A steak label can feel like a code: ribeye, strip, filet, T-bone, and then a grade stamp on top. This guide draws on university extension material and USDA sources to explain what each cut is, where it comes from, what marbling means, and what Prime, Choice and Select tell you. It ends with the USDA’s safe minimum temperature for steaks.
Where Steaks Come From
A beef carcass is divided into large sections called primals. Kansas State University’s consumer guide to processing beef lists them as chuck, rib, short loin, sirloin, round, flank, short plate and brisket. The University of Kentucky’s retail-cut identification pages then describe what each steak looks like once it is sliced, including which muscles show on the cut face.
The Main Steak Cuts
Ribeye
Kansas State notes that the rib is normally cut into bone-in or boneless ribeye steaks. Kentucky describes the boneless steak as cut across the grain from a ribeye roast, with the oval-shaped ribeye muscle as the main muscle, visible on both faces of the steak.
Strip steak (New York strip, top loin)
Kansas State lists boneless New York strip steaks among the options from the short loin. Kentucky’s name for the same idea is the top loin steak: a cut taken from one main muscle, the top loin, with some fat along the edge. The bone-in version carries a piece of the vertebra, part of the “T” in T-bone, along one side.
Tenderloin (filet)
Tenderloin steaks, sold as filets, also come from the short loin according to Kansas State. Kentucky describes the lean as very fine-textured, with only a small amount of fat around the outside edges.
T-bone and porterhouse
These are the two-in-one steaks: strip on one side of the bone and tenderloin on the other. Kansas State points out that they are larger cuts than the boneless options, which is why people wanting smaller portions tend to choose a boneless strip or a filet instead. Kentucky separates the two by the size of the tenderloin. On a T-bone, measured across its centre, the tenderloin is between 1/2 and 1 1/4 inches wide (about 13 to 32 mm; that conversion is ours). A porterhouse has a tenderloin at least 1 1/4 inches wide, and Kentucky also mentions a small extra muscle attached to the outside edge of the strip.
Sirloin
Kansas State treats the sirloin as its own primal and says it can be cut into bone-in or boneless steaks, noting that bone-in ones are large. The two sources organise this differently: Kentucky files its sirloin steaks under “Cuts Taken from the Loin” rather than giving the sirloin a heading of its own.
Flank and skirt
These are the long, thin steaks. Kentucky describes flank steak as a flat, oval, boneless steak from the flank, with muscle fibres running the length of the cut and very little fat. Skirt steak comes from the plate and is described as a long, thin steak made from the diaphragm muscle, with a good deal of fat on the outside. Kansas State adds that each carcass half has one flank steak and two skirt steaks.
What Marbling Is
Marbling is the amount and distribution of intramuscular fat, the flecks of fat inside the muscle itself, as opposed to the fat cap on the edge. A Colorado State University fact sheet published through the Beef Checkoff’s Beef Research site says cuts with high levels of marbling are more likely to be tender, juicy and flavourful than cuts with low levels.
What the USDA Grades Mean
Grading is not compulsory. The Colorado State fact sheet describes USDA beef carcass grading as a voluntary service that the packer pays a fee for, carried out by a USDA employee independent of both producer and packer. There are eight quality grades in total, running from Prime down to Canner, and the top three are the ones you meet in shops: Prime, Choice and Select.
According to the fact sheet, the quality grade combines two things: physiological maturity (a stand-in for age) and marbling, with marbling in the ribeye at the 12th rib the main determinant within a maturity group. Prime, Choice, Select and Standard are limited to beef from young cattle. The youngest group covers roughly 9 to 30 months, and the next group, 30 to 42 months, is not eligible for Select.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s grade standards set a minimum amount of marbling for each grade. For the youngest cattle, that minimum is a “slightly abundant” amount for Prime, a “small” amount for Choice and a “slight” amount for Select. Put simply, the difference between the grades is mostly a difference in how much intramuscular fat the grader saw. The same fact sheet notes that studies suggest beef graded at least Select is likely to be acceptable in eating quality for most consumers, so a lower grade is not a warning sign.
Separately, yield grades from 1 to 5 estimate how much closely trimmed, boneless retail meat a carcass will produce, with 1 the leanest. They are a different measure from quality grades.
Cooking Safely: The USDA Minimum
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service lists 145 °F (62.8 °C) as the minimum internal temperature for beef, pork, veal and lamb steaks, chops and roasts, followed by a rest of at least 3 minutes. It says to measure with a food thermometer before taking the food off the heat, and adds that people may choose higher temperatures for personal preference. Ground meats, including burgers, are treated differently: the same chart gives 160 °F (71.1 °C).
We have not cooked or graded any steaks for this piece; it summarises the sources below.
Keep reading
- Flat Iron vs Hanger vs Skirt vs Flank: Which to Grill
- Brisket Point vs Flat: What’s Actually Different About Each Half
- How to Grill Skirt Steak: Inside vs Outside, Heat, Timing
- Dino Ribs: How Texas Beef Ribs Became Barbecue’s Most Photographed Cut
Sources
- Carcass Beef Grades and Standards — USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
- Beef Grading fact sheet (Daryl Tatum, Colorado State University) — Beef Research / Beef Checkoff
- Beef Processing Options for Consumers (MF3395) — Kansas State University Research and Extension
- Beef Cattle Discovery: Retail Cuts — University of Kentucky Animal and Food Sciences
- Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart — USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service