2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Reducing beef, pork, and lamb carcasses into smaller sections that can be handled more easily has been performed from early time first with rudimentary instruments and eventually with industrial knives and saws. The description of this process today ranges around the world, but in the United States, it is common to refer to converting carcasses into smaller portions as 'fabrication' or to 'fabricate' them. The nomenclature used to describe the anatomical location of the dividing points between major and minor cuts of carcasses is key to understanding how to cut them into products that are packaged and shipped to end users.
