I'm not up on apps to that extreme...well that's depending on one's perspective. But, I can tell you what I have been using lately for Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches--shaved beef. I noticed it as a new item at my grocery store; the butcher will shave the raw beef as needed.

Sometimes you can find "minute steaks" in the meat section. I think those would work for cheese steak sandwiches, just don't cook them too long - cook quickly over high heat. I have seen recipes that use rare roast beef from the deli, sliced thin, then chopped up a bit, if desired, and briefly cooked to heat, then add your fried onions and peppers to the meat on the roll, add your cheese and eat!

Yep - get the butcher to shave the beef if possible. And there is an "app" for epicurious (Bon Appetit and Gourmet recipes)... I love it when I am in the grocery and see something great I want to buy and need inspiration on how to fix it.

Alexa

Beef cuts can be so confusing. Some of the names for cuts that the kosher butchers use are different from the names others use. Like kalakle - the only uses of it that I see when I google are kosher butchers selling the cut. Apparently it is part of the chuck, but I'm not sure how it is different from the other cuts.

At least the new source for kosher beef that I've found usually includes suggestions in the descriptions on their website how the cut should be used.

Mary, I think a Cooking Forum would be more comprehensive than a Meat App, what do you think? I have made calls from the store to CF members for advice on pans, desserts, Trader Joe's products, substitutions, menus.

What, and take the mystery out of mystery meat? No fun.

I am so totally out of the loop....I don't have a phone that supports apps!
Sigh....
But it rings and I answer and it makes calls..
Mary, you need to know about what to do with a piece of meat? Call me....email and I'll give you my cell....but I don't text!
Seems I might be running slow on the information highway....I had a cell phone 18 years ago....and was on line in 97....but I seem to have gotten bogged down.

I'm sure there is already. I don't have an I-phone, but I do have a cell phone connected to email and a netbook with an air-card...so I can respond to clients while I drive around and access the internet anywhere. I did read recently there is an app for foraging for mushrooms in the forest and also for one to pick out the correct/best wine for whatever dinner you were planning...so I'm pretty sure there is one or more to direct you to the correct beef purchase. What a world we live in. Amazing and scary. However, when I was a kid I thought by now we would all be flying around in jet-packs and have robots like on the Jetsons....so I am still disappointed in our progress thus far.

Duane

There is an iPhone/Touch app, it's called "Butcher", $1.99, which is probably $1 too much, but is still useful.

Mary, you need to know about what to do with a piece of meat?

yeah you can call me too but my answer might not be what you had in mind (or hand)

You are SO bad, Jessica!! (see my response to you on my wheat thread).

I'm with LindaC. My phone makes calls and has a voice mail box. I can text, but it takes me 10 times as long, I'd rather just call.

One of our kids will only respond to texts, unless we sound really mad when we leave a voice mail.

Mine is because I'm a cheapskate. I refuse to pay for all the extra stuff. So, I'm probably not a good person to call in a pinch! LOL

Retail and wholesale cuts of meat are different. If you buy a side of beef, you won't get Filet Mignon.
Study up a little about the differences.
But the idea of apps for different things are good. Sounds like there are some out there...for those of you tech-savvy enought to want them.

I'm kind of a "I'll cook it, you eat it" person. LOL
I can adjust many cuts to fit what I need.

Deanna

Hmmm. I don't even know what an "app" IS, so I'm no help. I do have a cell phone and I did get a text once but I couldn't figure out how to read it so I deleted it. I've never gotten another one. Just as well, the phone is never charged anyway. In fact, it's dead right now, I ought to go plug it in.

Nah....

I still use the phone in my house, cell phone service isn't good here. Well, Elery CAN use his cell phone if he stands outside on the back porch. Too bad it's winter and it's Michigan!

Annie

Annie, I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one out here wondering what on earth they're talking about.. I'm gathering that it's just one more new piece of tech that's supposed to make our lives easier, kinda like they said about the fax machine all those years ago..

LOL Annie and dirtgirl07, that makes three of us. Not a clue! I have a cell phone but it's turned off most of the time! Don't know how to text message or any of those I-phone gadgets. Deanna, not only I am cheapskate, but also old school! :-)

By the way, stepson's girlfriend (from Singapore) asked for beef shin when she was here. I thought she meant shank but she said 'no'. So... what's beef shin? Any clues?

Al

Beef shin? That would have to be the front of the leg, but there's no meat there to speak of, I have that portion of leg cut into soup bones. I wonder what the heck could be made of "shin"?

Annie

Annie, that's what I thought! Asked her "What do you use the shin for?" She never said anything. She didn't strike me as an experienced cook so she might be thinking about something else. But again, I could be wrong. The Chinese eat pig feet so it is possible there's a dish that calls for pig shin!

Al

Well, this isn't an app, it's print, but Iowa State has a free 40-page booklet online for beef and pork. It includes information on buying whole, choosing the cuts you want and then in the latter half outlines all the cuts by location on the animal and culinary use.

Pretty helpful info, even if you aren't getting your meat right from the farm.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Beef and Pork Whole Animal Buying Guide

I also have never heard of an "app" and I've never owned a cell phone either so I'm no help.

SharonCb

The shin is the part you make osso bucco from. I believe Asians use it for beef stock mostly.

I found this on Beef Shin....

Here is a link that might be useful: Beef Shin With Cilantro

"App" is short for "application." It's a mini program that runs on your cell phone or blackberry or whatever (if it's capable of running "apps"), and the app does whatever it does, like tell you the weather forecast, keep you up to date on celebreity gossip, or count your calories, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum. Supposedly the next big thing for the economy. But since we're all working three jobs to make ends meet, I'm not sure when we will have time to USE all these apps. I can barely keep my cell phone charged, and I only use my cell phone a lot because I am never home and am on the road all the time going from job to job, so don't even really have an office with an office number to call at work.

I keep all my "apps" in my car, lol! It is full of maps, notes, grocery lists, phone numbers, etc., etc. Someday when I'm totally unemployed I will sit around and figure out how to use apps on a phone for all those things. No, wait . . . I won't have money to pay for the cell phone. I might end up hanging out in the library (if we still have them by then) and have to keep all this information in my fast deteriorating brain, which is actually the world's greatest app. (The human brain that is, not MY brain which often goes blue screen on me nowdays.)

In my day we had these amazing apps that would help you select meat. They were called "butchers." They had jobs and you paid them to serve you, it was a decent way to make a living.

OK, end of sarcastic rant. I feel the same way about meat, since I eat it so rarely when I do have to buy it I am totally at a loss. Same with cheese. LUCKILY, I live three blocks from the Farmers Market where one can still find butchers and people who will advise you on cheese too, at the cheese stall. We can tell our grandkids about this, how we survived before apps. We relied on each other.

So beef "shin" is actually brisket? Now that makes no sense at all, but I'll go with it. What did she want made of the "shin"?

Heck, L, I'll just call you. I might not get my answer, but we'd have a nice chat!. Maybe we could have a "three way" with Jessica or LindaC. C'mon, Jessica, I'm waiting.....

I'm not even sure my phone HAS apps, the voice mail still has Elery's voice saying "Hi, you've reached Annie". I kind of like it, it surprises people who don't know us, they think I've gone all bass voice or something!

Cell phones just don't work here very well and they don't work out at the farm at all. Verizon just put a new tower over by the lakeshore, but it doesn't help our "dead zone". Nothing works at the farm or at Amanda's, not Verizon/Alltell, not Sprint/Nextel, not AT&T, and none of those prepaid phones.

So, I keep my "land line" (no apps available), which is how I get my DSL internet connection anyway, and Elery pays $9 a month for my cell phone just because he wants me to have one in case I have a break down or hit a deer while I'm driving the three hours to his house (where cell phones DO work if a person would remember to charge them).

Ashley has one of those new iPhones and she does all kinds of stuff, but I haven't even learned to take a picture with mine. I suppose I'd have to charge it to do that too, wouldn't I?

Mary, just post your cell phone number. (wink) We'll all call you and then you'll be really confused but it'd be fun!! We'll be your own personal "app"...

Annie

Changing a little from a discussion of apps to the original question...
Slightly frozen sirloin, into the Cuisinart with the 1 MM slicing blade makes great Philly cheese steak meat.
And..the really old folks... those a generation older than I am! Made something they called "beef boil" which used shin. It was pretty much, beef boiled!!
My mother would use it as a basis for vegetable soup...the meat on the shin bone served seperatly on a platter and a lovely vegetable soup in bowls. Her vegetable soup NEVER contained corn, nor rutabaga....but always contained barley and a handful of oat meal...
My MIL boiled the beef with some vegetables....like parsnips, carrots and maybe Brussle sprouts....but never onions because they were too "strong".
I bought some beef shin at the Mexican supermarket in the Chicago area and made a vegetable soup....it was wonderful....shin is very beefy tasting....and has lots of marrow in the bone.
Linda C

Wow, beef brisket! I never knew! That's some calf muscles there, for a pig! LOL

Annie, I have no ideas what she wanted beef shin for. She never said but went to ask the butcher at the grocery store. Obviously he didn't know anything about it so they came home empty handed. Never got to try pig shin... what a shame! :-p

Don't think I will ever understand these "app" talks but I will try to keep my cell phone turned on more often! LOL

Al

OMG this is sort of funny! I only have a pay by the minute cell I keep in the car for emergencies. Of course anywhere I've actually felt I might need it I didn't have coverage.
So I don't have app capability either. I thought I was the only one lol!
However...after standing in the meat dept (and vegetable aisle and apple aisle and cheese aisle) at Meijers and never having a clue I haved pondered the idea of buying one of the dang things just to be able to look things up in the grocery store:)
Mustang says used "sliced beef"...but what KIND? A round thing a chuck thing a loin thing a sirloin thing a roast thing..I did try to research this once and I think there were two schools of thought, a round something and a..and a...can't remember! (So studying up does not work)
Duane - I loved the Jetsons where are our aircars!?
Jessy - LOL!
Linda - good to hear you recommend sirloin because that is what I think I tried once. The strip steak I usually buy to grill, the strip side of a porterhouse? I just slightly froze it and sliced it with a knife. Lots of small pieces when bigger slices would have been nicer but tasted good. Seems kind of expensive for a sandwich though don't you think? I thought a mandolin might work but didn't want to buy one.
I have to drive a bit for a butcher.
I was just at Meijers today and asked the kid behind the counter if he knew what a beef "shank" was and did he have any. He had no clue. Called someone, they have some pork ones. So the only beef they had with bones were ribs - do those work as "shanks" for the beef barley soup recipe posted for me to try in my soup thread?
Momj47 - so there is an app called "Butcher" - how helpful is it?

Mary, actually I said "shaved beef" and you raise a good question. I don't know what cut of beef it is; I assumed it was a roast. I'll be sure to ask for my own information.

I got the nicest call last nigt from a CF member asking "what's an app?". I was a fun conversation after we cleared up the app thing.

Okay, I confess, the typos above are due to multi-tasking while typing.

Cathy there are roasts....and there are ROASTS. The question is....what kind of roast? Chuck? sirloin....top or bottom? Round? Top? Bottom? Eye? Filet? Etc etc?

That's what I don't know Linda, that's why I said I will ask so I will know.

Shin beef is a common cut here in the east. Maybe not in the midwest? It's a slice through the leg. I don't know if it can be from the front, I'm guessing it's rear but will ask the butcher at market if I remember. Anyway it's nothing at all like osso buco. Usually cut about an inch and a half thick, it is an oval about six inches long and five inches wide. It has lots of connective tissue and needs long, gentle stewing.
I have a recipe that specifies shin beef, but usually the butcher talks me out of it, because paying for that big heavy bone makes little sense. Yes, I know the bone contributes something in flavor and calcium, but it should make the cut cheaper than it is.

Actually, there is for Roasting Meat, it's called BB Roast Planner. I've used it and it's pretty accurate. It's from a company called bagelboy software. Unfortunately it's only for Android. The page says that there's an app called Meat Master coming soon so that would probably be what you are looking for.

Here is a link that might be useful: bagelboy