The rift in quality between a great steak and a bad steak is perhaps greater than any other food;
just as the best can make your day, so too can the worst totally ruin it.
These are some of the most famous cuts of steak, ranked from worst to best.
"What does steak mean?"
"Pardon"
"What does steak mean?"
"This is steak."
Some cuts of steak are better than others, sure, but they almost all have their uses, and there
aren't many to totally avoid. Then again, there's the beef round: A large, primal cut of beef,
mainly coming from the rear leg and rump. It's made of three parts: the top, tip, and bottom.
The top round is the most tender part, but that's not saying much. It tends to be extremely tough
and lean. Many people use it for thin-sliced roast beef. As a steak, it's next to useless.
The tip, also known as a sirloin tip, is a lean, boneless cut best for kebabs
or stews. Its connective tissue makes it chewy and gross unless it's braised.
Finally, there's the bottom round, which includes the eye of round,
which The Splendid Table once called, quote, "one of the few unredeemable cuts
of meat." Near tasteless, tougher than John Wick, and not worth your money..
Skirt steak comes from the plate, which is the muscle inside the chest and below the ribs.
There's an inside and outside skirt, but they're not that different from each other.
You're most likely to come across an inside steak at the grocery store.
Skirt does have a few things going for it. It's genuinely quite flavorful, but like the round,
it's still best cut into thin slices. This is because it's a very tough, muscle-heavy cut,
so overcooking by the slightest amount is going to make you very
unhappy. Try to keep it rare or medium rare.
The skirt's long shape makes it unwieldy to prepare and season,
and a total nightmare to fit into all the but the largest pans. It's best served in thin slices,
but be warned: a novice cook might be tempted to cut it with the grain,
which seems more natural. That's a great way to completely ruin an already average cut of beef.
The flank steak comes from the underside of the cow, a little further back than the skirt,
behind the plate. It's very similar to skirt steak, too, with flank steak being slightly less
tough. That said, flank steak does still tend to be tougher than many other cuts.
You're generally not going to want to cook flank as a steak unless you intend to serve
it as thin slices, but they do at least marinade nicely. And remember to cut against the grain.
We can't really tell you which to go for if you've got a choice between
flank steak or skirt steak. It probably depends on whether you prize taste over tenderness,
or vice versa; but there's really not a whole lot of difference between the two.
The sirloin is generally divided into three smaller cuts: the top sirloin, the bottom sirloin,
and the rear part of the tenderloin. These different parts vary wildly in quality,
tenderness, and flavor. By and large, the bottom sirloin is the worst of the three.
This cut is actually great for roasting, but it's not great for turning into steaks,
unless you slice it and marinate it. Even then, it's going to be chewy,
especially compared to the top sirloin. Certain parts of the bottom sirloin,
such as the tri-tip, ball-tip, or flap steak, are good for kebabs or stews.
"There's still plenty of meat on that bone.
You take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato, baby, you got a stew goin'!"
The strip steak is a cut of meat that comes from the short loin, which is located in the
top-center of the cow's body, just in front of the sirloin. It's what remains once you take the
tenderloin away from the short loin. Serve them together, and you've got a T-bone or Porterhouse.
If you're after a middle ground between tender and tough, this is probably the steak for you.
It's got a little chew to it, without being a nightmare to eat. It's also great for flavor and
moisture, thanks to the marbling. Sadly, however, this marbling does mean strip steak can be a
little on the pricey side, and it's debatable whether that extra cost is really worth it,
especially compared to some of the other cuts of comparable price.
You can sometimes find bone-in strip steaks, which are otherwise known
as shell steaks or club steaks, and these versions pack some extra flavor.
Always worth considering, but again, expect to pay a little more for the privilege.
The vacio is a really popular steak in Argentina. It's a primal cut of the flank,
but it's quite different from a flank steak. The vacio hangs beneath the loin and is bolstered
by the cow's belly, which encases the meat in layers of fat. When butchered, the vacio steak
has an unusual diamond shape, weighs between four and five pounds, and can feed a good-size
party of meat lovers. It's always slow-grilled whole, then sliced, and the well-marbled meat
is tender and very flavorful. The crispy belly fat is almost as cherished as the steak itself.
In France, this cut is called the bavette d'aloyau.
It's the exact same cut, but as you might expect, cooked in the French way.
It's cut into individual steaks, and is either marinated and grilled or pan-fried in butter,
then served with a shallot sauce and French fries. Next time you're sipping wine in a French bistro,
and see steak-frites on the menu, order it, and enjoy a steak loved on two continents.
The top sirloin comes from the upper portion of the sirloin,
and is usually presented in the form of a tender, boneless steak.
It may not be the most tender cut of beef, especially compared to some of the pricier cuts,
but it's not too tough, and careful cooking can keep it from becoming too chewy.
"Whatcha got there, top sirloins?"
"Yeah, New Yorkshire grain fed."
"Three times the omega 3s than grass fed."
"Bought and paid for."
"You're gonna want 'em aged if they're top sirloins."
The great thing here is that top sirloin is hugely flavorful,
and often marbled nicely. It's also fairly lean, making it a little healthier than
its rival cuts. The best thing top sirloin has going for it is that it's great value for money.
You're unlikely to have to shell out as much cash as you would for a ribeye or T-bone, for example,
but you're going to get a much better steak than other cheaper options such as the round or bottom
sirloin. It's also versatile, being as suitable to a Stroganoff or a kebab as it is a steak.
A T-bone is cut from the forward section of the short loin, and contains both a strip of
top loin and a nice big slab of tenderloin. It's a great combination of the texture and flavor of
those two cuts, in one impressively-sized chunk of beef. The strip steak has got all the flavor, and
the tenderloin has got an amazing texture. With the T-bone, you get to experience both at once.
"T-bone steak."
"For lunch?"
"Well, I am just a t-bone kinda guy. Love that t-bone!"
There are two downsides to T-bones, though. One, they're usually
crazy expensive, partly because they combine two prized cuts of beef,
and partly because they seem to have become so popular in high-end restaurants. Second,
they lack some of the versatility of tenderloin alone, which can be used in a number of different
ways. But if you're hankering for a real steak lover's steak, you can probably do no better.
Also known as butler's steak or boneless top chuck steak, flat iron steak is a relatively modern
cut of beef. According to Kansas City Steaks, flat iron steak comes from the shoulder region
or "top blade." The meat is full of rich, juicy marbling and is incredibly tender,
but had long been considered unusable because of a very tough sinew.
Omaha Steaks has reported that researchers at the University of Nebraska and the University
of Florida actually conducted a scientific study to figure out how to best use this piece of meat,
ultimately determining that if you sliced the meat off at either side of that tough sinew,
you'd be left with an intensely flavorful and highly affordable cut.
Many chefs consider the flavor and texture of flat iron steaks similar to more popular and
pricey cuts like filet mignon. They're inherently smaller pieces of meat,
so you may not want flat iron for a Sunday feast. But it's great for an affordable weeknight dinner.
To all but the most discerning eye, the porterhouse steak is pretty much the exact same
cut of steak as the T-bone. The main difference is that the porterhouse is a little thicker,
and contains more of the tenderloin. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the tenderloin
filet has to measure at least 1.25 inches from the bone to the edge, or it's not a porterhouse.
Why does the porterhouse steak come out ahead of the T-bone?
Simple: it's bigger. That may sound ridiculous, but this is steak we're
talking about here. Bigger is better. There's a reason people call it the "King of T-bones."
The hanger steak is cut from the short plate, on the underside of the cow,
and is a neighbor to the skirt steak. It's absolutely chock full of flavor,
and, because the muscle it comes from does little work, it's incredibly tender, too.
Hanger is also extremely easy to cook, and takes much less effort to prepare compared to some of
the other lesser-known cuts of beef. It's pretty cheap, too, because so few people seek it out.
It was actually once known as "butcher's steak," because butchers used to keep it for themselves.
The only problem, really, is that hanger steak can be difficult to get a hold of.
Only one cut of hanger can be taken from each animal,
so it's difficult to produce widely. As chef Jon Elwood tells Myrecipes.com:
"For a grocery store to sell ten hanger steaks, they would need to buy ten cows.
This would not only take up a disproportionate amount of storage space, but it would also
require having to sell thousands of pounds of beef just to secure ten hanger steaks."
Now we're in the big leagues. The tenderloin is cut from the short loin of the cow,
and contains very little connective tissue. The result is an incredibly
tender cut of beef that's the source of some of the finest steaks in the world.
Take filet mignon, for example. This steak is cut from the end of the tenderloin, and is
often regarded as some of the best meat you'll find on a cow. It's tender beyond all belief,
and though it lacks a little in flavor compared to its other expensive brethren,
it's suitable for all kinds of cooking and pairs beautifully with bacon.
"The young lady wants a fih-let mig-nahn. You know.
Little hunk of meat. Little pink on the inside."
You might argue that, because a T-bone or porterhouse steak contains tenderloin
and some strip steak on the side, those cuts are superior. But unencumbered by its strip companion,
the tenderloin becomes incredibly versatile. For example, tenderloin is the cut of beef used in the
preparation of steak tartare, thanks to its lack of gristle. It can also be used to make carpaccio,
a delicious Italian appetizer. Or you could fry it up with a little butter and have it as a steak.
The ribeye is, naturally, is taken from the rib of
the cow and is easily one of the most prized and sought-after cuts of steak.
To gauge the quality of ribeye, take a gander at that marbling.
These cuts are practically covered in it, and the flavor itself is just as impressive.
All that extra fat imbues the steak with an incredible amount of flavor,
making for one of the tastiest cuts. It also helps that they're extremely juicy, wonderfully soft,
and exactly as tender as you could ever want your steak to be. Unlike tenderloin cuts, you've also
got size on your side. A ribeye should easily fill the belly of even the most ravenous steak-lover.
And one of the most prized types of beef in the world is a ribeye cut:
Kobe. It's a ribeye cut from the Tajima strain of cattle raised in Hyōgo, Japan.
Real Kobe is the perfect encapsulation of all that is right with the ribeye cut;
as tender as it is tasty. Ribeye steak is just the best there is.
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