About Beef Cuts

Buying beef cuts can be confusing for the average cook at home. So here we’ve listed the various cuts and how to best prepare them.

As a general rule, long slow cooking will take the toughest meat and tenderize it beautifully.

If you’re cooking the meat quickly, like broiling or frying a steak you want to be sure the finished product will be tender and not come out like shoe leather!

Here’s what works to tell you if the meat is going to be tough or tender. Let’s say you’re rooting through the freezer and you notice a frozen steak but the label has fallen off. So you have no idea if it’s going to cook up tender or tough.

When the meat has thawed, pinch it. If it’s not really giving in or it feels bouncy, then the meat will be tough. If it can easily be squashed it will be tender. It’s just too bad we can’t do the pinch test in the store before we buy!

Beef Cuts Diagram

This is a really simple diagram to show you where the various beef cuts come from.

This link will take you to a chart for MINIMUM INTERNAL COOKING TEMPERATURE

And below you will see that I've made a list of all the cuts and indicated the best way for preparing them. Of course, we’ll soon have some great recipes to go along with some of our favorite cuts of meat.

Boiling: (bo)   Broiling: (b)   Braising: (br)

Roasting: (r)    Frying: (f)   Stewing: (st)   Ground: (g)

Beef Chuck, Brisket And Fore Shanks Sections

The chuck, brisket and fore shank areas provide the following cuts:

Arm Steak, (bo) (br) (st)

Cross Rib Pot Roast, (br) (st)

Blade Steak, (br) (f) (b)

Short Ribs, (br) (st)

Shank Cross Cuts, (br) (st)

Ground Beef

Beef Rib Section

The rib area provides the following cuts:

Rib Steak, (f) (b)

Rib Eye Steak, (f) (b)

Rib Eye Roast, (r)

Loin Sections

The short loin and sirloin areas provide the following cuts:

Porterhouse Steak, (f) (b)

T-Bone Steak, (f) (b)

Boneless Sirloin Steak, (f) (b)

Tenderloin Steak, (f) (b)

Pin Bone Sirloin Steak, (f) (g)

Flat Bone Sirloin Steak, (f) (b)

Wedge Bone Sirloin Steak, (f) (b)

Rump Section

Boneless Rump Roast (r)

Eye of Round, (r)

Round Steak, (br) (st)

Bottom Round Roast, (br) (st)

Ground Beef

Short Plate And Flank Sections

Brisket, (br) (st)

Flank Steak, (br) (st)

Ground Beef

I do hope you found this information useful.  And by all means, visit the site to find great low carb beef recipes.

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