deckle

n. a thick band of fat on (a cut of) meat; a very fatty cut of meat. Subjects: English, Food & Drink

Etymological Note: Mostly likely connected to German dicht ‘thick,’ dick ‘thick’ or ‘fat,’ or Dicke ‘fat person, a fatty.’ The prefix dick- is used to to indicate “fatty,” “big,” “fattening,"or “thick” (as in “thick-bodied” and “thick in the head") in various German compounds. The -el ending is a dimunitive, making deckle mean, more or less, “a little fatty thing.” Less likely, deckle is perhaps from another German deckel, “a little covering,” which came into English as deckle, a device that controls the size of pages in paper-making, producing deckle-edged paper that is rough and un-cut.

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Citations: 1943 Troy Record (N.Y.) (Oct. 22) “Empire Super Markets” (in advert.) p. 29: Boneless Brisket…Fresh or Corned…GradeAA…(Deckle Off). 1945 The Era (Bradford, Pa.) (June 19) “Retail Ceiling Prices for Beef, Veal, Lamb and Mutton” p. 2: Brisket (Boneless) (Frech and Cured) (Deckle on). 1975 Helen P. Silver @ N.J. New York Times (Feb. 16) “A Time-Saver for the Kosher Shopper” p. NJ107: One floor-length refrigerated case contains at least 50 meat varieties, including such out-of-the ordinary stewing specialties as collicle (shoulder) and chuck deckle (pot roast). 1986 Merle Ellis Baton Rouge Morning Advocate (La.) (Dec. 4) “Mailbag brings questions” p. 3G: The “deckle” is really a layer of very fatty meat on the inner side of a beef brisket and very probably not what you were buying on the East Coast. The cut that was being called “deckle” was very likely the “point cut” of the brisket, a richly marbled and very flavorful cut that makes a wonderful pot roast. 1989 Laurie Ochoa Los Angeles Times (Aug. 6) “Great Pastrami Taste-Off Matches Sandwiches From L.A.’s Top Delis” p. 94: The lean shoulder cut known as deckle is also used for pastrami, but Langer only likes the smaller, fattier navel—"Lean pastrami is dry,” he says. 1990 Arno Schmidt Chef’s Book of Formulas, Yields, and Sizes (Jan.) p. 202 @ (Mar. 14, 2003): Blade Meat.…Also called deckle meat or corner pieces. This boneless cut is situated over the shoulder end of the primal rib and is removed when the rib is prepared for roasting. 1994 Anne Keegan Chicago Tribune (Feb. 17) “Chicago Speak”: Deckle: A 3-inch-thick piece of fat at the tip of a brisket of beef, usually removed unless the customer insists it remain and be cooked to add taste. 2000 Andy Badeker Chicago Tribune (Sept. 27) “Crossroads Of ‘Que In Kansas City, Wisps Of Wood Smoke Lead To Barbecue Opportunities” p. 4: Though John Ross, head of the society’s contest-sanction committee, contends that “burnt ends come from whatever’s burnt,” be it beef or pork, the specialty derives from the point—also called the deckle or nose—the smaller, fattier chunk of meat that tops the brisket. 2004 Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (Mar. 10) “Recipe”: Most corned beefs are made from brisket, an ungainly cut of meat from the steer’s breast that runs anywhere from 8 to 13 pounds. Each brisket consists of two muscles: one, the so-called first cut, is flat, lean and of even thickness; the second cut, the deckle, is irregularly shaped and graced with more fat and connective tissue. 2005 Richard W. McPeake Backyard BBQ (Jan. 31) p. 40: I like to remove the first fat cap on top of the pork butt and the meat deckle right underneath this fat cap. This will get you down to the last layer of fat before the outside of the pork butt. This deckle is not very big and is only about 1/4” thick. 2005 Janet Fletcher San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Dec. 21) “A crossover holiday tradition”: The point cut is the smaller of the two. It is thinner, fattier and more flavorful, which makes it the choice of meat connoisseurs.…Some butchers refer to it as the second cut or deckle point, as it contains the deckle, a hard pocket of fat. Others erroneously call this whole piece the deckle.

Posted 22 Dec 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

A printing catalogue I am currently translating into Castilian (Spain’s Spanish) includes “deckle” as one out of several edge finishings of paper (among which: “pinking; colonial; scallop; shortwave; wave; squiggle; Victorian").

I am about to render “irregular” (as in former times printed photographs’ edges would be finished, sometimes by genly hitting the egdes with a scissor’s blade).

Thanks for your dictionary.

Esteve Comes i Bergua
Translator and proofreader
(English, Italian and French into Catalan and Castilian)
ecb@terrassa.net
esteve_comes@yahoo.es

by Esteve Comes i Bergua 29 Jan 06, 0620 GMT