Fire up the Grill! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chuck

The chuck primal cut is essentially the shoulder of the animal, and as those are hard-working muscles, steaks cut from this region are generally tougher than those closer to the center. Sierra steak is a relatively new cut (resulting from a beef industry study in the early 2000s) that is produced from a small muscle called the splenius, found directly under the shoulder blade.

It has a robust, beefy flavour and can be very tough if overcooked.

Answer: Chuck

Technically, ranch steak is 'boneless chuck shoulder center cut steak', but that can be a mouthful (sorry - bad pun). As with other cuts from the chuck, ranch steaks are generally lean and tough, but flavourful. They are typically cut to no more than an inch thick, with all excess fat trimmed off.

Answer: Rib

Ribeye is cut from the section between the chuck and the short loin sections, falling within the sixth to twelfth ribs. Intramuscular fat contributes to extensive (delicious) marbling that makes for a juicy, tender, and boldly flavourful steak.

Other names by which the ribeye steak is known include Delmonico, Spencer, beauty steak, sarket steak, and Scotch fillet.

Answer: Rib

There are two types of bone-in ribeye steak: cowboy steak and tomahawk steak. The only difference between the two is that with the cowboy steak, the bone is Frenched, meaning that the meat is cut away from the end of the rib so that part of the bone is exposed.

Cowboy (and Tomahawk) steaks are rich and juicy, flavourful and with marbling throughout.

Answer: Short loin

New York strip steak (or just strip steak) is from the short loin subprimal within the loin primal cut. Normally cut without any bone, New York strip steak has an intense, beefy flavour, and leans towards the tougher side. As with many of the cuts in the loin primal, strip steaks have lots of marbling, which adds to the robust flavour.

Answer: Short loin

The T-bone is a very recognizable steak, obviously due to the T-shaped bone. It is actually a combination of the short loin and tenderloin subprimal cuts, with the T-bone bisecting the two types of muscle. This gives the best of both worlds - fork-tender and mild in flavour on the tenderloin side, and bold and beefy on the strip side.

***As classifications go, the T-bone fits into both the short loin and tenderloin sections, but as the filet mignon and the chateaubriand are wholly and only tenderloin, then the T-bone is relegated to the short loin category for the purposes of this quiz.***

Answer: Sirloin

Also called 'top sirloin cap steak', 'sirloin butt cap', and 'sirloin strip', coulotte steak is cut from the triangle-shaped muscle that covers, or 'caps', the top sirloin. It is one of the most tender of the sirloin cuts, often has excellent marbling, but is not quite as flavourful as a ribeye steak.

Answer: Sirloin

Found in the bottom sirloin, tri-tip steak is cut from the tri-tip roast into triangular pieces, hence the reason that they are also known as 'triangle steaks'. This cut became popular as the 'Santa Maria' steak due to the California-based town where it was popularized.

Tri-tip steak is a boneless cut that is typically about one inch thick, has excellent marbling, is lean and tender and considered quite flavourful.

Answer: Tenderloin

The tenderloin shares part of the short loin and sirloin sections of the primal cuts, and some steak cuts cross boundaries to share parts of more than one area. But a filet mignon (translated from the French it means 'delicate fillet') comes just from the smaller end of the tenderloin.

It is called the 'king of steaks' for its tenderness and leanness, and is often the most expensive cut, as well.

Answer: Tenderloin

Where the filet mignon comes from the small end of the tenderloin, Chateaubriand is the center cut of the tenderloin. There is more than one origin story for the name of this tender cut of beef, but the fact that it remains capitalized lends credence to its connection to Vicomte François-René de Chateaubriand (French ambassador to England in 1822) and his personal chef who named it in his honour.

Chateaubriand is generally prepared by grilling between two lesser pieces of meat that are discarded after cooking.