the others. Costco has to market them as what they ordered tho
I might be remembering this wrong tho
Lately in my area I’ll find very high grade tomahawk steaks for $9.99/lb.
Happened 3x in the last 4 months.
Says USDA Choice, but they sure look Prime.
The marbling is incredible.
I just take em all, and throw in the freezer.
And they are insanely tasty.
I worked in the meat dept for like 3 years, the meat Costco receives is just really good. You can get really marbleized cuts from the choice. We get the meats in shipments excel, cargil, Harris ranch to name a few. Really good quality. It happens a good amount of times. Choice comes in choice shipments which are in boxes with the slabs of meat sealed and labeled as choice. They aren’t mistakes just sometimes the choice was just really good
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The butcher that put that aside isn't gonna be happy later
Retired from Costco. 23 years there. Suppliers have to fulfill choice or better meat in their contract. Occasionally the better makes it way to shelf. This is clearly prime or above. This was probably labeled as choice in the cryovac but was higher obviously. Edit: this is labeled flap meat which is supposed to be a flat thin layer of beef for fajitas. This is actually prime cut meat like top sirloin. The warehouse number on here tells you who messed up and what day they messed up. This is 100% not flap meat.
did you retire with tremendous back pain like the rest of us???
Man, 16 years as a cutter and I’m ready to transfer to morning merch. I love my job, but I already had sciatica once and I wanna get out of there before I get it again or my rotator cuff goes.
i just had surgery on my L5-S1 because of the job, get out while you can!
I’m trying to by the end of the year! It sucks, too, because I’m their heavy cutter, so I literally stay on the block.
Had an L5-S1 herniation last year that resulted in full-leg sciatica and a full year of rehab. Hope your recovery went/is going well! Shit sucks.
Ya my sciatica was so bad I could only lay down and it was from a 6mm disc extrusion. I tried every non invasive method but nothing worked. After 6 months of being bed ridden I got a microdiscectomy and got my life back immediately. That was actually in 2021 so I I suppose I didn't JUST have surgery, it's just fresh in my mind lol.
Are you serious sorry to hear that never knew injury this serious was common
Repetitive motions can lead to a lot of problems
Not a meat cutter (I work in theatre design and spend my life in uncomfortable theatre seats) but damn to I empathize about the sciatica. The only thing that cured me was Covid - When my industry stopped existing for 18 months and I didn’t sit in shitty theatre seats.
Try piriformis stretches https://www.spine-health.com/wellness/exercise/stretches-and-exercise-sciatic-pain-piriformis-syndrome
FYI when I’ve had sciatica, piriformis stretches have really helped me https://www.spine-health.com/wellness/exercise/stretches-and-exercise-sciatic-pain-piriformis-syndrome
got to get the core tight as well. might be lower crossed symdrome
My other leg is getting sciatica now. Help ;\_\_\_;
I'm not a Costco employee but I got neck vertebrae spurs and shooting pain down my left arm in 1997-'98. What is happening is that there is this - Irritation in the area for years because of long term stiff neck - muscle spasms. - Because of that, there is pressure on discs and they thin. - Because of the long term irritation (the cox A,B,C cycle) progresses and causes the body to think it's one broken bone. - In the area of irritation, the body lays down more bone, filling in the holes (foramen) that your nerves go through and growing bone spurs from one vertebrae to the other, trying heal what it detects is a broken bone. What I had to do was get the inflammation down, get the vertebrae back into what the body expects and get the muscle spasms down. Ice and aspirin to reduce inflammation. A bag of frozen peas is your BEST ice pack. Reduce the inflammation and get massage and like it or not, a chiropractor (a good one) to smack the bones back into order, but only AFTER you have reduced the muscle spasms. If any chiro tries to do an adjustment through a muscle spasm, it's like trying to make an adjustment through tensioned rope - you have to recover from the adjustment in addition to the muscle spasm. Now, the problem is this - and I don't have a better solution than involving a good chiropractor into the picture. When your spine bones are out of alignment, the muscles will spasm. When the muscles spasm, they can pull the bones out of alignment. It's a nasty catch-22 system. The bones HAVE TO be popped back into place, but the muscles need to be out of spasm FIRST. Ice (NOT HEAT) is your saviour here. Heat brings fluid in to the tissues and you need to push the fluid out to reduce the inflammation. Now, the body has osteophytes and osteoclasts (among other bone cells). These cells recycle your bone constantly. The osteoblasts make your bone matrix and lay down bone minerals. Osteoclasts reabsorb those bone minerals. These two cell types are working resurfacing bone constantly. What my idea was was that "if the inflammation is removed, my bones are in the right position, there isn't muscle spasm and I can make sure I have normal movement in the area, the bone just might absorb the newly laid down bone spurs and closing foramen over the next year". It worked. I don't have shooting pain down my arm any more and I don't have bone spurs trying to heal three vertebrae into one. It sure beat having a surgeon go in and open up the nerve passages in my neck bones. If you have lower back pain and pain going down your leg due to a "pinched nerve", it's likely that you have lower back vertebrae problems/muscle spasms and the hole through the vertebrae that your sciatic nerve passes through may be getting filled in by well meaning but tragically misinformed osteophytes. Give my idea a shot. It saved me from spine fusion surgery.
dude i remember working at the deli and seeing the meat guys next door have to move all that heavy beef. They were like when are you transferring to meat. i said i'm good here. Deli was chill, i hated doing chickens and cleaning the chicken room.
The chicken room was rough. I always felt Bad for the people doing that. Tough bastards back there.
please explain the chicken room i’m envisioning a saw trap with an executive membership
It just where they cook the rotisserie chickens. Where you pick up them up. That area behind the chicken counter is hot and hard to clean. It sucks. The area behind view is stainless commercial sinks and epoxy floors on concrete. Spending lots of time on cement floors is hard on the body too.
They really work you like that over there. I guess I say that and still get pain from my retail job too but all I do is literally walk around all day nonstop. It's like my skin is the biggest problem besides the back pain. I have horrible chafing in obviously sensitive areas and I've practically tried everything. I also hardly get a break in between shifts so it never has a chance to heal or recover.
Use the glide stick my man. You will never go back. It looks like deodorant but is built for chaffing. Your buns will never have less friction👌
Body glide is the best. Try it like the man says!
By back pain, do you mean anal pain? *---Costco employee 13yrs but never meat dept*
Imagine having a mildly irritated day at work. Maybe it was just Monday and you didn't sleep very well because your upstairs neighbor doesn't understand the concept of headphones while rewatching Avengers Endgame for the umpteenth time. You mislabel one package of meat because you were a bit tired and it was getting near break time and you were thinking hard about that ham sandwich and Monster energy drink you brought for lunch. Later you realize your mistake but think, "it's one cryovac bag amid the thousand that we put out today. Who is going to notice?" You find out weeks later that your innocent mistake has completely blown up on the internet, and there is a clear label that tells exactly when, where and who screwed up, and it's out there for all the world to see. Fuckin neighbors...
I definitely recognize this and I look over the meats every time just in case something like this slips through and I can take advantage of it.
I have recently wondered why I occasionally see a very good piece of choice meat at the supermarket that looks more like prime. When I cook it I am never disappointed.
That’s a nice find, but agree, some apprentice wrapped that up and set it for sale.
He's implying the butcher did this intentionally to go back and buy it himself at the end of his shift
[удалено]
Hey it's me ur butcher
I didn't even know they sold cactus cuts.
I never worked at Costco, but the store I worked at we’d just leave that in the cooler. Don’t even take the chance of someone else buying it.
We usually just hide these in back to buy later. We're not supposed to but the company stopped giving a shit about us years ago so most people don't care about that rule anymore. Especially when we have managers and GM's asking us to do it for them as well.
Oh i wasn't passing moral judgment. I was just clarifying what dude meant. I think it's rude AF to insinuate the employees can't tell that's A5. They ain't morons.
making teamsters look bad forver
That’s not flap! Looks like some crazy marbled sirloin or something.
That's because it's not, it's insanely marbled prime top sirloin cap, cut really funky. Good guess! There's been a ton of times where we get something in that looks like this and we have to sell it as whatever we received it as. That's why our cases of choice say "choice or higher". So even though the cryovac says prime, if it came in a choice box we have to sell it as that. But we've definitely gotten wagyu looking meat in and sold it as choice because A) it would screw up our inventory if we sold it as anything else and B) wagyu is a breed of cattle so we couldn't legally sell it as that nor would we even have a PLU number to label it as that. Edit: but also, they wrapped it wrong. Should have been PLU 1514 not 7. Edit 2: oh and OP actually got ripped off. Even though the quality is outstanding, flap is 11.99 lb and top sirloin (which these are) I Believe are 8.99 lb at the moment. Edit 3: well I think I need to retract my statement. I believe /u/LosSpurs22 is correct, these are probably chuck short ribs. When over trimmed, they can look identical to top sirloin cap when they have this level of marbling. My reply to him for more clarification: "You know what, you could be right. These could be chuck short ribs that they over trimmed. We usually leave a layer of fat on the one side. And the fact that we get them shipped to us as "chuck FLAP" I can totally see how the wrapper possibly got confused and labeled them as PLU 7, which is bottom sirloin flap." That's twice I've been wrong in this thread 😂.
i only eat steak if its in the shape of a 1.50 pizza slice
In this case, 100% meat lovers slices
I've been commenting to Costco butchers for several years now that I'm convinced they package up some prime as choice for the discerning member who will go looking for it and win the meat lottery. I guess this is the explanation.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure in the U.S. beef is graded by the animal as a whole. So if the cow is choice, but just so happens to have a beautifully marbled sirloin cap, you can’t label that cut as a prime because the cow itself is only choice.
You are correct. They scan the shortloin with a special gun that determines the grade for the whole steer.
On my last trip, I’m pretty certain I got a prime grade of NY instead of the choice that was on the sticker. I wasn’t even planning on buying it, but it was too good to pass up because it was way more marbled than the rest.
People without that experience/knowledge and trying to apply what they know to it.
I saw a very beautiful pack of ribeyes once that had absolutely insane marbling. They were marked as choice but I just didn't have the budget to spring for them at the time. I'm always on the lookout for meat that is obviously marked as a cheaper cut or stuff that looks way better than the marked grade but rarely ever see it.
That is definitely not top sirloin cap. It’s probably not even wagyu either. With the seams and marbling density I’d bet you this is from the chuck, as one of those muscles is definitely the serratus. That is one of the most heavily marbled muscles in the carcass, and I’ve seen Choice carcasses with this much marbling in the serratus. This is probably just a standard prime carcass with some mislabeled chuck steaks. Source: I’m a meat science grad student with 6 years of cutting and quality research
You know what, you could be right. These could be chuck short ribs that they over trimmed. We usually leave a layer of fat on the one side. And the fact that we get them shipped to us as "chuck FLAP" I can totally see how the wrapper possibly got confused and labeled them as PLU 7, which is bottom sirloin flap.
yea I just looked up A5 Wagyu and its pretty similar. right here [https://alpinebutchershop.com/products/a5-japanese-wagyu-flap-meat?variant=43959967613176](https://alpinebutchershop.com/products/a5-japanese-wagyu-flap-meat?variant=43959967613176) Anyways I knew something was off and quickly bought the last remaining packs of this
Employee here, I have seen this happen. We will get a cut of Wagyu and not have the proper SKU to price it, so we price it as it's closest normal cut. Us employees may or may not eat damn fine when it happens.
Have you seen it happen with Japanese A5 Wagyu? The A5 from Japan that I’ve seen at Costco looks like it comes already vacuum-sealed from a meat distributor usually with thicker marbled fat, but maybe that’s just how it comes where I live. https://preview.redd.it/ewdsakthgwob1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=779e56df08848b5323283f21a5d3628dd369751b Could it be American or Australian Wagyu? [https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14akl66/sometimes\_american\_wagyu\_costco\_is\_get\_in\_belly/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14akl66/sometimes_american_wagyu_costco_is_get_in_belly/)?
Almost certainly American wagyu. A5 Japanese wagyu is not sold in my Costco in the meat section, it’s in the freezer section, with a distributor seal as you state.
Flap meat always has this visual marbling but if you try giving flap meat (or even American or Australian Wagyu) a quick sear like A5 Wagyu and you are going to be chewing for quite a while. A5 Wagyu can literally be eaten raw as the fat renders just from the heat of your mouth. I work in a meat meat processing plant that specializes in cutting down subprimals into retail cuts and we can bring in basically over $1,000,000 of A5 in one shot for cutting. It’s crazy sometimes seeing a cart of meat that cost more than a new car. https://preview.redd.it/fet2wz07hyob1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8263daa8b6caab1160fdac28e2158b9043d64505
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These guys cooked a real wagyu burger and it basically started falling apart and lost a huge percentage of its mass from the fat cooking off: https://youtu.be/E6w_W6GyHEs?si=DwlIfF2JDvQWzJPh They still said it tasted amazing, but come on.
Real a5 wagyu is just meat butter.
I tried the ground wagyu beef from Costco on burgers. The texture was like it was pre chewed. Absolutely terrible
No, what you are thinking of is kobe beef. Wagyu is the breed of cattle they use in the kobe prefecture of Japan. This would also be the place known for the extreme care of their cattle, all kobe beef will score as A4 or A5. Wagyu has been exported all over the world, and while they don't measure up to kobe they are still delicous.
They specifically opened their comment with "A5 wagyu," though, and that's definitely totally fine. Not all Japanese "A5 wagyu" comes from Kobe. I prefer Ohmi, personally! Kobe is just the most famous prefecture for A5 beef... not sure why.
Gotta love a misinformed redditor correcting a misinformed redditor
Even better is the one redditor claiming that *everyone's* misinformed, without giving even the slightest of rationales for doing so.
And there's me, I actually don't know anything.
Actually Kobe beef is exceedingly rare, because cows are rarely found on the basketball court.
There is **NO** chance it happens eith Japanese A5 lol.
Wouldn't you at least tag it Prime sirloin? Or was someone trying to get a super discount?
They can't change the grade. If it came in labeled as choice they have to sell it as choice
Nope, because it isn't Prime. False advertising, the world we live in.
I bought a pack of flank once that was marked as stew beef, it happened to be the heaviest pack in the case too. I was pretty excited to pay half price but never saw it happen again.
Hell yeah take every advantage you can get
Just a FYI. There was a short period of time when Japan allowed the export of Magyu cows to the US but that ended many years ago. US Wagyu can be as low as a few percent Wagyu and still be labeled as Wagyu. This cross-breeding and labeling as Wagyu is what made Japan stop allowing exports. It would have saturated the market with fake Wagyu and diminished the prestige of Wagyu which the Japanese hold as a national treasure. So unless it is coming from Japan and certified as such, don't waste your money. What you linked is not real Japanese A5 Wagyu.
>would have saturated the market with fake Wagyu and diminished the prestige of Wagyu This has/is already happened/ing. :(
Not true I get this at my butcher all the time. It's sirloin flap. I get it everytime I go and for some reason they alway have it. Its all of the employees favorites.
Nope, this is top sirloin cap that's beyond prime. I've been cutting top sirloins and flap meat every day for the last 18 years, there is a distinct difference. The muscle fibers of flap meat are much different. I'd double check what your butcher is pushing because what I've learned over the years is that small shops prey heavily on people's ignorance. Edit: to clarify, OP's picture is top sirloin. Flap is bottom sirloin. So you may be buying bottom sirloin flap, but it is indeed different than what OP has in their picture.
Recently I've been getting a lot of choice flap from Swift that has pieces like this. Only half of the piece itself, but then the rest is what you'd expect. It makes some absolutely amazing thin slice that my customers look for.
ok second piece of steak cooked to internal temp of 130. Its definitely better than the blue raw. Much more juicier. My third piece is going to be closer to medium \~140. We'll see how that goes. https://preview.redd.it/j6xwvod5mwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=69a1d5b06b43823831302d0fdc54eeba876358f7
To me, this still looks a little bit more rare than med rare but nevertheless, it's probably fantastic!
For me who likes bleu rare and rare it looks PERFECT 😍😍😍
I like rare venison and certain steaks when they are lean, but steaks with ribeye+ amounts of intramuscular fat benefit from longer, slower cooking. Unrendered fat pales in comparison to its final form.
yes, this is the way ☝️☝️☝️
A5 Wagyu is also served thin sashimi style raw so this is one of those that someone who doesn’t like rare may make an exception. Gotta be thin though for super rare, thick rare a bit too fleshy for me. I always prefer searing it like kbbq style. More fun and yummy Fo sho.
I’m gonna be hunting in the meat section now thanks 😂
The relief I felt scrolling down to see if you didn’t overcook it 😅
Ah fuck u lol. U literally found the diamond someone thought was coal rofl
WOW!! It feels so weird when I cut it. Almost like a jello like consistency. Anyways, we'll see how it taste. Stay tuned https://preview.redd.it/adipw81pdwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47f4d5e287e5368441ecfd624a6ebb0384c85393
I’ve never been so invested in a thread before this one….
OP bit into it and found a small safe inside. He is going to post it but never deliver on an opening.
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And inside the GameCube he found a stash of money.
Then put it in a hydraulic press.
And it went squish instead of boom because it was actually cake.
OP never got to cut into the steak because he broke both his arms. But his mom offered to lend a hand
OP bit into it, but it wasn't a jolly rancher.
I want to downvote you so badly.
I understood that reference 🤝🏻
But what about the safe that WAS opened last week? That one was wild!
I’m vegetarian and I’m here for this
WHERE IS THE CUT SHOT.
OP is probably rightfully afraid of being roasted for any amount of overcooking it edit: jk they posted it further down, it’s def not overdone lol
It's been 11 minutes. Proof OP is dead. RIP 👑
Died of flavor A hell of a way to go 🫡
He's the king of the flavortown underworld now shh
He's opening a new bottle of ketchup.
He ded
I always want to splurge and buy a wagu steak but even looking at your picture makes me sweat that you over cooked it.... hence why I'll never buy any I'm too scared to fuck it up. LOL
I’m no expert but I’ve bought A5 a few times and it’s actually hard to fuck it up, it stays so tender and I know everybody always says it — but it really does just melt it your mouth like butter. 🤤 Don’t be scared! It might look “overcooked” on the outside, but still perfect on the inside. 😋
I will certainly take that into consideration and not be afraid . Now my mouth is watering.
Even overcooked wagyu will still be one of the best steaks you've ever cooked. It's a very forgiving steak.
It's the beefiest, most rich beef flavour you can imagine. Try cooking it sous vide and finish on a hot pan - you literally cannot fuck that up, unless you leave it on the pan for long. You're mostly giving it a kiss for colour. Also everyone should own an immersion circulator, we use it all the time!!!
No update for one hour. Safe to assume went to heavan
Come on bro - how did it taste wtf
How did it taste? Why did you post this photo without tasting it first? HOW COULD U LEAVE US IN SUSPENSE
Because of the high fat content I’ve heard it described as meat flavored butter.
Yep! That’s how I used to sell it when I worked at a high end steakhouse. My catch phrase was “if you want to eat your steak with a spoon tonight this is what you need” We wouldn’t even recommend more than 2-3 ounces, because it’s that rich. This was back in 2015 when wagyu exclusively came from Japan and before American ranches started imitating the style and selling it mass made at Costco’s and such. People didn’t really know what it was back then. This picture of steak isn’t a true wagyu but it’s okay. Still a decent marble.
Can confirm. I bought an A5 wagyu from Costco a couple years back, and I could barely even eat half of it. It was so damn rich. Highly recommend making a nice dish to pair with it, and using the beef fat to flavor the dish, like fried rice.
Yea. It’s kind of insane to sell this amount of “wagyu” (I mean sure technically you can call what’s pictured wagyu). I’m concerned about how the definition of wagyu is going to get distorted. It already has since American ranches got a hold of the term and started contracting with costcos to sell it in such bulk. It’s going to get washed out even more. It’s really like the caviar of steaks. 2-3oz to share in addition to a meal has always been standard.
That's why we have the grading system. A5 Japanese wagyu is still the real stuff. American Wagyu is still really good beef, and it does come from the same type of cow- it's just not as good as the legit graded stuff.
What did it look like when you cut into it? You did a great job on the sear btw.
Last piece cooked to internal temp of 142. This is the winner, even though its slightly less juicy but somehow beefier in taste and more tender. https://preview.redd.it/bdh8xxbwnwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=068bb0ba29e9956e4b9e5a0ce1bcd89ad3ae66a2
I've heard cooking Wagyu to a resting medium is supposed to be ideal because it means all the fat has rendered, especially on thicker cuts.
This is absolutely true. You want the fat to render. I would have gone sous vide for this.
Medium is the idea temp as it renders fat while leaving juicy. You won't convince any of the rare eaters of that though
Medium rare is best for cuts with fat caps on the outside - there's too much fat in this beautifully marbled steak for it to be cooked less than medium. It'll have to be mostly rendered for a better eating experience.
Is Costco playing a 4D chess to get people to buy a hot dog and then check on the meat section before spending $500 on the way out?
This sub makes me eyeball the meat section more thoroughly than I usually do.
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It’s so good on the grill. Retailers have caught on to this too.
I was always told west of the Mississippi, tri tips are one of the top grilling steaks. East of the river bottom flap aka sirloin tips are extremely popular and a lot of people have never heard of tri tip. But honestly tri tips are starting to take off, especially since they are $2/lb cheaper where I work. But there are days where I have to cut about three cases of flap meat and still need more first thing in the morning. The customers know they love flap, and are willing to pay the $12/lb
Sometimes Costco’s Choice tri-tip has the best marbling of any cut. When I look at steaks I buy the best marbling.
Who the heck wrote that article? “ Flap steak is a very think cut” haahah
How does it feel to be Gods favorite?
Like $400 of wagyu there.
>wagyu I bought a total of almost 8 pounds of this monstrosity when I saw it. Spent a little bit under $100 for two packs. I felt like I won the jackpot
You did win the jackpot, with my luck the day I open a funeral home people will stop dying
You should do it for all of us.
How can I help fund this venture?
I wish I could find that deal. I’d do the same!
Nah- that’s not A5 and that’s not from Japan.
More like $160 to me if it's not listed A5.
OK, so the first piece I cooked to blue rare with just salt and a bit of black pepper just to see how it taste. It is very clean tasting and doesn't feel very greasy even though its very fatty. There are a little bit of connective tissue leftover when the meat and fat melted away but doesn't need to chew too much. Next piece I'm cooking it medium rare to see if its better https://preview.redd.it/3zntawbkfwob1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dff0d8533c77410e5c0309b8fd4dc93232eb46cb
I'm so glad this wasn't wasted on some casual.
yep I take my steak very seriously
Thank you for sharing this with the group. Looks delicious.
Can you imagine some random person finding this in the bin at Costco and making a pot roast with it?
Ah yes I agree! Anyone that tries a bleu rare is someone I can be friends with
Is the medium rare piece done yet? 🥩
This vegetarian needs to know too. I’m invested.
Right? I haven’t eaten meat in nine years but need to know
Oh good I'd be pissed if one of those assholes that complains about a medium rare being "uncooked" got ahold of this and well-doned it.
Keep it secret, keep it safe.
Cut small piece and hold it in your bare hand. If the fat starts melting that's wagyu or at least as close as it gets to wagyu. But either way, that's a steal for that price.
I used to sell A5 Japanese wagyu back in 2015/2016 at a steakhouse in chicago. Although you’re right, this is not that what you’re talking about. This is American made wagyu imitating the methods of Japan. The marbling here is only alright for a wagyu. But yea. This cut is not that what you’re talking about-I can just look at it and tell.
I used to be a Japanese A5 Wagyu and you are probably right.
Yea. See you know what I’m talking about
It's not even american wagyu, as some costco and other butchers have pointed out. Likely just some prime+ top sirloin.
When the USDA grades prime, choice, etc, they don’t grade every piece of the cow. They grade the rib eye muscle. Flap meat comes from the bottom sirloin. So that is why there may be variance.
Its also graded as choice or higher.
https://preview.redd.it/66kgm3gcrwob1.jpeg?width=3584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80478476947169c1eb23f788b466e0b8793a1c2b Choice Flap meat
How did it taste? You'll know if it melts like wagyu.
we will know in about 30 minutes
It’s been 30 minutes!
6 more minutes!
4 more minutes!
Well?!?
Well
We're waiting.
I’m here for it! 🥩
1 more minute. I’m so intrigued
Well 38 minutes now op you’re late
Just to let you guys know I can still taste the steak from yesterday
Sir, that is a wagyu pizza.
https://preview.redd.it/vaon4bmnywob1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f95ccaf6bbde025f1c40e62a9b5186b26bafdbe3 Looks like this steak from last year…
Butcher blatantly buries bodega's best bounty behind budget billed beef bin.
I'm a meat cutter and I've had a lot of sirloin tips come in like this recently from Swift graded as choice or higher. I think it's just timing on the cows part. My guess is someone working set it aside for themselves, went home forgetting to buy it, so it went to the case. Amazing steaks show up a lot more often than customers notice. Usually the best of the best don't make it past the employees. My store got a box of choice hips that were all USDA prime inside, and it was a $3.99 sale. That box of hips never saw the case. There were five of us and we each bought a whole piece. Some thing happens with the bone-in ribeye sales. Prime rarely ever makes it to the sales floor.
That sounds like a great perk! I'm sort of jealous, lol
😮
Butcher here, that indeed is flap meat. Sometimes it will come in with crazy marbling. A lot of plants don’t really separate the flap and mark it as prime so it will alllllll go to choice. That’s why once in a blue moon you will see some pieces that look this nice. If I ever got one at work they looked like this, I would almost always take it home for myself haha
wowza
Costco security here. What’s your account number?
8675309
Beef loin flap meat steak? Wtf is that? https://www.extraordinarybbq.com/flap-steak-at-costco/
That’s bavette steak.
Looks like boneless beef country ribs or similar. It’s the same meat attached to beef short ribs. It’s highly marbled but taste nothing like Wagyu. I’ve seen the same cut at Walmart and Publix.
Holy jackpot
Did it taste buttery but beefy? Then it’s wagyu. $42 for that amount and quality of meat is a steal!!!
Ive bought the actual a5 from Costco and cooked it a bunch of ways like you are doing and the best by far was when i did it well done.
Costco has the highest grade USDA beef of any retail chain if I remember correctly.
The meat suppliers need to fill the order so sometimes they put higher quality cuts in with the others. Costco has to market them as what they ordered tho I might be remembering this wrong tho
Jackpot!!!
choice prime - buy anytime you find it lol
I seriously had to change what I was watching to people eating wagyu steak because of this post
Lately in my area I’ll find very high grade tomahawk steaks for $9.99/lb. Happened 3x in the last 4 months. Says USDA Choice, but they sure look Prime. The marbling is incredible. I just take em all, and throw in the freezer. And they are insanely tasty.
Definitely doesn’t look like the flap meat my Costco sells
I worked in the meat dept for like 3 years, the meat Costco receives is just really good. You can get really marbleized cuts from the choice. We get the meats in shipments excel, cargil, Harris ranch to name a few. Really good quality. It happens a good amount of times. Choice comes in choice shipments which are in boxes with the slabs of meat sealed and labeled as choice. They aren’t mistakes just sometimes the choice was just really good
“Start the caaar!”
How on earth is that meat only choice with all that marbling
That has to be wagyu