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The endless variety of cuts in the meat section can be terribly intimidating, can't they? That isn't really their main function though. Each cut of beef or pork represents a different part of the animal and some of them have different cooking needs than others so it is important to know what you are looking at when you pick out your meat.

Starting with Beef cuts, the basic or primal cuts are the shank, brisket, short plate, chuck, rib, flank, short loin, full loin, sirloin and round.

The shank is the front leg meat and is used for stew meat or ground up.

Brisket is taken from the area on a cow's underside, right behind their front legs. The short plate is also from the cow's underside, but in the middle. It's generally cut into short ribs, as well as being used for stew meat or ground beef.

The chuck (square cut) is the meat from the cow's shoulder and is quite versatile. It's used for all chuck meats, like chuck tender, chuck short ribs and of course ground chuck as well as cubed steaks and stew meat.

The rib cut comes from the topside of the animal, above the short plate and its clear what ribs are used for (i.e. ribs).

The flank cut is directly behind the short plate and is used for flank steak and ground beef.

The short loin is behind the rib and is used for the most valued cuts like club steaks, T-Bone steaks, porterhouse steaks and strip loin steaks. The sirloin is the cut right in front of the beef's leg and behind the short loin. Its used for top sirloin but, bottom sirloin butt and butt tenderloin. Yes, the butt cuts are were you think they would be on the animal. Sometimes you will find a whole loin cut which is just the short loin and the sirloin not separated but kept in a big slab.

The round cut is the meat from the cow's legs and hips. Its can be cut down into sirloin tips, inside or top round, outside or bottom round, eye of round, rump and hind shank.

Pork cuts are shoulder picnic, Boston butt, loin, ham, belly and spare ribs. Shoulder picnic is the meat from the upper front legs and is used in hocks, ground pork and sausages.

Boston butt is from the pig's shoulder and is used in butt steaks, shoulder roasts, smoked pork, ground pork and sausages

The loin is the long slab that includes the top half of the pig's ribs and is used for loin roasts, boneless loin, rib chops, country style ribs and Canadian bacon.

Ham comes from the pig's back legs and the belly gives us bacon and spareribs are just that.

Source: Gisslen, Wayne. "Professional Cooking". New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003

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