There are forty or fifty cuts on a beef and most people can name six. You do not need to memorize the rest.
Cuts and Comparisons
Beef Tenderloin vs Filet Mignon: What Is the Difference?
This is a naming question rather than a beef question, and it has a clean answer. The tenderloin is a long muscle that runs along the spine. Filet mignon is a steak cut from it.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Beef Cuts for Slow Cooking
Slow cooking is not a way of rescuing cheap beef. It is the correct method for the cuts that did the most work, and it is where the best flavor on the animal lives.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Beef Cuts for Smoking
Smoking rewards exactly the cuts that a hot pan ruins. Hours of low heat and smoke do something no other method does, and the cuts that suit it are the ones that worked hardest.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Beef Cuts for Steak Sandwiches
A steak sandwich fails in one of two ways: the beef pulls out of the bread in a single strip, or it is so lean it tastes of nothing.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Beef Cuts for Stir-Fry
A stir-fry cooks in about ninety seconds, which rules out anything that needs time and makes the knife more important than the cut. Thin, across the grain, and a pan hotter than feels sensible.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Beef Cuts for Tacos
Tacos are forgiving, which is why they are the dish most people cook on a Tuesday. The cut you choose decides how long it takes and almost nothing else, so pick by the time you actually have.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Cuts of Beef for Grilling
A grill is hot, uneven and hard to take back. That favors cuts with fat to spare and penalizes lean ones. Here is what to put over the fire depending on whether you are cooking for two or for twenty.
Cuts and Comparisons
Best Steak Cuts for Pan-Searing
A pan is the most controllable heat most people have and the most limited. It is small, it is flat, and it loses temperature the moment something cold lands on it.
Cuts and Comparisons
Brisket vs Chuck Roast: Which Should You Cook?
Brisket has the reputation and chuck has the better odds. Both are hard-working muscles that reward hours of low heat, and one of them will forgive you if you get distracted.
Cuts and Comparisons
Chuck Roast vs Pot Roast: What Is the Difference?
This is one of the most common points of confusion at a meat counter and it clears up in a sentence. Chuck roast is a cut of beef. Pot roast is what you do to it.
Cuts and Comparisons
Does Steak Thickness Change How You Should Cook It?
People choose a steak by cut and then cook every steak the same way. Thickness matters more.
Cuts and Comparisons
Flat Iron Steak vs. Flank Steak
Both are flat, both are cheaper than a ribeye, and they are not interchangeable. Flat iron is tender enough to serve as a steak. Flank needs a marinade and a sharp knife.
Cuts and Comparisons
Hanger vs Skirt vs Flank: The Thin Steaks Compared
Hanger, skirt and flank are the three cuts that make people who know beef look clever at a barbecue.
Cuts and Comparisons
Ribeye vs Strip vs Filet: Which Steak Should You Buy?
These are the three steaks almost everyone chooses between, and the difference between them is one variable. How much fat is in it, and how much work that muscle did.
Cuts and Comparisons
What Are the Most Flavorful Cuts of Beef?
Flavor lives in the muscles that worked. That is the whole principle, and it is Gray Shipley's own explanation rather than something borrowed from a textbook. Here are the cuts it points you toward.
Cuts and Comparisons
What Are the Most Tender Cuts of Beef?
The tenderloin is the most tender cut on the animal.
Cuts and Comparisons
What Is Beef Marbling and Why Does It Matter?
Marbling is the fine fat inside the muscle, not the fat around the edge. It melts as the steak cooks, which is why a well-marbled steak tastes of more and forgives you more. Here is what to look for.
