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My Prime Beef

Words have meanings. And one word I want to talk about is the is the word Prime. The USDA grades the beef sold in this country. The grading dates back to 1923. There are eight grades starting with Prime and ending with Canner. The top three that restaurants deal with are Prime, Choice, Select. No restaurant should go lower than Select.

According to the USDA only 3.4% of all the beef in this country is graded Prime. And depending on who you want to believe, that 3.4% is usually bought up by high end fine dining restaurants.
Choice, is the second best grade,and 66.5 % of all beef is graded choice.
The third best is Select and 29.6 % of all beef is graded select.
All Percentages I have listed came directly from the USDA web site.

So it stands to reason that if only 3.4% of all beef is Prime, then every restaurant in the U.S. can not be serving Prime Rib. Prime has become a generic marketing word that every one has latched on to. I for one think that this is wrong.

For those who may not know the difference between the three top grades here are three pictures for you to see for yourself.

-Prime


-Choice


-Select

--Maverick Chef

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