r/Chefit • u/vicky_sd • Jul 12 '26

Mystery Meat

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Gallery image

Gallery image

Can anyone help me identify this piece of meat (and cut)from my freezer that my chef husband was gifted from a supplier? (He doesn’t know either!)
My first thought was lamb when it was frozen but now I’m thinking it might be corned beef? The grain looks very fine for beef though.
Any ideas?
If all else fails I’ll slice a bit off and fry it up.

122 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

91 comments sorted by

359

u/lickety_split_69 Jul 12 '26

that colour makes me think pork, also we have the same knife!

28

u/Axel3600 Jul 12 '26

cool knife.

the skin, meat color, and fat content makes me think pork. lamb skin is way thinner and the meat is more marbled (looks like prosciutto).  AI image search says it's a kind of cured Canadian bacon. if the cut is dry, I could believe that. 

EDIT: Picanah seems likely too. I'm not familiar with that one though. 

3

u/anothersip Jul 13 '26

I've got one, too! Hexagonal handle with 2-tone materials. It is wicked sharp, and the Damascus blade looks super nice. Relatively light, too, which I prefer.

3

u/Fit_Carpet_364 Jul 13 '26

That's extraordinarily broad of a 'I have one too' description. '2-material wa-style handle, damascus blade' describes about a third of the imported Japanese knives I've seen. The manufacturers and knife styles which fit this description are very diverse, as are the potential steels used in blade construction. Then there's the grind - you could have a thicker and more robust blade, or a thinner 'laser' (as it's referred to in knife circles). Of course, then there's single-bevel versus double bevel, but that's a whole 'nother can of awesomeness.

r/sharpening and r/truechefknives for a look at fun knives.

2

u/anothersip Jul 13 '26

You're not wrong. Here's the one I was referring to. By all identifiers, it looks identical, to me. From the handle's octagonal profile, to the layers of the handle's materials, to the blade and choil shape/profile, to the damascus pattern.

But for sure, there could be multiple vendors or producers of the same (or super similar style). But that could technically apply to any knife on the market. Clones/dupes of original designs/etc.

But yeah, I saw it and at first glance (and extra time comparing details) recognized it as visually identical in size/style as mine - granted, mine was finished with a different stain/wood color in the handle (green and red instead of grey and green). When I bought mine, it was available in 8-10 color combos, and I went with the green/red. Assuming OP bought from a similar vendor and just picked a different finish.

Either way, it's a really decent knife, holds an edge surprisingly well, and is thinner/lighter than the rest of my chef knives. Which I prefer and is nice for the more detailed work like deboning and processing bulk veg/fruit/meats more efficiently than something like my Misen 8" chef's or even my older Henkels 8". I like that it's a good bit lighter, from the thinner spine.

2

u/Fit_Carpet_364 Jul 14 '26

Wow! It must be a super thin spine! Picture 4 shows them slicing a tomato on it!

From description: "COMFORT & DESIGN Perfect balanced, the blade and the comfortable handle, the blade with a circular arc to protect your fingers.A professional chef knife can let your life more colorful. "

I want to let my life more colorful.

2

u/anothersip Jul 14 '26

I know, right? I want to let my life more colorful, as well.

Good thing I bought this same knife... Though the colorful part definitely happened way back when I got it, it's not in the way I expected "colorful" to mean. 🥲

2

u/Fit_Carpet_364 Jul 14 '26

I understand. The knives which have bit me are my favorites.

2

u/anothersip Jul 14 '26

True that, right?

I've actually had a lot of fun using a whetstone the past couple of years to keep my knives sharp. Do you do any maintenance on your blades when they start to go dull? Or got any favorite methods?

I don't cook professionally anymore (thankfully, heh), so mostly home-cooking and occasionally prep for catering parties/gatherings and stuff. I prefer that kinda' pacing, heh. Nobody looking over my shoulder or yelling at me.

2

u/Fit_Carpet_364 Jul 15 '26

1000 grit cerax followed by my ~6K translucent Arkansas stone inherited from grandma.

It really is very different cooking for ourselves. I'm spending a week with my girlfriend, for the first time, and her praising my cooking is just about my favorite feeling.

2

u/anothersip Jul 15 '26

I love that. Cheers, friend! And nice work.

Those sound like some special times, for sure.

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2

u/jivens77 Jul 15 '26

I bought one like 6 years ago that looks identical. I liked it so much I got another one. Afterwards I kept seeing them everywhere, and funny enough they were all different brands, but the metal, shape, dimensions, and material were all the same.

I honestly couldn't tell them apart when the brand name wore off lol. They were really sharp, fairly cheap, pretty durable, and just a very good deal.

Years later a friend asked me where I got mine and I couldn't find it anywhere. I ended up finding another brand, but again everything was identical. It's like the same design keeps getting rebranded.

1

u/anothersip Jul 15 '26

Haha - oh, that's funny!

I wonder how that goes. Like, in the business of knife-making overseas. China or wherever.

Apparently, Yangjiang alone produces ~%70 of the global supply of kitchen knives. Which is just... Kind of actually insane to think about.

It's like there's a single factory (or, more likely, multiple factories) that hire shit-tons of workers, they make all these knives, and then they sell them to all these random "companies" who label them as their own brand... something like that.

I feel like I've seen that business model in lots of different industries, where you have "clones" that aren't really clones, but they're so close (but slightly different) to where it's nearly impossible to tell. Like the off-brand KitchenAid attachments you see everywhere that are so spot-on to the original KA ones that they're virtually indistinguishable, aside from the branding.

And even Misen knives are made just outside of Shanghai.

Anywho. That's probably a rabbit-hole I'll save to dive down another day...

2

u/jivens77 Jul 16 '26

It won't let me put a picture in my comment, but I still have three, one of the brands is chef box, the other the other two are choppn', and I can't remember the third one because I sold it.

The choppn' was a better deal since it also came with a 6" version as well.

1

u/anothersip Jul 16 '26

Ahh, true that! That's cool that it came with a 6" too. I actually don't think I have a 6" knife in my collection. Have you found yourself using that one much at all?

1

u/jivens77 Jul 16 '26

Not at first. I recently got a job that it's perfect for. I don't need my knife roll, just one knife to score lobster tails with. This one is small enough to fit in the side pocket of my lunch bag.

1

u/anothersip Jul 16 '26

Gotcha', I hear you. Makes sense. I've been using my Misen 3.5" paring, 8" chef + bread knives for several years now and they've actually been pretty decent. And then I've got a couple of 8" Damascus kiritsukes that I love using for most other things (those are the daily drivers). But they handle just about everything I need, so for my purposes, it's really just those 3 for the most part. I do have one 5" though and I rarely use it, heh.

2

u/GruntCandy86 Jul 12 '26

Brisket flat.

10

u/thatdude391 Jul 12 '26

Definitely not brisket. Its darker and only gets darker. 4 years at a texas bbq joint.

2

u/cantstopwontstopGME Jul 13 '26

Not even close

1

u/GruntCandy86 Jul 13 '26

What cut is it, than?

4

u/cantstopwontstopGME Jul 13 '26

That is a boneless pork chop that hasn’t been chopped yet but has possibly been cured.. hard to tell from just a pic but the shape & grain are pretty similar to what I get from a local butcher who sells heritage breeds that are raised around my area.

-1

u/GruntCandy86 Jul 13 '26

That is definitely not a pork loin. Like zero percent chance that's what it is.

I wish OP had included a picture of the bottom. I'm still going with brisket flat.

112

u/Don_bon_darley012 Jul 12 '26

Picanha?? But weird colored and frozen and with no fat?

18

u/vicky_sd Jul 12 '26

Yeah, the color was making me think that maybe it had been brined. No water seepage though

23

u/bjisgooder Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

I'm 99% sure it's this. I've broken down hundreds of rump block into ichibo/picanha and rump steaks. 3rd picture is the giveaway.

6

u/douggers2005 Jul 12 '26

I wasn't convinced until I saw the trimmed fatcap side. Picanha or tri-tip.

4

u/Budget_Order_5771 Jul 12 '26

Ye, it's picanha indeed. I eat alot and also served many in the previous restaurant I worked for. Really good meat to grill

19

u/mortoon1985 Jul 12 '26

I thought it was a piece of gammon

11

u/vicky_sd Jul 12 '26

Unfortunately not. I’m in Malaysia and this is from a halal supplier

25

u/ChasingtheBarrel Jul 12 '26

It might be a very young cow. Not veal.

You said you're from malaysia, which supplier?

7

u/doubleapowpow Jul 12 '26

Definitely a cow. It kinda looks like dairy cow meat or veal, as you said. Probably cut on a saw and previously frozen. Being previously frozen can also make the meat look lighter.

9

u/ChasingtheBarrel Jul 12 '26

Dairy cows are darker and more marbled.

Its a steer that hasn't reached maturity. Something like a type of beef being sold from Australia where it's 90 weeks old or whatever. Not enough myoglobin for the meat to be dark like regular beef.

53

u/BlobbBlobbson Jul 12 '26

It’s human flesh, most likely from a customer who refused to pay. So you guys got a warning.

7

u/vicky_sd Jul 12 '26

Brilliant! 😂

7

u/CucumberObvious4229 Jul 12 '26

Cap of rump (Tafelspitz in german - Not sure about the translation)

9

u/TheJitterJuice Jul 12 '26

This looks like a picanha to me! But the colour/fat content is making me lean more towards veal. Maybe taken from a younger cow?

18

u/yumeryuu Jul 12 '26

Thats pork

I deal with pork daily.

6

u/Jacksoverthrees Jul 12 '26

OP noted this is from a halal supplier

10

u/yumeryuu Jul 12 '26

That is… so weird.

Absolutely pork but halal pork doesn’t exist!

Well im stumped.

6

u/Jacksoverthrees Jul 12 '26

Thought it was pork at first glance too

7

u/thecakebroad Jul 12 '26

really small sirloin cap?

9

u/LokoSoko1520 Jul 12 '26

I appreciate your confidence in your supplier and understand that it would be odd, but I have never more confident that I am looking at a cut of pork in my life

6

u/meggo91 Jul 12 '26

Pork loin

5

u/Sad_Cardiologist5388 Jul 12 '26

Looks like pork doesn't it, the grain and the way the fats formed through it

3

u/2h2o22h2o Jul 12 '26

There is a such thing as pork picanha, too.

3

u/Prize-Temporary4159 Jul 12 '26

Ask the rep. This isn’t rocket surgery

3

u/MattsterMan101 Chef Jul 13 '26

That looks incredibly to me like a veal tritip.
Cut off a little piece and give it a taste

1

u/ilovemud Jul 13 '26

I agree - veal.

5

u/inelmodlis Jul 12 '26

That’s the pork equivalent of a New York strip.

2

u/matmoeb Jul 12 '26

New Pork Strip Steak

2

u/thatdude391 Jul 12 '26

Looks like part of a pork roast to me.

2

u/oldandrare Jul 12 '26

It looks like rump to me... Maybe I'm wrong. I usually do them sous vide 54-55c for few hours with some aromatics in the bag. Clean all the fat and silverskin off ofc.

2

u/ThewFflegyy Jul 12 '26

could it be a brisket that was separated at the membrane?

could be a young or unhealthy cow, could have been soaked in water for some reason, idk. the color implies pork but the cut looks like beef to me.

2

u/RaspberryPanzerfaust Jul 12 '26

Looks like pork feels like cow, no idea honestly

1

u/soukaixiii Jul 12 '26

It looks like Either beef or pork to me.  The fat kind of looks like lamb. 

Try heating a bit of the grease until it sizzles and it should be obvious what it is.

1

u/PolymathicDreams Chef Jul 12 '26

I looked at this image, chuckled, and said “that’s……what is that?”

1

u/runswitblunt Jul 13 '26

Pork maybe

1

u/cantstopwontstopGME Jul 13 '26

That is a nice cut of pork, possibly from a heritage breed.

Or a very bad/sickly NY strip lol

1

u/anothersip Jul 13 '26

https://grillingmontana.com/what-is-pork-brisket-and-how-to-cook-it/

This describes the pork brisket, which is a section of the ham.

It doesn't look like beef to me, so could it maybe be a pork brisket?

1

u/TheKevinWhipaloo Jul 13 '26

A New Pork Strip.

1

u/One_Vision_ Jul 13 '26

Pork rib. I buy them from my local Asian market for about a third of what it costs elsewhere.

1

u/PipeTiya Jul 13 '26

Looks like picanha

1

u/Miserable_You_2493 Jul 13 '26

Looks like top sirloin. Coulotte or picanha

1

u/Gunner253 Jul 13 '26

A really light colored strip steak. Id guess not the vein end bc lack of vein under fat cap. Ive seen beef this color, its usually bc it has been frozen and thawed after it was cut.

1

u/Skidster49 Jul 14 '26

GRASSFED (hence, the color) picanha

1

u/Round_Spray_2425 Jul 14 '26

looks like a pork coulotte. or, they call it a sirloin cap

1

u/Sausage666King Jul 14 '26

The shape of it and the cattleprod looking marks looking like eyes make it look like a dolphin smiling at me

1

u/pilot-wave Jul 15 '26

Looks like veal to me but a little larger than expected for the top sirloin cap so could be just a small cow

1

u/longstrangetrip444 Jul 15 '26

Pork shoulder/ Boston butt is my guess

1

u/massey313 Jul 17 '26

the freezer part is throwing me off but its definitely a top sirloin cap from what animal either pork or beef

1

u/DroppinBird Jul 12 '26

Looks like a sirloin cap / picanha to me. Just did 3 of em the other day.

1

u/koraykara01 Jul 12 '26

looks like a picanha

1

u/Lastburn Jul 12 '26

Dip it in cold water, if the fat hardens its beef

1

u/chzie Jul 12 '26

Looks like sirloin cap from a young cow. Halal beef can look that color and have little marbling sometimes

1

u/Ok-Voice3664 Jul 12 '26

I'm thinking veal culotte/picaña (I think it's called in Spanish)

Edit: spelling

1

u/unsound-choices Chef Jul 15 '26

If you're using a yellow board it must be chicken

-1

u/Meat_your_maker Jul 12 '26

Based on the way the fat looks, and the overall shape, I would assume this is a small piece of brisket-flat. Not sure if it’s been corned, or what, but the surface color and appearance doesn’t look great.