Different Cuts of Meat

There are many different cuts of meat to choose from for each animal.

There are many different cuts of meat. Try recipes with various cuts and decide for yourself which are your favorites. There are many recipes available online or you can check with your local library for cookbooks. Ask your butcher about cooking technique for each cut of meat as well.

Beef

Pot roast can be found in the chuck section of a steer.

There are nine categories of cuts of beef. Chuck consists of the arm and shoulder pot roasts, short ribs, chuck eye roast and the top blade steak. The short loin consists of the T-bone, top loin, porterhouse and tenderloin. The plate cut contains the skirt steak. Rib cuts include the large and small rib roast as well as the rib eye steak. The round cut is the source of top round, bottom round, tip roast, eye round and boneless rump roast. The sirloin cut is where you can find the top sirloin, tenderloin and beef tips. There are three other categories of meat called the brisket, shank and flank cuts.

Pork

Ham is one of the many cuts of meat found in pork.

Pork cuts are divided into five main groups. The shoulder butt consists of the common roast and the shoulder blade steak. The picnic shoulder consists of shoulder roast, hocks and shanks. The loin cut consists of the loin roast, pork chops and rack of pork. The side cuts are where you find bacon, spareribs, pork belly and pork shoulder hocks. Leg cuts include pork leg (short shank and boneless) and is where you will find cured ham and pork cubed steak.

Lamb

Rack of lamb come from the breast cut of the lamb.

There are 10 retail cuts of lamb. They are the shoulder, neck, rib, loin sirloin, leg, fore shank, breast, hind shank, and ground or cubed lamb. The most common of these cuts are the rib, where you will find the crown roast, rib roast and rib chops. The leg cuts are popular and make up the boneless, American-style, French-style and sirloin half of leg. The breast is where you find spare ribs, rack of lamb, lamb chops and boneless riblets. Cubed cuts are commonly used for kabobs and stews.

References

• Reluctant Gourmet: How to Distuingish Various Cuts of Beef
• Gourmet Sleuth: Guide To Pork Cuts
• Treasure Valley Sheep Producers: Lamb, Chart of Retail Cuts

Resources

• Meals For You: Guides to Meat Cuts