This document discusses the identification and cuts of beef. It identifies various wholesale and retail cuts of beef including the rib, chuck, brisket, round, loin, and porterhouse and t-bone steaks. For each cut, it identifies the muscles, bones and other anatomical features present. It also explains where each cut is located within the carcass and how they are separated from other wholesale cuts.

1. AGR. 376 - Meat Processing
Technology
Beef Fabrication and
Identification of Cuts
Dr. Stanley F. Kelley
Fall 2000

2. Rib Steak
(contains the rib)
Ribeye Steak
(same except no rib)
Dorsal process
(part of the thoracic vertebrae Spinalis Muscle
Marbling
(intramuscular fat)
Longissimus
dorsi
Rib

3. Separating the Wholesale Rib and Plate from the Wholesale
Chuck, Brisket and Foreshank.
Cut is made between 5th and 6th rib.

4. Removing the
Sirloin Tip
Roast
Cut comes from the round

5. Wholesale Rib:
a major cut
Wholesale Plate:
a minor cut

6. Separating the wholesale
cuts Rib and Plate
Spinalis
muscle
Longissimus
dorsi

7. Small end of the Rib - adjacent to
the Wholesale Loin
The Wholesale Rib:
makes Rib steaks (with rib)
or
Ribeye steaks (no rib) Plate
(ground beef)

8. Dorsal
process
Rib
Spinalis
muscle
Longissimus
dorsi
Large end of the Rib:
adjacent to the
Wholesale Chuck
Ligamentum nuchae

9. The Wholesale Rib
Ligamentum nuchae

10. Rib Steak:
contains thoracic vertebrae,
rib, longissimus dorsi and
spinalis muscle

11. Large-end Rib Steak:
contains thoracic vertebrae,
rib, longissimus dorsi and
spinalis muscle, ligamentum nuchae

12. Cartilage
cap
Retail cuts from the Chuck:
hamburger, chuck steak/roast,
blade steak/roast, 7-bone steak
Scapula
The Wholesale Chuck

13. Scapula
Blade steak from Chuck:
contains longissimus dorsi,
scapula, portion of the
rib, came from the
thoracic vertebrae region
Long dorsal
process
Ligamentum
nuchae

14. Seven Bone Steak/Roast
Scapula & Scapula
ridge makes
the “7”
Comes from the Wholesale Chuck:
contains the thoracic vertebrae

15. Removed scapula and
1st-5th rib to make a
boneless brisket
The Brisket:
only cut that is a Wholesale and retail cut

16. Round Steak from the
Wholesale Round
Bottom of the round
“outside of the carcass”
Top of the round
“inside of the carcass”
Sirloin
Tip was
removed
from
this
area

17. Round bone
“Femur”
Biceps femoris
Semitendinosus
“eye of the round”
Semimembranosus
Adductor muscle
The Round Steak
Sirloin
Tip was
removed
from
this
area

18. Round Steak “Bottom of the round”
“Top of the round”
Biceps femoris
Adductor muscle
Semimembranosus
Semitendinosus
“eye of the round”

19. Porterhouse Steak
T-Bone Steak
Dorsal process
Transverse process
Dorsal process
Psoas
major
Longissimus
dorsi
Diameter of Psoas major
larger than 1.5 inches

20. Porterhouse
Steak
From the Wholesale Loin: contains lumbar vertebrae
-Longissimus dorsi
-Transverse process
-Gluteus medius muscle

21. Gluteus medius
Longissimus dorsi
Psoas major
Transverse
Process
Lumbar
vertebrae
Porterhouse Steak

22. Sirloin Steak:
from the Wholesale Loin and Sacral Vertebrae.
contains: longissimus dorsi,
psoas major, and gluteus medius muscle