The right cuts
Have you been to a really good steakhouse lately, one that serves only USDA prime or choice beef? A quick look at the portion sizes on the menu will tell you that quantity is in, right up there with quality.
Many items are available in two or more sizes, like
twenty eight ounce porterhouses or 16 ounce filets, so the challenge
for the restaurant is to deliver on the menu’s promise. Deviating
from specified weights by more than the standard half-ounce in either
direction can be expensive—generous cuts lose money, stingy cuts
lose customers. So if the chef offers 9, 12 and 16 ounce filets, the
portions have to be spot on
This is easier said than done. Even very skilled operators make costly
errors when estimating portion sizes which is why Stock Yards Packing
Co. installed an AEW Delford Systems SmartSlice Vision to ensure that
output would consistently match customer’s specifications.
Stock Yards Packing Co. supplies controlled-cut prime, certified Angus
and choice Midwestern beef to some of the finest white-tablecloth restaurants
in the world, so portion accuracy and quality of cut are extremely important.
“
Fewer and fewer restaurants cut their own steaks in house,” observes
Stock Yards’ President Matt Pollack. “It’s a question
of food safety, inventory and quality—we can do a better job.”
“
We wanted a machine to be more accurate and more user friendly,” says
Pollack. “The SmartSlice delivers. It has allowed us to increase
our throughput while maintaining the same level of quality in the product,” he
states.
SmartSlice Vision makes a full volumetric scan of each product, responding
to the slightest irregularities. Preprogrammed parameters based on weight
and thickness allow it to evaluate various slicing configurations in
milliseconds and then execute the cut that will provide the highest yield.
The three-dimensional product profile can be divided into as many as
four zones with differing options or preferences for each
For example, Stock Yards might specify a primary
target of 12 ounces for filet mignon cuts, but if that can’t be
done economically, the machine will slice in 10 ounce increments to maximize
the number of useable, on-weight portions.
SmartSlice Vision has not only improved slicing accuracy; its versatility
has also enabled Stock Yards to expand the range of products processed
at throughput rates of up to 500 portions per minute.
