Abstract: A portion controlled sliced boneless whole muscle fresh meat product all of the slices of which have substantially the same weight and thickness and the packaged product having the natural configuration for that cut is produced by grouping trimmed pieces of the cut according to weight ranges and passing the pieces of one weight range under considerable confining pressure through a single pass multi-blade slicer the blade spacing of which is pre-set to produce slices having a target weight, and immediately packaging the cut so sliced.

Abstract: A portion controlled packaged slice cooked whole muscle boneless cut of meat having the characteristic configuration of that cut is produced by: trimming, cooking and selecting a group of pieces of the cut all of which have a cooked weight within .+-.6% of the median weight of the group; compacting each piece while still hot from the cooking to a pre-determined length for that group and chilling the pieces while so compacted; setting the number and blade spacing of a single pass multi-blade slicer to suit the pre-determined length of the pieces and produce slices of a pre-determined weight, including the two end slices and passing each piece across grain through the slicer while maintaining the ends of each piece as the piece passes through the slicer under a considerable confining pressure.