The strip steak (sirloin in Britain, Australia, and South Africa) is a

cut of beef During butchering, beef is first divided into primal cuts, pieces of meat initially separated from the carcass. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, ...

steak A steak is a thick cut of meat generally sliced across the muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally grilled or fried. Steak can be diced, cooked in sauce, such as in steak and kidney pie, or minced and formed into patties, ...

s from the

short loin Short loin is the American name for a cut of beef that comes from the back of the cattle. It contains part of the spine and includes the top loin and the tenderloin. This cut yields types of steak including porterhouse, strip steak (Kansas City ...

of a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

. It consists of a muscle that does little work, the

longissimus The longissimus ( la, the longest one) is the muscle lateral to the semispinalis muscles. It is the longest subdivision of the erector spinae muscles that extends forward into the transverse processes of the posterior cervical vertebrae. Structur ...

, making the meat particularly tender, although not as tender as the nearby

psoas major The psoas major ( or ; from grc, ψόᾱ, psóā, muscles of the loins) is a long fusiform muscle located in the lateral lumbar region between the vertebral column and the brim of the lesser pelvis. It joins the iliacus muscle to form the iliop ...

or tenderloin. Unlike the tenderloin, the longissimus is a sizable muscle, allowing it to be cut into larger portions.

Other names

According to the

National Cattlemen's Beef Association National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is an American trade association and lobbying group working for American beef producers. Advertising campaign National Cattlemen's Beef Association is a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, which is the gro ...

, the steak is marketed in the United States under various names, including Ambassador Steak, Boneless Club Steak, Hotel-Style Steak, Kansas City Steak, Top Loin, Veiny Steak, and New York Steak.

Delmonico's Restaurant Delmonico's is the name of a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recognized as the United States ...

, an operation opened in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1827, offered as one of its signature dishes a cut from the short loin called a

Delmonico steak Delmonico steak or steak Delmonico (, ) is one of several cuts of beef (usually ribeye), with a thick-cut preparation popularized by Delmonico's restaurant in New York City during the mid-19th century. A true Delmonico steak is cut from the ...

. Due to its association with the city, it is often referred to as a New York strip steak. In

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, it is known as porterhouse and sirloin (striploin steak) and is in the ''Handbook of Australian Meat'' under codes 2140 to 2143. In the UK it is called

sirloin In American butchery, the sirloin steak (called the ''rump steak'' in British butchery) is cut from the sirloin, the subprimal posterior to the short loin where the T-bone, porterhouse, and club steaks are cut. The sirloin is actually di ...

, and in Ireland it is called striploin. In Canada, most meat purveyors refer to this cut as a strip loin; in French it is known as ''contre-filet''.

Related cuts

When still attached to the bone, and with a piece of the tenderloin also included, the strip steak becomes a

T-bone steak The T-bone and porterhouse are steaks of beef cut from the short loin (called the sirloin in Commonwealth countries and Ireland). Both steaks include a "T"-shaped lumbar vertebra with sections of abdominal internal oblique muscle on each side ...

or a

porterhouse steak The T-bone and porterhouse are steaks of beef cut from the short loin (called the sirloin in Commonwealth countries and Ireland). Both steaks include a "T"-shaped lumbar vertebra with sections of abdominal internal oblique muscle on each side ...

, the difference being that the porterhouse is cut from further rear and thus has a larger portion of tenderloin included. The strip steak may be sold with or without the bone. Strip steaks may be substituted for most recipes calling for T-bone and porterhouse steaks, and sometimes for fillet and rib eye steaks. A bone-in strip steak with no tenderloin attached is sometimes referred to as a shell steak.

References

{{Beef Cuts of beef Steak

Other names

Related cuts

See also

References