MEAT madness

Overpriced Meat Cuts:
Flank Steak
Skirt Steak
Hanger Steak

These cuts are low quality but have become popular because of their flavor and are now overpriced. Originally the appeal was their cheapness.

Under-Utilized Meat Cuts:
Top Round
Flat-Iron Steak
Chicken Steak

These cuts are very tender. The flat iron and chicken steak both come from the chuck portion of the beef critter, but are isolated muscles and second in tenderness only to the tenderloin (seriously). Top Round comes from a tender inner muscle in the leg of 4 legged animals. In beef it is very affordable and makes great steaks and roasts. In lamb it is the really good part of the leg roast and in veal it can run $15+/lb.

Also, be very weary of "Sirloin" steaks at casual dining restaurants. more on all of this below.

Meat can be really confusing because so many identical cuts have different names. Add on to this marketing confusion and it becomes impossible. Here are some key facts:

The PRIMAL cuts are the main sections the carcass is cut into. On a beef animal they are (from head to tail) CHUCK, RIB, LOIN and ROUND.

The loin section (not primal) on a 4 legged animal runs from the top of the hip bone to the last 1-2 ribs. When you cut cross sections of the Loin on hogs, veal and lamb it's called a "loin chop." But the same cut from a beef critter is a t-bone, porterhouse or shell steak. So a lamb, pork or veal "loin chop" could be thought of as a lamb, pork or veal t-bone.

The t-bone, porterhouse and shell steak are all the same cut, the difference is where on the loin section the fall. The porterhouses come from the round or hip end, the t-bones from the middle and the shell steak from the rib end. The names have to do with how much tenderloin appears in the steak.

In beef, the loin is broken down into three different sub-PRIMALS, the tenderloin, the sirloin and the strip loin. Both the strip loin and tenderloin can be left whole as roasts or cut into steaks. From the tenderloin: filet mignon, beef medallions, tournados, noisettes and more. From the strip loin - strip steak or new york strip steak. Steaks cut from the sirloin are often used in casual dining restaurants because they cheap and can be sold for a high price under the name "sirloin." These include "ball-tip" and "Tri-tip" steaks.

The Rib section of 4 legged animals contains the ~6-11th rib. The muscle that runs peripheral to the spinal cord is NOT the tenderloin, but the RIB EYE. (The tenderloin is on the inside of the vertebrae of the loin section and surrounded by a significant layer of fat.) In beef, cuts that come from the rib section are "prime rib", bone-in rib roast, bone-less rib roast. And if you were to cut steaks from the rib-roast they would be rib steaks or if the rib bone is removed, "Delmonico steaks." The same rib section of pork, is sold whole as "pork loin roast" bone-in or boneless. Cross sections cut from the pork loin roast are "pork rib-chops." If you were to remove the rib bone from the pork loin roast you would have "baby-back ribs." The baby-back ribs on beef are referred to as "beef back ribs."

Non-primal cuts are termed "market forms" and in beef include, the plate, the brisket and the foreshank. None of these are particularly useful aside from brisket and are most often ground. Flank steak actually comes from the LOIN primal but is often removed because the excessive fat makes it a bad buy for the money.

Economy cuts sold in restaurants that have become popular are skirt steak and Hanger steak (aka hangar steak, hanging tenderloin, hanging tender, butchers steak, onglet or butcher's tenderloin.) both from the belly muscles of the beef animal. These are generally thought of as low quality cuts of meat but have high resale value because of growing popularity.