Meat guide
Primals
A primal is one of the large sections a carcass is first broken into — every steak, roast and chop comes out of one. Start here to see where a cut sits on the animal, and what that tells you about how to cook it.
Beef
Beef Offal
Priced by squeamishness, not by how it eats.
Beef Ground
80/20 isn't a preference. It's most of the recipe.
Beef Shank
More connective tissue than anywhere else on the animal. That is the point.
Beef Round
The cheapest beef in the case, and the least forgiving.
Beef Rib
The one section a grader looks at to decide what the whole animal is worth.
Beef Plate
The only muscles on the animal that never get a day off.
Beef Loin
One primal, most of the steak menu.
Beef Flank
The one steak that shows you, from across the room, which way to cut it.
Beef Chuck
The hardest-working primal on the animal, hiding two of its most tender muscles.
Beef Brisket
Holding the animal up is a full-time job. This is the muscle that does it.
Pork
Pork Ground
Add salt, mix for five minutes, and you've made sausage.
Pork Leg/Ham
The same leg becomes a Sunday roast or a two-year project.
Pork Ribs
"Baby" is about the size of the bone, not the age of the pig.
Pork Belly
Fresh it's a roast. Cured and smoked it's breakfast.
Pork Loin
The pig got leaner. The advice didn't.
Pork Shoulder
The butt is at the top. That isn't a typo.
Lamb
Lamb Ground
Not a part of the animal — a decision about the rest of it.
Lamb Breast
The same part of the animal as pork belly, at a fraction of the attention.
Lamb Shank
The one part of a lamb that being young does not rescue.
Lamb Shoulder
The one lamb roast that forgives you.
Lamb Leg
It carried the animal everywhere, and you can still eat it pink.
Lamb Rib
Frenched for the photograph, not for the flavour.
Lamb Loin
Muscles that never carried anything, on an animal too young to toughen them.