KillDate

How to fill out a beef cut sheet

A cut sheet is a page of questions that decides what a year of dinners looks like, and most people fill their first one out at a counter with a truck running outside. Here is what every question actually means, with a real sheet you can work through as you read.

If you read nothing else

  • One inch steaks, two to a pack. Right for most households, and hard to regret.
  • Take the T-bones. Asking for filets quietly gives up every T-bone and porterhouse on the animal.
  • Grind more than feels right. The round and the rump make better hamburger than they make roasts.
  • Ask for organs and bones now. They are gone within hours of the kill if they are not on the sheet.

Fill one in

This is the standard beef sheet KillDate ships to its shops, the same one a customer sees on their phone. Work through it and it will tell you what you have chosen at the bottom. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent.

Steaks

One inch is the safe answer.

Match your household, not your freezer.

Boneless packs better, bone-in eats better.

You get T-bones or you get filets. Not both.

Lean and tough. Tenderize it or grind it.

Fajitas, or hamburger.

Roasts

Three to four pounds feeds a family with leftovers.

Chuck is the best pot roast on the animal.

Lean, and it dries out easily.

Only keep it whole if you actually smoke.

Ground beef

One pound is the standard recipe unit.

Convenient, and it costs extra.

Twenty to thirty pounds is a normal ask.

Ten to fifteen pounds covers a winter.

Ribs, bones and organs

Braised, they are one of the best things on the animal.

Not much meat, good flavour.

Free flavour, if you make stock.

Say so now, they get cut lengthwise or into rounds.

Lean, cheap, tastes like very firm steak.

Take it fresh or not at all.

Simmered and peeled, it is the best taco meat there is.

Slow cooked. Worth asking for before someone else does.

Suet renders into tallow.

Extras

Charged per pound on top, and it comes out of your ground.

Keeps well and everyone eats it.

The most expensive thing per pound on most price lists.

Write down anything unusual. The cutter reads this.

What you just chose

You have kept every major cut whole. Expect less hamburger than most people end up with, and a few cuts that need slow cooking to be worth having.

Take this with you, or read it down the phone

My beef cut sheet

STEAKS
  Steak thickness: 1"
  Steaks per package: 2
  Ribeye: Boneless
  Loin: T-bone and porterhouse
  Round steak: Tenderized cube steak
  Flank and skirt: Keep whole

ROASTS
  Roast size: 3 to 4 lb
  Chuck roasts: All roasts
  Rump and sirloin tip: Roasts
  Brisket: Whole

GROUND BEEF
  Package size: 1 lb

RIBS, BONES AND ORGANS
  Short ribs: Keep
  Back ribs: Keep
Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere.
Booking with a shop that uses KillDate? You will get a text with a link, and this same sheet fills in on your phone. Find one near you.

What you cannot take back

Most of a cut sheet is recoverable. A roast you regret becomes stew meat; a steak cut too thin still cooks. These four are the ones that are genuinely final.

  • T-bones or filets

    The loin gets cut one way or the other on the day. There is no version where you change your mind later and get both.

  • Standing rib roast or ribeye steaks

    Same rib section. Once it is sliced into steaks it is not going back together.

  • Anything you sent to the grinder

    A roast can always become hamburger. Hamburger never becomes a roast again.

  • Organs and bones

    If you do not ask for the heart, liver, tongue, oxtail or soup bones at drop off, they are gone before the carcass ever reaches the cutting floor.

How much will come home

The cut sheet decides the shape of what you get; the animal decides how much. A 1,200 lb steer hangs around 740 lb and comes back as roughly 425 to 500 lb of packages, which needs about fifteen cubic feet of freezer. The yield calculator will run your own numbers, including what the processing costs.

Common questions

What is a beef cut sheet?
It is the form that tells the processor how to break your animal down: how thick to cut the steaks, how many to a package, which cuts to keep as roasts and which to grind into hamburger. The shop cannot start cutting without one, and once they have started, the choices on it are final.
When do I need to have my cut sheet in?
Before the animal reaches the cutting floor, which is usually one to two weeks after the kill date while the beef hangs. Handing it in at drop off is safest. Shops that take cut sheets online will let you fill yours in any time until cutting starts.
Should I get T-bones or filets?
You cannot have both. A T-bone is the strip steak and the tenderloin joined by the bone. Cutting them apart gives you strip steaks and a whole tenderloin but no T-bones or porterhouses at all. Most people want the T-bones once they understand the trade.
How thick should I have my steaks cut?
One inch suits almost everyone. Three quarters of an inch cooks through before it develops a crust, which is fine in a pan and disappointing on a grill. An inch and a half is a steakhouse cut that needs a reverse sear to cook evenly.
How much of a beef should I grind into hamburger?
Most households under-grind. The round, the rump and the brisket all make better hamburger than they make roasts unless you cook them carefully. A quarter to a third of the animal ending up as ground beef is normal, and people who keep every roast usually grind the leftovers a year later anyway.
Can I change my cut sheet after I drop the animal off?
Usually yes, right up until the cutting starts. Call the shop. Once the carcass is broken down nothing can be reversed, which is why shops lock the sheet at that point rather than taking a change they cannot honour.
Do I have to ask for the organs and bones?
Yes, and at drop off. The heart, liver, tongue, oxtail and soup bones are separated early in the process. If they are not on the sheet when the animal is killed, they are gone long before anyone reaches the cut sheet.

Need a processor?

Find a shop near you and see who has a kill date open.

Find a processor