How Loyal Are You to a Cut of Beef?

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Mar 24th 2009 @ 5:00PM

Reading a post at The Kitchn about trying a new cut of beef got me thinking:

How many people loyally follow a certain cut of beef?

I follow it, to an extent, when I'm eating out. When I was young, I was obsessed with large, juicy pieces of prime rib. These days, especially when I hit Ruth's Chris, I grab the rib eye. But that's a combination of flavor and meat greed. I make it out for a good steak so rarely that when I do, I want something big. The fact that it's also delicious makes the large and juicy rib eye down-right perfect. But outside of beef gluttony at a steak house, I've never favored a particular cut of meat.

If I see a meat counter, my eyes glaze over in love and I just find the best and tastiest-looking cut I can afford, unless I'm hunting for a particular cut to make a particular dish. It never occurred to me that people would be loyal to just one small piece of a rather delectable beast.

Are you? Do you always grab the same cut? And if you do, why?

Filed Under: Ingredients
Tags: beef, beef cuts, BeefCuts, food loyalty, FoodLoyalty

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-24-2009 @5:25PM wolverinegod said... How loyal? Not very - variety is the spice of life. That said, there are certainly cuts I am more drawn to.
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3-24-2009 @6:32PM michael jb said... i am more loyal to a cut when i am cooking it than i am when i am eating out.

if i am grilling (i always grill my steaks!) i will almost always go for the new york strip.

eating out, i may go for a strip, a t-bone, prime rib...depends what the special is! ;)
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3-24-2009 @7:14PM Pyrofish said... I am kind of partial to a few cooks, but it depends on what I'm doing. When grilling or out, NY Strip is my steak of choice. For family get togethers though, I like the Prime rib if it's a small family thing. If it's a big one, like xmas, I'll do a tenderloin. It's so buttery and rich, they can't eat as much of it, so $100 goes farther :-)

Then of course there's chili and/or stew, where I am partial to shoulder. Chuck and sirloin for burgers. So I guess I am stuck on a few cuts, as I ignore most of the others. I wouldn't ignore brisket, but it's hard to find here :-P
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3-24-2009 @8:37PM Avery said... While every cut of me has there own unique use in the kitchen (some are better for the barbecue, others for slow roasting, etc…), I am all about the brisket. It is an underrated cut that is incredibly versatile. Maybe it is my background or my love for Deli, but not only can you smoke, boil, steam, corn, and roast this magical cut of beef.

Also, because of its size, it invites others to take part in the meal, which I feel is a very important aspect of food that should not be undervalued.
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3-24-2009 @9:30PM Jason said... Zero loyalty. I enjoy taking whatever cut is on sale / on hand / provided and finding the best method to make it great. I enjoy taking the "bad" cuts and making them wonderful with some long, slow braising, for example.
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3-24-2009 @9:40PM FreddyC said... Funny you mention Ruth's Chris. I live in Chicago, and I was a die hard New York strip man until I had the fillet at RC. Now that's my cut of choice, and RC my restaurant of choice. But things change =).
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3-25-2009 @12:10AM BraH said... It's not a question of loyalty but rather palatability. As a butcher who ranches on the side, I understand more than most the vagaries of meat cookery and what makes a great dish. Tenderness and palatability are mainly derived from the amount of use a muscle gets during the lifetime of an animal. Simply put, the round and chuck get much more use than the loin, which allows marbling to build more freely and increases the size, rather than the number, of muscle fibers. The tenderloin is an evolutionary relic and only slightly assists steers in penile control. If you want to know any more, just ask, I lurk here quite a bit.
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3-25-2009 @1:21AM Chris Wilkerson said... prime rib, ribeye, beef cheek
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3-25-2009 @11:28AM doodoolemonque said... To me, a prime rib is a terrible waste of a good rib eye. And I never go to Ruth Chris anymore for political reasons, just as I don't ever order from LL Bean. But that's for a different blog.
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3-25-2009 @11:48AM Astin said... It often depends how hungry I am. I find that at steakhouses I'm drawn to the ribeye, but sometimes all I want is the filet. At home I usually have some ribeye and strip, and decide based on how I plan to prepare them.

I grew up with T-bone, but sadly my dad always overcooked it, so it wasn't until recently that I could appreciate it.
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3-25-2009 @1:06PM Samme said... Personally I am with Jason, and also consider the best kind of cooking to be the art of taking what is available and making it really tasty.

That being said, my local meat vendor is constantly trying to get me to buy his flat iron steaks. He swears they are the second best cut to filet mignon and nearly always has fresh cooked samples in the afternoon. They are definitely tasty...a few more years of samples won't chance my opinion but he doesn't know that. :)
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