Some Modern Retail Beef Terms AND The Common (Usually More Expensive) Alias.

In other words—How You are Being Fleeced.

Arm Bone Pot Roast: Chuck- Contains cross section of round arm bone surrounded by forearm, brisket, and shoulder muscle sometimes boned rolled and tied. Alias, Arm Bone, Round Bone, O- Bone Shoulder.

BBQ Ribs: Indicates a cooking method only and is not a special cut. Generally long meaty rib bones with one irregular, knobby end. Cut only when rib section is used for boneless entrecote. Alias, Back Ribs, Beef Spareribs, Beef Ribs, now popularized by some restaurant chains.

Barbecue Roast: Retail name for solid side of Sirloin Tip., usually cut, rolled and tied to make small diameter cut for spit broiling but again the name is a cooking suggestion and not the cut.

Barbecue Steak: Any bone-in or boneless steak, usually of a less tender cut, suitable for grilling or broiling.

Breakfast Beef: Plate. Cured, thinly sliced, with streaks of lean and fat, fried and used as bacon.

Blade-cut “Pot Roast”: Chuck- Generally suitable only for braising.

Blade Roast: Chuck- now cut anywhere from 1/2 to about 3 inches thick from rib end of chuck section. Usually 3 cuts per section with varying amount of shoulder blade and sometimes a good part of backbone and rib bone. Portions called Flat Iron, Chuck Tender, and Inside Chuck surround backbone. Other alias includes 7- Bone, Center Cut Blade, and Blade Cut.

Blade -steak: Chuck- Same as blade roast only thinner yet.

Boiling Beef: Plate, Shank, and Neck.

Bone-in Chuck: Usually from top part of chuck next to rib section. Alias, 7 Bone Steak, Blade Steak, Texas Broil, and Chuck Wagon.

Boneless Chuck Steak: usually cut from next to rib section or from outside shoulder clod muscle. Alias, Cross Rib Steak, Clod steak, Fluff Steak, Patio Steak, Family Steak, and BBQ Steak.

Boneless Rolled Chuck: Rolled and tied, cut from large meaty outside shoulder clod muscle, weighing 12-16 pounds. This primal cut usually re-cut into smaller portions of 3 pounds and up. The more expensive alias includes- Cross Rib, Shoulder Clod, and Diamond Jim.

Bottom Round: Less tender than Top Round. Alias, Silverside, Swiss Steak, Minute Steak, Cube Steak, Breakfast Steak, Sandwich Steak, Eye of Round, and North American style Baron of Beef.

Butter Ball Steak: First cut of Top Round ¼ to 1 inch thick.

Center Cut Blade: Chuck-should be the middle cut when 3 portions are cut from a chuck section.

Chuck: The basic fore quarter cut, containing ribs 1 to 5, without neck, brisket, and fore shank, amounts to about ¼ of entire carcass. Muscles run in different directions and vary greatly in degree of tenderness, now cut into many deceptively named retail cuts.

Diamond Cut Roast: The common alias is the less expensive part of the Rump.

Fore Quarter; Front half of beef side; it is separated between 12th and 13th ribs from hind quarter. Contains Chuck, Brisket, Shank, Rib and Plate basic cuts and is traditionally considered to be inferior to the hind quarter.

Tender Steak: is a narrow thick, 1½ pound hind quarter muscle, attached in part to the diaphragm. There is only one per carcass. Alias-Butcher Steak.

Manhattan: - Originating in the United States and now a common retail alias for a boneless rump cut.

Medallion: Another retail name for Chuck Tender.

Sirloin

The Sirloin includes long and short loin plus the tenderloin which extends through both short and the rear section.

Today, usually only the rear section is (possibly to avoid some minor confusion), called the sirloin.

In truth, all loin steaks are sirloin steaks Sirloin is the only cut of meat in the world that has been officially knighted: I believe that says it all.

©Al Girvan 1990