Prime refers to the best cut of carcass being well muscled, with minimum fat streaking range requirements in the flank being small to abundant, and lean flesh. Choice refers to a carcass that is slightly muscled, with minimum fat streaking range requirements in the flank being trace to abundant, and the carcass has a minimum amount of external fat covering. Good refers to slightly thin muscled. Carcass is thin with tapering legs with slightly narrow thin backs. The degree of flank streaking is practically devoid to modest.
Utility refers to the low end of the scale.
An ovine carcass given a utility grade has the characteristics that are lower that the minimum requirements of Good. Yield grades are not used commercially, but they can provide additional information. Five yield grades can be assigned to a carcass based on fat percentage, with 1 being the leanest to 5 representing the fattest. The yield grade can be computed by measuring the fat thickness over the ribeye muscle, amount of kidney pelvic fat, external fat, and leg conformation grade. Recipe Links Browse an extensive collection of lamb recipes available from Berkeley.