20 years trimming fat wrong until a customer called me out

I was trimming a ribeye at the counter last Tuesday and this old guy just goes "you're cutting against the grain, son, that steak's gonna be tough." I had been doing it the same way since I started at Bakersfield Meats in 2003. He was dead right - I was always fighting the muscle fibers instead of working with them. Anyone else have a basic technique they never questioned until someone finally said something?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler_wilson28d ago

Nah, if it worked for 20 years it wasn't wrong.

jones.anna1mo ago

Wait, so you were literally just fighting the muscle every single time for 20 years? That's wild but honestly I can see how it becomes muscle memory after that many years. I did the same thing with sharpening my knives - always used a pull-through sharpener because that's what my dad had in the kitchen. Then a chef friend saw me doing it and explained how those things actually damage the blade over time, and now I'm learning to use a whetstone and it's way better but takes forever. Bet that customer felt like a hero telling you though, lol.