A chuck roll, IMPS 116A, is the boneless muscle system that runs under the blade bone, and the chuck eye roll, IMPS 116D, is the best piece inside it. The eye roll is the front end of the ribeye's own muscle, the longissimus dorsi, which is why its steaks sell as the poor man's ribeye. USDA prices the chuck roll every trading day. It prices no chuck eye roll at all.
How a chuck roll breaks down
| IMPS | Item | Weights (lb) |
|---|---|---|
| 116C | Chuck roll, untrimmed (neck on) | 16-18, 18-20, 20-22, 22-up |
| 116A | Chuck roll (neck off) | 13-15, 15-18, 18-21, 21-up |
| 116D | Chuck eye roll | 8-dn, 8-10, 10-14, 14-up |
| 116E | Under blade roast | 8-dn, 8-10, 10-14, 14-up |
| 116G | Under blade, center cut (the Denver) | 7-dn, 7-up |
| 116F | Under blade, flat cut | 5-dn, 5-up |
116C to 116A: the neck comes off, cut straight across no more than ½ inch in front of the serratus ventralis. A 116C keeps its neck, and may keep the rope (the longus colli) if it is firmly attached, which is why its weight ranges run heavier.
116A to 116D: the chuck eye roll is seamed out of the roll. It is the longissimus dorsi with the spinalis, multifidus and complexus muscles around it, trimmed practically free of surface fat.
What is left is the under blade roast, 116E: the serratus ventralis, rhomboideus and splenius. It splits again. The serratus ventralis on its own is the center cut, 116G, which IMPS notes is sometimes called the Denver cut. The splenius is the flat cut, 116F.
What USDA prints
Chuck, roll, lxl, neck/off is 116A at fat option 3, the whole neck-off roll and the chuck's benchmark line.
Chuck, roll, retail ready is item 916A, also fat option 3. It printed on about 3 days in 5 over the last five years, and when it did it sat above the regular roll 99 percent of the time, by a median 9.5 percent, about 37 cents a pound.
Chuck, flap is 116G at fat option 4, the serratus ventralis sold under the flap name, and over the last five years it has priced at about twice the roll per pound. The flap name is its own trap, covered in the chuck flap article.
Chuck, chuck tender is 116B, the supraspinatus, a separate muscle that is not part of the roll.
There is no 116C, no 116D and no 116E on the daily report.
Pricing a chuck eye roll
With no USDA line, a 116D quote can only be checked against the 116A it is cut from. The plant is selling you the best piece of the roll and keeping the under blade to sell on its own, so the quote is the roll price plus labor plus the value of what you are not taking. Ask the packer what yield the quote assumes.
The other side of the check is the ribeye, the same muscle further back. Over the last five years the Choice chuck roll traded at a median 37 percent of the heavy boneless ribeye's price. A 116D quote belongs between those two lines.
The grade barely matters here
Choice chuck roll printed a median 2.4 percent over Select over the last five years, against 17 percent for the heavy boneless ribeye, and Select was level or higher on about one day in four. Trading down to Select saves little on the roll. The roll has its own calendar as well, a cold-weather premium, covered in its own article.