Cutting the Beef Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shank

Shank meat tends to be less tender and more sinewy than other beef cuts. It is best used for dishes that have extensive cooking times such as beef bourguignon or for ground meat as well as for soups and stews. Shank can be taken from both fore and hind legs although hind legs have a higher yield.

Answer: Flank

Flank steaks can become quite tender if suitably marinated for a longer time, but are still less tender than most other steak cuts. They are the most affordable steaks, but most flank meat still goes into the production of ground beef.

Answer: Chuck

Chuck steaks are, of course, taken from the chucks. They do include bones; the boneless variant is known as clod steak or chuck eye steak (the latter being taken from the best part of the chuck also called chuck fillet). Located at the top front of the forequarters, the chuck also includes what most non-US systems call the shoulder.

In some of those systems, especially the South American ones, the chuck is a vertical stripe located between shoulder and ribs.

Answer: Plate

Plate meat can be used for short ribs, brisket, and, again for ground beef to which it is often added if it is desired to up the fat content of the meat. It is still one of the cheaper, non-premium cuts of beef.

Answer: Rib

Now we're talking. More tender than most forequarter cuts and with a relatively high fat content, the rib cut is the source of back ribs, rib eye and prime rib. It is a favorite of steakhouses across the Americas, but far less popular in Europe.

Answer: Round

The round yields relatively lean meat with little marbling. It is well suited for any preparation method that uses a lesser degree of doneness than those employed for forequarter meat. Round steaks are known in various subtypes - top round, bottom round and eye of round.

The round is one of the only two American cuts that ranges around the entire torso, top to bottom, the other being the chuck.

Answer: Top loin

The short loin is the source of many popular steaks, most prominently the T-bone steak. Porterhouse and Kansas City strip steaks are also cut from this area, both with a bone in. Boneless steaks from this cut also exist, the most famous of them is the New York strip steak (essentially a Kansas City strip minus the bone), although variations in naming exist and both names are being used for cuts with and without the bone.

Answer: Strip

The rear half of the loin (confusingly also called "sirloin" as a whole) is divided into two main sections, below the tenderloin and above it. The lower of these sections is made up of the bottom sirloin (the least tender and cheapest loin section) and top sirloin (the best sirloin meat). The top section, next to the spine, is the strip.

Answer: Chateaubriand

In France and most of Europe, a Chateaubriand steak would actually refer to a piece of meat taken from only the very finest part of the tenderloin - the best and most expensive piece of beef available. In America, however, it is often used "only" to indicate a high quality top sirloin cut - which is still an excellent and versatile piece of meat that can be served in many ways, but is best used as a straightforward steak, cooked to medium-rare or medium doneness.

Answer: Horizontally bisecting both the sirloin and the short loin

The tenderloin is the smallest wholesale cut of beef, but the best and most prized and expensive one. At German 2012 prices, a pound of tenderloin beef from industrial production will set you back between 18 and 25 dollars in a supermarket, organically grown and locally butchered meat procured from a butcher shop can reach twice that and more - and the quality difference shows. Of course this is only the beginning of the scale: French chefs might consider only the very best of the sirloin cut good enough for their dishes and if you want a tenderloin steak tartare prepared by a Michelin-starred chef, you can expect to pay upwards from 150 Euros for the honor, not counting the equally high quality and high-priced wine you will wish to sip alongside it. Such a dinner will however be the experience of a lifetime and there is almost no meat dish that could compare.