New cut of meat greets grillers this Labor Day

Labor Day marks the traditional end of summer and for many, the end of grilling meat in the back yard. Before storing the barbeque for the year, Nancy Degner, a vice president of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, suggest trying a new cut of steak called the “beef-shoulder tender.” Degner says it’s now in many Iowa grocery stores. She says it’s a different shaped cut that you car into little pieces.Prices range from two-99 to three-99 a pound and varies in weight from five to ten ounces. Degner says consumers are demanding more steaks and the beef industry has found a way to deliver them.About two-thirds of the weight of the animal is turned into hamburger and pot roast and things that aren’t steak. The beef shoulder tender was developed as a result of a beef muscle profiling study funded by beef producers through the dollar-per-head beef checkoff. The research found several muscles from both the chuck and round that can be separated, cut into steaks and grilled. Because it comes from the chuck, Degner says the new steak is priced economically and currently compares to the cost of a boneless chicken breast.