Every cut, explained

Ground

Ground Beef

The two numbers on the label tell you more than the cut name ever will.

Ground

Stew Beef

A package label, not a cut. What is inside decides whether dinner works.

Brisket

Beef Bacon

It looks like bacon and slices like bacon. It does not cook like bacon.

Offal

Beef Tallow

The fat the industry threw out thirty years ago and cooks are now buying back...

Offal

Beef Tongue

One muscle, no bone, no seams — and one step that decides whether it works.

Loin

New York Strip Roast

A holiday roast with no bones, no seams, and nowhere to hide if you overcook it.

Rib

Prime Rib Roast

The most expensive way to buy a ribeye, and the only way to serve twelve of t...

Chuck

Chuck Roast

The one roast that gets better the longer you leave it alone.

Round

Eye of Round

The leanest whole muscle on a steer, and the one most often mistaken for a ch...

Round

Bottom Round

Cheap, lean and stubborn — it braises, but unlike chuck it brings no fat of i...

Offal

Beef Cheeks

The jaw muscle — the one part of the animal that never stops working.

Offal

Oxtail

Mostly bone and connective tissue. That is the feature, not the defect.

Plate

Short Ribs

Two completely different foods sold under one name.

Shank

Beef Shank

Cheap because it punishes shortcuts.

Round

Top Round

Cheap, lean, and the reason "London broil" is on so many labels.

Brisket

Brisket

It carries 60% of the animal's standing weight, which is why it needs twelve ...

Chuck

Denver Steak

The chuck's most marbled muscle, and the zabuton of Japanese wagyu

Chuck

Flat Iron

The second-most-tender muscle on the animal, hiding in the chuck

Chuck

Petite Tender

Tenderloin texture out of the chuck, at a fraction of tenderloin prices.

Plate

Skirt Steak

The diaphragm, and the fajita cut. Two different steaks are sold under this o...

Loin

Sirloin Flap (Bavette)

Loose-grained like skirt and flank, but thick enough to sear hard and still c...

Loin

Picanha

The top sirloin cap — a triangular muscle with a thick fat cap, the headline ...

Chuck

Chuck Eye Steak

The ribeye muscle, one rib on the wrong side of the line, at chuck prices

Loin

T-Bone Steak

Strip on one side of the bone, tenderloin on the other — the same steak as a ...

Loin

Porterhouse Steak

A T-bone cut far enough back that the tenderloin is at least 1.25 inches across

Loin

Top Sirloin

The best-value steak in the loin, and honest about why it costs less

Flank

Flank Steak

The coarsest grain on the animal — the cut where your knife matters more than...

Loin

Filet Mignon

The most tender beef there is, and nowhere near the most flavorful

Plate

Hanger Steak

One per animal, hung off the diaphragm — the most mineral-tasting steak there is

Loin

New York Strip Steak

The ribeye's muscle without the cap — tighter grain, cleaner flavor, firmer bite

Loin

Tri-Tip

The bottom-sirloin triangle. Its grain turns a corner mid-roast, which is why...

Rib

Tomahawk Steak

The same muscle as a ribeye. The long bone is presentation.

Rib

Ribeye

Most of what people love about a ribeye is one muscle sitting on the outside ...

Ground

Ground Bison

Lean enough that "drain the excess fat" finds nothing to drain.

Offal

Bison Oxtail

The one bison cut where leanness costs you nothing, because the richness here...

Ground

Bison Stew Meat

It gets tougher before it gets tender, and most stew is given up on inside th...

Plate

Bison Short Ribs

Same ribs, two saw directions, two completely different dinners.

Plate

Bison Skirt Steak

A muscle that pulled a breath every few seconds for the animal's entire life.

Flank

Bison Flank Steak

The grain is visible from across the room, and it decides whether this eats t...

Brisket

Bison Brisket

Two muscles, two grains, and on bison the fatty one isn't fatty.

Loin

Bison Tri-Tip

Two grain directions in one roast — carve it as a single piece and you ruin h...

Loin

Bison Tenderloin

The cut bison changes least — because beef never had any marbling here either.

Loin

Bison New York Strip

One uniform muscle, one even thickness — which is exactly what a steak with n...

Rib

Bison Ribeye

The steak whose whole reputation is marbling, from the animal that doesn't ma...

Ground

Chorizo

Two different sausages share this name, and swapping one for the other wrecks...

Ribs

Iberico Abanico

Fatty enough to set a grill alight, and that is more or less the point.

Ground

Ground Pork

Not a cut so much as a fat percentage.

Belly

Bacon

Salt and nitrite make it bacon; the smoke is optional.

Loin

Iberico Solomillo

The most tender muscle on the pig — and the one where being Iberico matters l...

Ribs

Spare Ribs

The same slab that becomes bacon, with the bones still in it.

Loin

Iberico Pluma

Loin meat from the one part of the loin that isn't lean.

Ribs

Baby Back Ribs

Not from a baby pig, and not from the belly — two things nearly everyone has ...

Leg/Ham

Ham Hock

Barely edible on its own, and the best thing you can put in a pot of beans.

Shoulder

Iberico Presa

Sear it, rest it, carve it — the pork cut that behaves like a small beef roast.

Leg/Ham

Ham

One word doing the work of three completely different foods.

Loin

Pork Loin Roast

Pork's prime rib, if anyone could be bothered to treat it that way.

Loin

Pork Tenderloin

Twenty minutes from fridge to dinner, and four from perfect to chalky.

Shoulder

Pork Shoulder

Nowhere near the pig's rear end, whatever the butcher called it.

Loin

Pork Chop

The cut most people are still ruining on advice from the 1970s.

Shoulder

Iberico Secreto

Pork with the grain, and the cooking time, of a beef skirt steak.

Belly

Pork Belly

Bacon, before anyone did anything to it.

Ground

Ground Lamb

Everything ground beef does, with considerably more opinion about it.

Loin

Lamb Tenderloin

A whole lamb yields less of this than a single beef filet weighs.

Loin

Lamb Striploin

One muscle runs the whole length of the back. Where you cut it decides what i...

Loin

Lamb Loin Roast

The one lamb roast where the danger is leaving it in too long.

Breast

Lamb Spare Ribs

Layers of fat between thin sheets of meat — and rendering them is the entire ...

Shoulder

Lamb Forequarter

Half the animal, half the price, and the half that tastes most of lamb.

Shank

Lamb Shank

The muscle that did the most work, priced below the ones that did the least.

Leg

Leg of Lamb

One roast, four muscles, and a grain that changes direction while you carve.

Rib

Rack of Lamb

The bones get scraped clean for the photograph, not for the flavour.

Loin

Lamb Loin Chops

Four different cuts get sold as “lamb chops.” Only one of them has a T-bone.

Whole Chicken

One bird, two finish lines.

Ground Chicken

It steams before it browns, and that is a solvable problem.

Chicken Sausage

Everything that makes a pork link forgiving is the fat, and this doesn't have...

Chicken Tenders

A muscle of its own, not an offcut of the breast.

Chicken Wings

Almost no meat on it, and that is the entire appeal.

Chicken Drumstick

Cheap, forgiving, and routinely pulled off the heat too early.

Chicken Thigh

The safe temperature and the good temperature are not the same number.

Chicken Breast

The shape is the problem, not the cooking time.

Ground Turkey

Two packages with the same name and different contents — read the percentage.

Whole Turkey

Three hours for the legs, ninety minutes for the breast, one oven.

Turkey Drumstick

The tendons never soften. Everything else about cooking one follows from that.

Turkey Breast

The turkey without the argument about who gets dark meat.

Foie Gras

A liver that is mostly fat, and dissolves if you look away.

Whole Duck

One bird, two cuts that want different temperatures.

Duck Bacon

Bacon in shape and cure only — it cooks like something else entirely.

Duck Fat

The reason a restaurant roast potato doesn't taste like yours.

Duck Leg

Same bird, opposite rulebook.

Duck Breast

The only poultry you cook to medium-rare.

Ground Wild Boar

There is a reason nearly all of it gets turned into sausage.

Wild Boar Tenderloin

145°F, not 160°F — that guidance changed in 2011, and pork got a lot better.

Venison Tenderloin

Two per deer, under a pound together — most people have never actually eaten ...

Venison Medallion

Trim the silverskin, or the pan will explain why you should have.

Ground Elk

Four ounces of pork fat per pound is the difference between a burger and a ho...

Elk Stew Meat

The one elk cut where “don't overcook it” is wrong advice.

Elk Medallion

Beef flavor without the fat that forgives you.

Arctic Char

A char, not a trout and not a salmon — and it cooks faster than either.

Kampachi

Firm, faintly rosy amberjack farmed for crudo — sear it rare, or don't cook i...

Ocean Perch

A North Atlantic rockfish sold in thin, skin-on fillets — mild flesh under sk...

Lingcod

Neither a cod nor a ling, and firm enough to grill where cod is not.

Wolffish

Firm enough to braise without falling apart — the one lean white fish that will.

Caviar & Roe

Only sturgeon roe is caviar. Everything else on the ice is roe, and some of i...

Mussels

Farmed with no feed, no antibiotics, and no fertiliser — and it's the cheapes...

Scallops

Wet scallops will not sear. That is the whole shopping decision.

Shrimp

The number on the bag is the only size label that means anything.

Lobster

Claws mean cold water. No claws means it's a different animal.

Crab

It's already cooked. Everything you do to it after is reheating.

Mahi Mahi

Not a dolphin. The name change was the entire point.

Swordfish

Cooks like a steak, from an animal that heats its own brain.

Cobia

The only member of its family, and one of the fastest-growing fish anyone farms.

Sea Bream

The whole-fish fish: one to a person, roasted in twenty minutes.

Chilean Sea Bass

Not a bass. A toothfish, renamed by a fish importer in 1977 — and it worked.

Sablefish

Sold as black cod, isn't a cod, and carries more fat than most salmon.

Cod

Black cod and lingcod are both sold as cod. Neither one is a cod.

Halibut

The leanest fish on the counter, and the one people most often ruin.

Trout

Steelhead and rainbow trout are the same fish. One of them went to sea.

Tuna

Almost no fat, so almost no margin — which is why it's usually served raw.

Salmon

The fat is the whole story — and it changes species to species.

Sausage

Fat ratio and grind temperature decide whether it's good. The seasoning is th...

Hot Link

Ask for one in Texas and one in Louisiana and you'll be handed two different ...

Hot Dog

You aren't cooking it. It was cooked before it was packed.

Breakfast Sausage

The thing that makes it taste like breakfast is sage, not sugar.

Italian Sausage

Hot and sweet differ by one ingredient, and it isn't the one most people guess.

Andouille

Two countries make a sausage under this name, and only one of them uses muscl...

Kielbasa

In Poland the word just means “sausage” — what you're holding is one member o...

Bratwurst

Most people simmer them after grilling. The order is backwards, and it's why ...