How Do You Slice Up Bone In Pork Steaks?

[darita]

I've been having my butcher slice up pork butts for me, but there's only one store that will do it and it's always a toss up as to what kind of slices I get in the end. I'd like to slice my own steaks, but I don't have a meat band saw to use, so I'm wondering how you all do it?

 

[tom b]

reciprocating saw, I saw it on the interweb

 

[cowboyupbbq]

I saw a the guy from Iron Barley in ST Louis do it with a sawzall, but never tried it. Guess you’d use a clean blade but something about using the same tool to cut sewer pipe and pork somehow fouled me out.

 

[BuffettFan]

Bone saw on Amazon, pretty cheap.
I would imagine you'd want to freeze the meat before sawing.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

I use a reciprocating saw for butchering deer. Of course I always use a new 9" blade and length of the blade keeps the saw from contacting the carcass. I also use an old fashioned Stanley brand miter saw for cutting up the butchered quarters. This saw is cleaned and sterilized before it is used and I only use it for cutting meat. I find that when cutting meats with the saw it is best to have the meat to point where it is almost frozen. If the meat is completely thawed, the cuts will be rough. When cutting a pork shoulder roasts into steaks, you will need to go against the grain of the meat. This means you will be cutting through bone on almost every cut.


The miter saw is good for cutting up frozen rolls of burger. I can cut up a five pound chub roll to make ten burgers that are all still frozen. I can also just cut five burgers and save the other 2.5 pounds for later use. Whole frozen pork loins can be cut up in this manner too, whether it be cutting it up into two or three roasts or a bunch of chops.



Here is a link to the Stanley saw:


https://www.stanleytools.com/product/stht20359/14-pro-miter-saw?tid=577386

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I found some meat cutting blades for my recip saw

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08L37GX9N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pro tip ........ since I've done this one time ....... make your first cut through the bone so you have the weight of the pork butt to help hold it in place and don't have to get your fingers too close to the blade.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I find that when cutting meats with the saw it is best to have the meat to point where it is almost frozen. If the meat is completely thawed, the cuts will be rough. When cutting a pork shoulder roasts into steaks, you will need to go against the grain of the meat. This means you will be cutting through bone on almost every cut.

Great tip !! I will use that.

 

[Ducksmoke]

Jug’s
What do you use to hold the butt when your cutting?
That miter saw tip is great.

Tom

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Yo Tom, Been 20 years since I cut up a deer hindquarter into steaks. Now I just cut the three main muscles out and trim out the rest of the meat for grinding. When I did cut bone in steaks, another person held the leg in place until my saw got to close their hand or they no longer could hold against my saw motion. Most of the steaks were not the full size of the leg as not all of muscles were left on the bone. I will admit, it was work. The venison steaks were nice to have, but I much prefer the burger and pastrami from venison over the steaks.


The pork shoulder is a different story. I have never tried cutting one up into steaks. Here is what I would do. If you have a work table you can use, set up a secured back board to the table so the working surface looks like a kitchen counter top with a 3-4" backboard that sits against the wall. I hope that makes sense. The meat should go against the backboard and allow you to keep the meat in place while you saw it.



Although the saw-z-all is probably quicker, I would still cut the meat into steaks with a hand saw. You are less likely to hurt yourself with the hand saw. I have first hand information on hurting myself with a saw-z-all.



BTW, I typed this post with nine fingers........


Juggy

 

[thirdeye]

My meat saw is a Wyoming Saw (imagine that) and it's primary use is for field dressing big game.... but in addition to sawing off shanks or necks in the field, it will cut pork steaks or ham steaks. I chill the cut of meat, then slice through the meat with a knife stopping at the bone. I switch to the meat saw and with a few strokes it goes right through. The LEM brand saws have a larger bow than my saw.

 

[ModelMaker]

Watch any of the YT posts on butchering (Bearded Butchers, etc) they all use the cut with a knife to the bone and then a few pulls with a hand saw. Works for them.
Ed

 

[Nuco59]

sawzall *sounds* good- until I realize that I can't run a sawzall with one hand whilst holding a big chuck of meat that wants to slide all over the cutting board that wants to slide all over the counter. Use a meat saw- you don't need to freeze the meat first... the bone is already hard.

lay out your cuts with a boning knife about an inch wide. Cut the meat down to the bone and change to your saw. Start cutting the bone side so you have something to hold the hell on to. if the teeth cut on the pull stroke, so much the better IMO. good luck.

 

[gcs]

You cut with the knife to the bone, then use the bone saw, finish with the knife. A proper meat/bone saw still works better them most substitutes, bones are soft and the cutting goes fast.

That said, I get the boned butts from costco, I finish cutting the butt then cut the steaks from the large "half", I chunk up the smaller piece for souvlaki.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

Lots of good advise in this thread.

 

[smoke ninja]

sawzall *sounds* good- until I realize that I can't run a sawzall with one hand whilst holding a big chuck of meat that wants to slide all over the cutting board that wants to slide all over the counter. Use a meat saw- you don't need to freeze the meat first... the bone is already hard.

lay out your cuts with a boning knife about an inch wide. Cut the meat down to the bone and change to your saw. Start cutting the bone side so you have something to hold the hell on to. if the teeth cut on the pull stroke, so much the better IMO. good luck.

they have newer one handed recips (hackzalls) that are easier to use. I've also cut bone with my oscillating tool before....it's a more civilized weapon