" wrote:

On another barbecue site they posted a bulletin from (I believe) the
American Beef Council that they had found new way to cut up a certain
area of the cow to help merchandise the meat. They reasoned that the
meat was of different texture and fat content now than it was when
they originally detailed out the standard butcher's diagram. So now,
from the same cow, we have two "new" different cuts of meat, which of
course, are more expensive.

They introduced a few new "value cuts" sometime at the beginning of
this decade. I don't think they made the official USDA IMPS beef
standards guides but they probably did make the NAMP guides (since
they're into marketing more). That was done to help market the
various muscles in the chuck to maximize profits - just as you
described in your OP.

Supposedly that had spent millions of dollars on this study to
"identify" these muscles, but in reality they'd been known about for
a century or more. The money spent was just an advertising campaign
to let us know they're jacking up the price of certain parts of the
chuck (and round).

Chuck eye is a great piece of beef:

http://i26.tinypic.com/w6z4ed.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/4h5ac8.jpg

I think chuck eye had been around long before these new "value
cuts". I think it's as good a ribeye since it has a much smaller
portion of the longissimis muscle and more of the cap/flap muscles
makeing for a better texture.

But I'd certainly know if somebody tried to pass off a chuck eye as
a boneless ribeye. Most people woulnd't.

-sw