No meat ingredient is as friendly to lazy people as fat beef.

Not only for hot pot, whether it is fried, stir-fried or grilled, fat beef is not only easy to mature, but also convenient for seasoning.

Even a novice with zero experience in the kitchen can easily make fat beef without overturning.

But, what part of the cow is the "perfect" fat cow?

01 Who created the fat cow?

Speaking of the fat cow , the first reaction of most people is fat beef hot pot.

This kind of hot pot, which is more common in the north, actually only appeared a few years ago.

It has only been in the past 30 years that fattened beef has really entered the Chinese diet.

In the past, when talking about eating hot pot in the north, most of the time it meant boiling mutton.

The well-known time-honored hot pot restaurants in Beijing are all mutton-boiled restaurants, so there is no need for beef.

It’s not that people at that time disliked beef. They really couldn’t eat it and it didn’t taste good.

As a farming country, cattle have been the main force in farming in China for a long time, and working is the main purpose of raising cattle.

In many dynasties, the private killing of cattle was a serious crime. It was not until the middle and late Qing Dynasty that control over cattle slaughter was gradually relaxed.

Moreover, for a long time, the Chinese have been breeding cattle for farming purposes, and the cattle they have bred are thin and taste bad when eaten.

The fat beef we eat now actually originated in the United States.

American Angus beef has a relatively even distribution of fat. They choose parts with relatively high fat content and cut them into thin slices to become "fat beef".

Later, with the export of American beef, "fat cattle" also spread to Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China and other East Asian regions. By the 1990s, it was gradually introduced to mainland China, setting off a fattening epidemic. Beef hotpot craze.

In addition to imported beef, another important factor contributing to the boom in beef hotpot is the rise of China's beef cattle breeding industry.

In the early 1980s, China officially lifted the ban on slaughtering cattle.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the beef cattle breeding industry in North China began to develop rapidly, and there were more and more hybrid cattle breeds.

To this day, Shandong is still the province with the highest beef production in China, followed by Inner Mongolia and Hebei.

In the 1990s, beef hotpot also began to appear in North China.

In Shandong, which has the highest beef production, beef hotpot has become the representative of local hotpot.

In Beijing, a famous chain fat beef hotpot brand originated from a breeding group in Sanhe, Hebei.

In this way, fat beef has become a force that cannot be ignored in the Chinese hot pot industry.

02Which piece of meat is the fat beef?

We know that the parts of the cow are the upper brain, eye meat, sirloin, and cucumber strips. ...

It seems that there is no part of the cow called fat.

Indeed, the name "Fat Cow" is actually a trade name, and there is no "Fat Cow" in cows.

Fat beef is made from alternately fat and thin parts of the cow—usually on the back or abdomen—and the fat content usually reaches 30% or more.

Slice the meat from these parts into thin slices, and you’ll get the fat beef rolls we eat in our daily hot pot.

If you want to cut into fat beef rolls, you must first have meat bricks. The quality of the meat bricks determines the quality of the fat beef.

Generally speaking, meat bricks can be divided into two categories, raw cuts and pressed.

Original cutting is easy to understand. Just select a certain part of the meat, trim it according to the size of the mold, and make meat bricks into slices.

Many parts that can be made into steak can also be sliced ??into fattened beef.

For example, choose eye meat from the middle part of the beef back. It is called eye meat because it is fat and thin and looks like an eye.

The cooked ribs have a very delicate texture. Apart from being expensive, there is nothing wrong with it.

Similarly, beef short ribs made into fat beef rolls are both beautiful and delicious, but they are also expensive.

The sirloin beef is the middle and rear part of the beef back. This part is the sirloin steak in the steak.

The fat is deposited on one side of the meat, and the red and white colors are visually striking, and the tender taste is also intoxicating.

The upper brain fat beef is the upper part of the beef back. Because it is close to the head, it is called the upper brain.

The fat deposits form a marble-like pattern, giving it a chewy texture without losing tenderness.

The upper brain is relatively large, and considering the taste and price, it is already a cost-effective choice among raw-cut beef.

Of course, the most cost-effective among raw-cut beef is actually the abdominal fat cow, also called "Fat Cow No. 1."

The most common types of fat beef rolls in hot pot restaurants are numbered one, two, three and four, with quality and price also ranging from high to low.

The raw materials of Fei Niu No. 1 are beef belly and beef ribs with the bones removed, which are trimmed according to the size of the mold and made into meat bricks.

Its texture is not so regular and the taste is plump, so it is most suitable for hot pot.

Starting from Fei Niu No. 2, it is no longer the original cut of fat beef, but meat bricks made of pressed lean meat and fat.

Fei Niu No. 2 is made from two layers of fat and two layers of lean meat, while Fei Niu No. 3 is made from one layer of fat and two layers of lean meat.

After these two kinds of meat bricks are cut into fat beef rolls, there will be a very obvious red and white dividing line between fat and thin, and they are very neat.

Although these two kinds of fat beef are suppressed, they cannot be considered "bad". After all, the lean part is still a whole piece of meat.

Fei Niu No. 4 is relatively average. It is made of minced beef and pressed together.

The price is of course very cheap. It is most likely the fat beef that falls apart when you encounter it in a hot pot restaurant.

03Besides making hot pot, how else can you eat fat beef?

When it comes to eating fat beef, most people still only use it to make hot pot.

This is actually a pity.

Although fat beef was introduced from the United States and has long dominated the hot pot world, this does not prevent it from being perfectly integrated into Chinese recipes.

Moreover, compared to sirloin steak and shank, fattening beef does not require any complicated processing.

It is cooked, seasoned and put into the pot. It does not require long-term stewing or pre-pickling, which saves time and effort.

In many of our common dishes, the meat can be replaced with fattened beef.

The boiled beef in Sichuan cuisine is delicious and enjoyable, except that it is a bit troublesome to make.

The beef needs to be cut first, then marinated, and finally it needs to be shaken and cooked piece by piece.

You can skip these steps by replacing it with fat beef, and cook it directly in the fried soup.

Similarly, the pork in Sichuan garlic white meat can also be replaced with fat beef to make spicy and refreshing garlic fat beef.

If you don’t like spicy food, it’s okay to make the beef into three cups of fat beef, tomato fat beef, or green onion fat beef.

You can also stir-fry the fat beef with white onions, add soy sauce, mirin, and dashi, cook for a while, pour it on the rice, and add an onsen egg to perfectly replicate Yoshinoya's beef. Don.

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In fact, there are many dishes that can be replaced by fat beef.

As for picking the fat cow, there is nothing too complicated.

Some supermarkets will sell cold beef slices. These beef slices are basically raw cuts, with mostly upper brains. The taste of cold fresh meat will be higher than that of frozen meat.

The only problem is, as I said before, there is nothing wrong with it except that it is expensive.

We usually buy more frozen beef rolls.

When choosing beef rolls, you must first check whether they are original cuts. The original cuts will definitely be marked on you. After all, good things will come out.

Of course, what is marked is not necessarily the true original cut. At this time, you need to pay attention to whether the boundary between fat and thin is particularly obvious and regular.