Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
may want more steaks with thinner cuts. If you sell a whole side of beef, it can be cut exactly
the way the customer wants it. If you sell split sides, it is difficult to do custom cuts unless
both customers want the same thing.
A beef carcass is automatically split into sides, but you also can think of it as being divided
into quarters, two forequarters in the front and two hindquarters in the back. In general, the
best, tenderest steak cuts come from the rear quarter of the animal, except for the ribeye,
which comes from the front part of the middle section and is included with the forequarter.
The less tender cuts come from the heavily exercised areas, including the shoulders and rump
areas.
Courtesy of the California Department of Food and Agriculture
From the chuck area at the top of the forequarters, you can get several roasts (chuck eye,
seven-bone, boneless chuck pot roast, cross rib pot roast, under blade pot roast, blade roast),
top blade steak, flat iron steak, and short rib steak. This is where a lot of ground beef and stew
beef come from.
From the ribs, you can get rib roasts, rib steak, rib eye roast, rib eye roast, and back ribs.
From the lower forequarter, you can get briskets (whole or half), or a shank cross cut. This is
also where ground beef type cuts come from.
