Meat Draft!!!!

Recall that some friends and had recently joined together and purchased a 1/4 cow with Jaime and I. There were actually 6 different parties (some were couples) that evenly split the purchase.

So how do you split 120lbs of various cuts of meat between 6 different parties? You could try to evenly divide things, but there aren't 6 pieces of everything and some people put higher value on different cuts than others. You could do an auction with everybody having the same amount of money to spend, but that would take a long time and there might be large variations in the amount paid for similar cuts of meat. Or, you could do a meat draft! That allows for equal opportunities for everybody(especially if its a serpentine draft), and allows people to choose what cuts of meat are the most valuable to them. Besides, its just too awesome of an idea to not do.

The meat is all cut up into steaks (one per package), small roasts, and various other things. The packages ranged in weight from probably 3/4lbs for the smallest steak up to maybe 3lbs for the biggest roast. The ground beef was in approximately 1lb packages. Here is the list of what packages of meat were available. Jaime and I put together our own ranked list based on type of cut and approximate guess for the size of the package.

Here is an excited participant getting psyched up for the draft:

Here is the meat being laid out:

Intently studying a few roast options. Yes, that is a scale on the ground there:

The draft format was serpentine, so the draft order from the first round is reversed in the second round, then reversed again in every round thereafter, thus creating a snakelike progression. That way the person who picks first gets their choice of everything, but they don't get another pick again till 10 other packages of meat have been chosen. The Millers drew the 3rd spot in the draft. I'm sure you're wondering exactly what the Miller homestead ended up with after the draft, so here is the list:

1st round: Flat Iron steak. Not an extremely well known steak but rumored to be the 2nd most tender steak (after a tenderloin), but with more flavor. It was also a pretty big chunk. There was only one flat iron steak, and I was very interested to try it. Very happy with this selection. In case you think I'm crazy, the farmer charges the second most for this cut of meat (after the tenderloin).

2nd round: Sirloin Steak. A really big hunk of sirloin steak. Can't complain about that.

3rd round: Delmonico Steak. A good-sized piece of a highly ranked steak. At this point, the steaks choices were getting thin, only steaks had been chosen to this point.

4th round: Top Round London Broil Roast. There was only one or two steaks left at this point and a run on the better roasts had begun at this point. This was a pretty big roast that is tender enough that it could be cut into steaks and grilled, if desired. I was pretty happy with this pick.

5th round: Brisket. There were only two Brisket pieces and the first had just been taken before us. I thought this might be a bit early for Brisket, but I REALLY want to make home made corned beef, and this is the perfect piece of meat for it. Incidentally, the last of the steaks (a smallish Delmonico) went in the 5th round, which makes my pick of a Delmonico steak in the 3rd look like a bit of a reach. Oh well.

6th round: Eye round roast. A relatively big piece that should make a good slow cooked roast. Another solid pick.

7th round: Bottom round roast. A moderate size roast that will work well as either a regular roast or a pot roast. Can't complain about this pick.

8th round: Shank. This is a bone-in cross cut that is a bout 1.5" thick. The bone part of it is also known as osso bucco. This was a good looking one. Should be a good piece for the crock pot. Again, nothing to complain about.

9th round: Kabobs (aka stew meat). These packages were pretty big, probably around 2lbs. This meat is probably pretty tough, but we wanted to make sure I got at least one of these to marinade and use as kabobs.

10th round: Shank. I think we had the option for either shank or Kabobs at this point. I picked shank because I figured we could use both at the same time and Jaime and I could each have our own shank, but looking back, the one piece would probably have been good enough for both of us and I could have gotten another kabob. This was the only decision I regretted (mildly) afterwards.

11th-16th rounds: At this point all that was left was ground beef, so we each got at least 6 of those.

We weighed each person's totals afterwards and they ranged from 18.7 to 22.2lbs (ours was 20.2lbs). I think everybody ended up pretty happy with the whole draft idea. I was happy with the way our choices ended up, and the entertainment value was priceless.