Honestly used to fight this until I just let it go messy.

My old boss at the shop in Nampa made us keep the chain on for the ground beef pile, since it's decent meat and most folks don't want to pay extra for a fully cleaned loin. But if your customers are asking for it cleaned and you're moving 20 more bucks a week, that tells you something. The side muscle thing I get too, it's chewy if you leave it. Sounds less like lazy and more like you just learned it one way and never had a reason to switch.

I was that guy still spooning salsa into my mouth like a caveman while everyone else moved on. Six years of tasting spoons means I had a whole ritual, grab a clean one, dip, taste, toss it in the bus tub. Now I keep a squeeze bottle of my house sauce at the grill station and just squirt a dot on my glove. My glove, not even my thumb. The first time a new cook saw me do it he looked like I'd just licked the floor. The dish pit math is real though, fewer spoons means I'm out the door before midnight instead of scrubbing at 12:30. Are you rinsing the tip between tastes or just letting it ride?