Interesting factoid about brisket

[Jenise]

Watched Roy Choi and Jon Favreau visit Aaron Franklin in Austin on The Chef Show the other day and learned something I didn't know. Apparently, like people, cows are left or right handed. That is, they habitually push themselves up with one leg or the other, always the same. And since cows, as are humans, in the majority right-handed, the left side briskets are in the majority the tenderest.

And people like Aaron Franklin get most of the lefties.

Discuss.

I have to say that sounds indeed like a factoid ( "an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print")

Ever spent time on a cattle farm? Cows don't spend a lot of time lying down and pushing themselves up, and even if they favor one limb there's really no way I think there would be developmental difference

[David M. Bueker]

Factoid or not, I do enjoy that show.

[Robin Garr]

It doesn't surprise me. I know I've had cats (and dogs, too) who were obviously handed, consistently favoring one paw or the other to push things around.

It doesn't surprise me. I know I've had cats (and dogs, too) who were obviously handed, consistently favoring one paw or the other to push things around.

I don't have any disagreement with idea of laterality in cows or other mammals, but think for any discernible difference in muscular development a mammal would have to be exercising hours every day. Not any cattle I know. [

Ever spent time on a cattle farm? Cows don't spend a lot of time lying down and pushing themselves up

I've not spent any time on cattle farm, but there's an old saying here that when you see a herd of cows lying down it means it's going to rain soon.

I've seen cows lying down; I recall they lie on their left side, which would mean they use their right foreleg to lever themselves up.

I s'pose left 'handed' cows would lie on their right side..

Seems there's a study*, by the universities of Arizona and Northwest Missouri, into why and when cows lie down and it gives some credence to the British folklore. Of course, with the variable weather here you could pick anything as an indicator that it will soon rain and be right more often than not.

* https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -cold.html

I don't have any disagreement with idea of laterality in cows or other mammals, but think for any discernible difference in muscular development a mammal would have to be exercising hours every day.

A tennis-playing lady friend of mine insists that one bosom is bigger than the other due to exercise.

[Jenise]

A tennis-playing lady friend of mine insists that one bosom is bigger than the other due to exercise.

Oh fun, go ahead and argue this one, guys! I'll go make popcorn.

A tennis-playing lady friend of mine insists that one bosom is bigger than the other due to exercise.

Oh fun, go ahead and argue this one, guys! I'll go make popcorn.

Make me some, too. Truffle salt or fennel pollen?

I vote for a bowl of each!
I certainly believe that people who play sports that dominated by one arm can develop asymmetrical pecs and other muscles.
But cows don't lay down and get up hundreds (or dozens ) of times a day. If they did Peter and his friends would think it's constantly about to rain.
Plus of course even if there were all these righthanded cattle spending all day doing calisthenics in pasture, the majority of brisket out there is from feedlot steers.
I of course have to have all my clothing tailored because I get up on same side of bed every day.

[quote="
And people like Aaron Franklin get most of the lefties.

Discuss.[/quote]

I wanna know
A) who is watching cows sleeping. (Perverts)
B) how ‘they’ track the lefties from the hoof through processing to the consumer (Retired FBI agents?)

Love this stuff.

Jut noticed this thread.

So if you are a chef wanting to make the best, tenderest prairie oysters, do you have to check with the farmer to see if the bull dressed 'right' or 'left'?

I have to say that sounds indeed like a factoid ( "an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print")

Ever spent time on a cattle farm? Cows don't spend a lot of time lying down and pushing themselves up, and even if they favor one limb there's really no way I think there would be developmental difference

Not a cattle farm, but there are tons of ranches around here, and so I have had the opportunity to get up close and personal with grazing cattle many, many times. In our hilly area, at least, the cows are forced to more or less stand on one side or the other on the hillside. That way they can follow a constant elevation and not waste energy climbing up or down the hill. It wouldn't surprise me to find that they tend to go a specific direction. Most people (myself included until a few years ago) don't realize that most cows start on grass and are transferred to feedlots for finishing. It's quite an irony to me that I can leave my house and ten minutes later see cows, but we never see any of the finished beef.