Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers.

Beef muscle meat can be cut into steak, roasts or short ribs. Some cuts are processed (corned beef or beef jerky), and trimmings, usually mixed with meat from older, leaner cattle, are ground, minced or used in sausages. The blood is used in some varieties of blood sausage. Other parts that are eaten include the oxtail, tongue, tripe from the reticulum or rumen, glands (particularly the pancreas and thymus, referred to assweetbread), the heart, the brain (although forbidden where there is a danger of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE), the liver, the kidneys, and the tender testicles of the bull (known in the US as calf fries, prairie oysters, or Rocky Mountain oysters). Some intestines are cooked and eaten as-is, but are more often cleaned and used as natural sausage casings. The bones are used for making beef stock.

Beef from steers and heifers is equivalent, except for steers having slightly less fat and more muscle, all treatments being equal. Depending on economics, the number of heifers kept for breeding varies. Older animals are used for beef when they are past their reproductive prime. The meat from older cows and bulls is usually tougher, so it is frequently used for mince (UK)/ground beef (US). Cattle raised for beef may be allowed to roam free on grasslands, or may be confined at some stage in pens as part of a large feeding operation called a feedlot (or concentrated animal feeding operation), where they are usually fed a ration of grain, protein, roughage and a vitamin/mineral preblend.

Beef is the third most widely consumed meat in the world, accounting for about 25% of meat production worldwide, after pork and poultry at 38% and 30% respectively.[1] In absolute numbers, the United States, Brazil, and the People’s Republic of China are the world’s three largest consumers of beef. On a per capita basis in 2009, Argentines ate the most beef at 64.6 kg per person; people in the US ate 40.2 kg, while those in the EU ate 16.9 kg.[2]

The world’s largest exporters of beef are Brazil, Australia, the United States and Ireland. Beef production is also important to the economies of Paraguay,Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Russia, and Uruguay.

The word beef is from the Latin bōs, in contrast to cow, which is from Middle English “cou” (both words have the same Indo-European root *gʷou-).[3] After the Norman Conquest, the French-speaking nobles who ruled England naturally used French words to refer to the meats they were served. Thus various Anglo-Saxon words were used for the animal (such as nēat, or cu for adult females) by the peasants, but the meat was called boef (ox) (Modern French boeuf) by the French nobles —who did not often deal with the live animal— when it was served to them.

This is one example of the common English dichotomy between the words for animals (with largely Germanic origins) and their meat (with Romanic origins) that is also found in such English word-pairs as pig/pork, sheep/mutton and chicken/poultry.[4]

Beef is cognate with bovine through the Late Latin bovīnus.

Cuts

Beef is first divided into primal cuts. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. Since the animal’s legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest; the meat becomes more tender as distance from hoof and horn increases. Different countries and cuisines have different cuts and names, and sometimes use the same name for a different cut.

The American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote in the American Anthropological Journal of the American Anthropological Association, “cultures that divide and cut beef specifically to consume are the Koreans and the Bodi tribe in East Africa. The French and English make 35 differentiations to the beef cuts, 51 cuts for the Bodi tribe, while the Koreans differentiate beef cuts into a staggering 120 different parts.”

See the external links section below for links to more beef cut charts and diagrams.

American Primal Cuts

The following is a list of the American primal cuts. Beef carcasses are split along the axis of symmetry into “halves”, then across into front and back “quarters” (forequarters and hindquarters). Canada uses identical cut names (and numbering) as the U.S.

Forequarter Cuts

  • The chuck is the source of bone-in chuck steaks and roasts (arm or blade), and boneless clod steaks and roasts, most commonly. The trimmings and some whole boneless chucks are ground for hamburgers.
  • The rib contains part of the short ribs, the prime rib and rib eye steaks.
  • In Asia, brisket is used primarily for stews (e.g., five-spice beef, curry beef brisket;) while Westerners tend to use it for barbecue, corned beef or pastrami.
  • The foreshank or shank is used primarily for stews and soups; it is not usually served any other way because it is the toughest of the cuts.
  • The plate is the other source of short ribs, used for pot roasting, and the outside skirt steak, which is used for fajitas. The remainder is usually ground, as it is typically a cheap, tough, and fatty meat.

Hindquarter Cuts

  • The loin has two subprimals, or three if boneless:
    • the short loin, from which the T-bone and Porterhouse steaks are cut if bone-in, or strip steak (New York Strip if served without the bone, and Kansas City strip if bone in).
    • the sirloin, which is less tender than short loin, but more flavorful, can be further divided into top sirloin and bottom sirloin (including tri-tip), and
    • the tenderloin, which is the most tender, can be removed as a separate subprimal, and cut into filet mignons, tournedos or tenderloin steaks, and roasts (such as for beef Wellington). They can also be cut bone-in to make parts of the T-bone and Porterhouse loin steaks.
  • The round contains lean, moderately tough, lower fat (less marbling) cuts, which require moist or rare cooking. Some representative cuts are round steak, eye of round, top round, and bottom round steaks and roasts.
  • The flank is used mostly for grinding, except for the long and flat flank steak, best known for use in London broil, and the inside skirt steak, also used for fajitas. Flank steaks were once one of the most affordable steaks, because they are substantially tougher than the more desirable loin and rib steaks. Many modern recipes for flank steak use marinades or moist cooking methods, such as braising, to improve the tenderness and flavor. This, combined with a new interest in these cuts’ natural leanness, has increased the price of the flank steak.
American Cuts of Beef

Argentinian Primal Cuts
Asado: the large section of the rib cage including short ribs and spare ribs
Asado De Tira: often translated as short ribs, but also sold as long, thin strips of ribs. Chuck ribs, flanken style (cross-cut).
Bife de Costilla: T-bone or porterhouse steaks
Bife de Chorizo: rib eye steaks
Bola de Lomo: knuckle or sirloin tip
Chinchulin: upper portion of small intestines
Colita de Cuadril: tri-tip, or the tail of the rump roast
Cuadril: rump
Entraña: skirt steak
Falda: naval
Lomo: tenderloin
Matambre: a long thin cut that lies just under the skin and runs from the lower part of the ribs to belly–or flank area
Mollejas: sweetbreads (thymus gland)
Pecho: brisket
Riñones – kidneys
Tapa de Asado – rib cap
Tapa de Nalga – top of round roast
Vacío – flank, though it may contain the muscles of other near cuts

Brazilian Primal Cuts

Beef Cuts In Brazil

UK Primal Cut

 

British Cuts of Beef

Dutch Primal Cuts

Dutch cuts of beef

 

Other Dutch Cuts (Not Primal)

  • Tongue is considered the cheapest piece of beef; it is used in certain styles of sausages such as the frikandel, though not as the main ingredient.
  • Tail, though not on the image shown, is used extensively in stews.

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