FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Mark R. Vogel
Epicure1@optonline.net
Where’s the Beef?
Comprehending all the different cuts of beef can be a little
confusing. For example, did you know that a strip steak, New York strip, Kansas
City steak, club steak, shell steak, and top loin steak all come from the same
section of beef? Who wouldn’t be confused with such jargon? The diagram below
depicts all the cuts found on your typical bovine.
Beef is muscle tissue. The first thing that must be
understood is that frequently used muscles are tougher and generally require
long, slow, moist heat cooking methods to loosen their connective tissue, while
lesser used muscles are tender and need dry heat methods. Moist heat cooking
methods for beef include braising, boiling and stewing. Dry heat methods include
sautéing, grilling, roasting, and broiling.
The chuck, brisket, round and shank are the most exercised
muscles and hence, the toughest. A pot roast can be made from chuck via
braising, (cooking the meat in a small amount of liquid for an extended period
of time). Chuck is also useful for stew meat, making stock, and ground beef.
Your average hamburger is mostly ground chuck.
The brisket is home to corned and barbequed beef. The
infamous corned beef and cabbage is made from boiling the meat. Pot roast can
also be done with brisket, again by braising.
The round
includes the top round, bottom round, heel round, eye round, and rump roast.
Sometimes ground beef is made from the round as well. Although all round cuts
are tough, the top round is the tenderest, relatively speaking. Because of this,
it can be roasted. London broil comes from the top round and can also be
grilled. All of the others however, do best made into roasts with moist heat
methods. One exception is your deli roast beef. Because it is sliced thin,
producers can get away with roasting, (dry heat), the bottom or eye round which
are cheaper than the top round. Notice that making a “roast” does not
necessarily mean that the meat will be roasted. At the risk of belaboring the
point for clarification, roasts such as pot roasts from tough cuts, require
braising. Roasts made from more tender meat are made by actually roasting.
The shank is definitely best when braised as in the classic
dish osso buco. It can also be used for stews and stocks.
The short plate and flank contain meat of medium toughness.
The muscle fibers are relatively coarse but contain sufficient intramuscular fat
to maintain tenderness. The short plate gives us short ribs which are braised or
boiled as in New England boiled beef. Skirt steak, (from the short plate) and
flank and hanger steaks, (from the flank), are delicious when grilled. However,
they must not be overcooked, benefit from being marinated, and should be cut
against the grain for a softer texture. Mexican fajitas are often made from
marinated strips of flank steak.
The rib, short loin, and
sirloin render the most delicate cuts of beef. Broiling, grilling, sautéing and
roasting reign supreme here. Rib steaks, (also known as delmonico or prime rib),
rib eye steaks, (without the bone), and rib roasts, naturally come from the rib.
The sirloin provides a variety of sirloin steaks differing on where in the
sirloin they are cut from. Sirloin can also be ground and mixed with ground
chuck for primo hamburgers.
Finally, the crème de la crème of
beef: the short loin. Picture a porterhouse or T-bone steak. The larger side is
referred to by all the names at the top of the article: top loin, strip, New
York strip, shell steak, etc. The smaller side is the tenderloin or filet
mignon. The porterhouse and the T-bone are the same except that the porterhouse
is cut from the larger end of the short loin and thus provides more of the filet
mignon. Both the top loin and the tenderloin can be cut into individual steaks,
or larger roasts. In the case of the top loin, the steaks may or may not be
attached to the bone. The tenderloin is always boneless except when part of a
porterhouse or T-bone steak.
