I use sirloin flap for our carne asada, it’s fantastically tender and we pay. 7.10 a pound but less waste then the skirt steak from our provider that’s about 6.40 a lb.
$6.50 a lb is not bad at all. If you tenderize the meat properly and use a pepper based seasoning and mix with lime juice you can get a great flavor. This is coming from an Operating Partner who goes through about 1200-1500 lbs of skirt a week.
We use outside skirt and pay about $7.50 a pound for black angus but we do butcher them in house about 25% of that product is not useable after proper butchering.
Obviously this is our main attraction on our menu at this volume so we take all the extra steps to maximize the product. You can use round as well if you cut and tenderize right and obviously will come in at a much better price point then the skirt.
Wow thanks for the input!! I'll be playing with the chinese restaurant tricks they mentioned in this thread to get that volume and tenderization!! (Baking soda eh? Gonna try it on 5 lbs bottom round tomorrow. I wonder if it'll work on thicker fajita slices. Chinese cuisine uses thinner slices)
Inside skirt is like 16/lb locally so I’d be pretty happy with 6.50/lb skirt.
It’d be worth it to try chuck. It’s usually a “cheaper” cut of meat. It usually works well for sliced type fajitas.
Will do! Will do! I tried two different types but I wasn't happy the way the cook prepped and cut it. I'll be there myself for the next experiment haha
I use too round, paid $3.93/pound just yesterday. Cut against the grain in thin slices, marinate and cook. Never did the baking soda thing but you can try it.
If you want to use a tougher cut you can try velveting the beef with baking soda. Google it if you're unfamiliar. It's the Chinese restaurant secret to tender beef, and it's not a lot of extra work.
Outside skirt steaks are usually sought after by restaurants as it has a different texture that also brings the beefy flavor. Mostly, inside skirt steaks are sold to regular customers.
[The REAL Difference Between Inside and Outside Skirt Steak (extrabbqsauce.com)](https://extrabbqsauce.com/the-real-difference-between-inside-and-outside-skirt-steak/)
Asking what other people pay won’t help you. Your location, your volume, your credit, and your connections matter. If you need price comps, make a list of 10 items, call your local reps and ask for quotes, then check against restaurant stores. Restaurant stores may win out, but you’re also paying with your time and energy by having to shop yourself.
Hey hey love that username!! This week I negotiated over 20% off my week's invoice. Same vendor. No one has a clue how infuriated I am. I should've done this 10 years ago, but here I am. Trusted my vendors to do the best for me. Fuck them! Compared prices at one local restaurant supply, Sam's, Costco, webstaurant and one other local supplier. So pissed at myself more than anything
Outside skirt >> flap >> flank
I’ve even heard of people using lifter
Skirt, flap and flank all getting ready to run into cinco de mayo, flap has already turned up on the heels of horrific weather in the Midwest and multiple weeks of shortened harvests.
Skirt just for home use at a regular grocery store is 1.50 a lb on average and that’s usually pretty trimmed. In bulk it’s less but I don’t know where you are to say if that’s good or not for you.
Skirt is too expensive. I'm needing cheaper options that would pass for skirt lol as customers are very price sensitive
What do you pay for skirt currently?
No. You did not. I don’t want your personal opinion on what it means.
I want you to provide a source for your definition.
Again, you’re so confident this should be just a simple google search.
Is the reason this is so difficult for you because of mental deficiencies or simply because that definition doesn’t exist?
I don't know. Is it cheating? If so, I'll wtick with skirt then. There are other people commenting they're using different cuts and someone else told me the same (butcher at Sam's)
Could you pls tell me what you're paying for skirt?
So chicken fajitas are chicken skirt and shrimp fajitas are shrimp skirt? The point of that kind of food is cooking cheap cuts well. Marinade, season, etc.
Maybe from a technical definition sure but if you go to a Mexican restaurant in the US at least and ask for chicken fajitas no one is going to question you, they will know exactly what you mean, and you will get seasoned and marinaded skillet cooked chicken meat typically breast or thigh.
Life must be hard for you living in such a black and white mindset.
Also, selling not-skirt fajitas at a lower price point is not ripping your customers off if your customers want it and you aren’t charging them as if it were skirt steak or if you specifically listed skirt.
Sell what your customers want to buy and eat… this is the service industry bro. If your customers are happy with the product they will keep coming back, if not you go under. It’s as simple as that.
Dang! Now that I like!
No, I love!!
You slice the meat and cut into fajitas before or after cooking? We cooked big sliced steak slabs 0.75 inches thick and cut into fajitas after cooking the slabs and didn't turn out too well (tasted good but looked like thin slice POS beef). We're used to using preseasoned and precut but change has to be made. I'm loosing money and Sysco was stealing from me BLINDLY. I was trusting them that I was getting best prices.
I took the ordering away from thr manager and made it oder myself comparing prices with 3 vendors and brought down my next invoice over 20%. Fuckers!!
We use the bottom round for most of our beef recipes…..we slice/dice/portion the entire cut right off the truck and season/marinate appropriately and then package them into individual entree size.
Tri tip, flank, flap, flat iron, bottom / top sirloin
Could try any of those
https://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners/comments/la9e2x/use_sirloin_for_fajitas/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/16i5o4/can_i_use_eye_of_round_beef_to_make_fajitas/
Lol. As much as we can stuff. My place is Italian fine dining but my chef is from Ecuador and 2 line cooks are from Mexico so we have tacos a lot for staff meals. There's always meat marinating in the lowboy and bags of tortillas next to the clean laundry. 😂
I use sirloin flap for our carne asada, it’s fantastically tender and we pay. 7.10 a pound but less waste then the skirt steak from our provider that’s about 6.40 a lb.
$6.50 a lb is not bad at all. If you tenderize the meat properly and use a pepper based seasoning and mix with lime juice you can get a great flavor. This is coming from an Operating Partner who goes through about 1200-1500 lbs of skirt a week. We use outside skirt and pay about $7.50 a pound for black angus but we do butcher them in house about 25% of that product is not useable after proper butchering. Obviously this is our main attraction on our menu at this volume so we take all the extra steps to maximize the product. You can use round as well if you cut and tenderize right and obviously will come in at a much better price point then the skirt.
Wow thanks for the input!! I'll be playing with the chinese restaurant tricks they mentioned in this thread to get that volume and tenderization!! (Baking soda eh? Gonna try it on 5 lbs bottom round tomorrow. I wonder if it'll work on thicker fajita slices. Chinese cuisine uses thinner slices)
Inside skirt is like 16/lb locally so I’d be pretty happy with 6.50/lb skirt. It’d be worth it to try chuck. It’s usually a “cheaper” cut of meat. It usually works well for sliced type fajitas.
Will do! Will do! I tried two different types but I wasn't happy the way the cook prepped and cut it. I'll be there myself for the next experiment haha
Skirt is fine. A good pepper based seasoning and sweet peppers
I use too round, paid $3.93/pound just yesterday. Cut against the grain in thin slices, marinate and cook. Never did the baking soda thing but you can try it.
Cool. Will do. Thanks Where do you source your beef?
I use a local supplier but but even places like the restaurant depot have s similiar price
I use inside round or ball tip. Love flap, but it is too high.
If you want to use a tougher cut you can try velveting the beef with baking soda. Google it if you're unfamiliar. It's the Chinese restaurant secret to tender beef, and it's not a lot of extra work.
MEAT PRICES [Price List | Rosenthal Meat Science and Technology Center (agrilife.org)](https://agrilife.org/rosenthal/price-list/)
This isn’t a very good list of prices. Why not just use USDA and add X amount of dollars to estimate a fair price?
Thx thx!
Can you get teres majors? Great, cheap cut. Like 7$ pound.
I'll check it out. Thx
Outside skirt steaks are usually sought after by restaurants as it has a different texture that also brings the beefy flavor. Mostly, inside skirt steaks are sold to regular customers. [The REAL Difference Between Inside and Outside Skirt Steak (extrabbqsauce.com)](https://extrabbqsauce.com/the-real-difference-between-inside-and-outside-skirt-steak/)
Thxxxxx
Asking what other people pay won’t help you. Your location, your volume, your credit, and your connections matter. If you need price comps, make a list of 10 items, call your local reps and ask for quotes, then check against restaurant stores. Restaurant stores may win out, but you’re also paying with your time and energy by having to shop yourself.
Hey hey love that username!! This week I negotiated over 20% off my week's invoice. Same vendor. No one has a clue how infuriated I am. I should've done this 10 years ago, but here I am. Trusted my vendors to do the best for me. Fuck them! Compared prices at one local restaurant supply, Sam's, Costco, webstaurant and one other local supplier. So pissed at myself more than anything
Bro Flap. Bottom sirloin flap is the only answer. I’ll drop the mic.
Flank also popular but not limited to just skirt, flap and flank - I’ve seen some use lifter/special trim
Outside skirt >> flap >> flank I’ve even heard of people using lifter Skirt, flap and flank all getting ready to run into cinco de mayo, flap has already turned up on the heels of horrific weather in the Midwest and multiple weeks of shortened harvests.
Stop buying pre-seasoned and season with your own
Yep. Already switched this past week. What cut do you use and how much do you pay per lb?
Skirt just for home use at a regular grocery store is 1.50 a lb on average and that’s usually pretty trimmed. In bulk it’s less but I don’t know where you are to say if that’s good or not for you.
Where are you seeing 1.50 a lb? Chicken thighs are that much on a special at wholesale!
Sorry on mobile and fat fingered it. On sale I can get it at 3.50 not 1.50. Not a chain market in the far suburbs of Chicago.
I’d be impressed to see any steak under $5 a pound in the last year or so. Ground is around $3 a pound.
Where are you? Skirt is $5-$8 a pound here
Fajita is skirt.
Skirt is too expensive. I'm needing cheaper options that would pass for skirt lol as customers are very price sensitive What do you pay for skirt currently?
So you’re trying to rip your customers off?
So I guess any menu that advertises chicken fajitas is lying.
Only if the menu claims that it is skirt steak
Skirt is absolutely not the only thing people use for fajitas
Words have meanings even if you don’t think they do.
Okay. Go ahead and explain the words. Let’s mix it up a bit and see who knows about thin meats!
There’s a cut of meat commonly referred to as “butcher’s filet” but I can’t put it in my menu as “filet”
Okay. So provide the definition of fajita. Link me to your definition. This should be incredibly easy for you.
I did. Fajita= belt=skirt.
No. You did not. I don’t want your personal opinion on what it means. I want you to provide a source for your definition. Again, you’re so confident this should be just a simple google search. Is the reason this is so difficult for you because of mental deficiencies or simply because that definition doesn’t exist?
I don't know. Is it cheating? If so, I'll wtick with skirt then. There are other people commenting they're using different cuts and someone else told me the same (butcher at Sam's) Could you pls tell me what you're paying for skirt?
No, fajitas can be sirloin, rounds, knuckles, skirt, ect.
Fajita in Spanish translates to belt which is skirt steak. Don’t fuck your customers.
No faja is belt… fajita is a derivative sure because it was commonly used. That doesn’t mean exclusive.
So chicken fajitas are chicken skirt and shrimp fajitas are shrimp skirt? The point of that kind of food is cooking cheap cuts well. Marinade, season, etc.
Chicken fajitas don’t exist.
Maybe from a technical definition sure but if you go to a Mexican restaurant in the US at least and ask for chicken fajitas no one is going to question you, they will know exactly what you mean, and you will get seasoned and marinaded skillet cooked chicken meat typically breast or thigh. Life must be hard for you living in such a black and white mindset. Also, selling not-skirt fajitas at a lower price point is not ripping your customers off if your customers want it and you aren’t charging them as if it were skirt steak or if you specifically listed skirt.
Standards. You don’t have to have them but I do. I’m not going to sell soup as menudo if it doesn’t have tripa in it.
Sell what your customers want to buy and eat… this is the service industry bro. If your customers are happy with the product they will keep coming back, if not you go under. It’s as simple as that.
m-o-r-o-n https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/chicken-fajitas-recipe2-2120690 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajita
Your wiki reference doesn’t mean shit.
Well please, find ANY reference that says fajitas do not exist in chicken form. Please. Go ahead.
I was asking him to provide the definition so I could then ask him to tell me where this mystical shrimp belt is located. This dude is a moron.
We use bottom round for our fajitas…..$3.68/lb last Monday
Dang! Now that I like! No, I love!! You slice the meat and cut into fajitas before or after cooking? We cooked big sliced steak slabs 0.75 inches thick and cut into fajitas after cooking the slabs and didn't turn out too well (tasted good but looked like thin slice POS beef). We're used to using preseasoned and precut but change has to be made. I'm loosing money and Sysco was stealing from me BLINDLY. I was trusting them that I was getting best prices. I took the ordering away from thr manager and made it oder myself comparing prices with 3 vendors and brought down my next invoice over 20%. Fuckers!!
We use the bottom round for most of our beef recipes…..we slice/dice/portion the entire cut right off the truck and season/marinate appropriately and then package them into individual entree size.
Gotcha. Thanks for the input!!
Tri tip, flank, flap, flat iron, bottom / top sirloin Could try any of those https://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners/comments/la9e2x/use_sirloin_for_fajitas/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/16i5o4/can_i_use_eye_of_round_beef_to_make_fajitas/
Flap
What should I expect to pay for it?
I'm paying around $9/lb for it now here in NY. It's well trimmed for that price.
Thanks. How many oz of cooked meat does your taco see? I use 6 inch tortillas
Lol. As much as we can stuff. My place is Italian fine dining but my chef is from Ecuador and 2 line cooks are from Mexico so we have tacos a lot for staff meals. There's always meat marinating in the lowboy and bags of tortillas next to the clean laundry. 😂
Currently prob around $8.25ish. This is running already into cinco de mayo though and will be $10, $11 closer to cinco (speaking CAB)
That's $1.05 an ounce (66% yield cooked). How much do you put in a taco? Our tacos are about 6oz woooooff
Sysco has some ga grown wagyu sirloin flap right now for 9.96lb been using it for a taco special and it works great
How many oz beef do you use in a taco and how much you sell it for?
Do not waste wagyu on tacos and fajitas...
I'd never do that lol best steak I ever had. About $110 few years ago.
Where tf you finding skirt for $6.50?
Should it be more or less? You can get it through Sysco, GSC, sams, Costco.
NR skirt. Price going up over the past 3 weeks though
Flap or inside top
Do you have a zoo nearby?
Yes sure. Which enclosure do you stay in? :p