Red Meat and Pork: let's discuss the names and possible uses of each cut

I confess that I don’t have a clue what I’m doing with either. Growing up we’d eat T-bone or filet as a treat and burgers in the summer, but due to dad’s high BP we often just stick with chicken (breasts, though I’ve grown to appreciate thighs much more), fish, and lamb. I can skin and de-bone chicken and pick out pin bones of fish, but I couldn’t tell you how to slice a steak ‘against the grain’ to save my life. Being half Jewish, there wasn’t a lotta pork around either.

I’m interested in both, though, and enjoy both in restaurants. They can be healthy in moderation if lean. I don’t understand any of the names though. I’ve certainly read their names at the supermarket: tri tip, rump roast, stew meat, pork shoulder, boston butt, etc. Also confusing matters is that there are often several names for the same cut of meat. I like and eat just about anything. So if you come in and say “porterhouse, also called blank, it can be used in blank blank and blank” that would be a huge help.

If there’s a tutorial out there that I’m missing, by all means post it. And of course, include your favorite recipes as well :p.

I usually cook for two, but I’m certainly interested in all cuts and sizes and such, from slow to fast cooking times. Don’t hesitate to include if a certain cut can be broken down into a smaller size by the butcher either; I have a great butcher who knows me well and wouldn’t hesitate to do so if feasible. I just don’t know what “feasible” is yet :stuck_out_tongue:

This might be ok to start for beef. It’s still hard to wrap your head around some of it. I’m sure that it doesn’t cover everything, and the graphics don’t show smaller cuts like filet mignon, but the page for that cut will show you where it is (tenderloin).

Pork:
Graphics
List

Ok, first thing, animals raised for meat have dotted lines on them indicating the different cuts.

That out of the way, this is a huge topic. A couple of considerations are the tenderness of the meat and the fat content.

Examples:
Tender and lean - Round and Tenderloin
Tender and fatty - Sirloin and Short Loin
Tough and Lean - Shank and Tail
Tough and Fatty - Brisket and Chuck

So far as the names go, that’s a big help. I can study those and learn the names. But still no ideas for recipes. Even if I get the names down, I have no idea what to make with them (or prices, etc) unless I went to the store. Thanks so far, guys, can’t believe I hadn’t checked wikipedia :smack:

Recipes?!?! Now you’ve open the flood gates.

The recipe for the tender beef is brown on the outside and cook rare. A little salt and pepper can help, but that’s usually on the table. Serve with horseradish and dark wine.

For other everything else, it sounds like you need a cookbook. There are more recipes than there are cows, pigs and people combined (and combining those species is illegal in most states). Here’s a couple of quick and easy recipes. (well the prep is quick for the pulled pork anyway)

Here’s my quick Stroganoff recipe:

1 lb top round (beef)
1 large sweet onion
1 lb mushrooms sliced or quartered (or smaller fractions if they are much larger than a golf ball).
2 tbsps olive oil
4 tbsps flour
2 tbsps butter
a little garlic (little is a matter of personal preference)
1 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tbsps chopped parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
dry mustard
1 tbsp tomato paste, sauce, or ketchup (don’t use catsup, I hate that stuff)
fresh ground black pepper

Cut meat into julienne strips (like shoestring french fries). Work about 2 tbsps olive oil into the meat, then coat with flour. Chop an onion into strings. Heat the butter and begin sauteing onions. Turn up heat and quickly brown the meat. Toss in worcestershire. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and black coarsely ground black pepper. Stir to saute a little, then add water, parsley, thyme, mustard, and tomato. Reduce heat, cover loosely, simmer about 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and let cool for a minute or two, then stir in sour cream. Less cream for thicker sauce, more for thinner. Return to low heat to warm. Serve over noodles, rice, or anything you like sauce on.
Crockpot Pulled Pork:

1 Boston Butt that will fit in the crockpot
1 large sweet onion
a little garlic
3 tbsps cayenne pepper
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tsps salt
other dry spices you like

2 cups ketchup
1 cup mustard
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup liquid and onion from the crock pot after cooking
Slice onion into circles. Put in bottom of crockpot with garlic. Mix the dry spices and rub all over the meat. Add meat to crockpot. Cover and set on low. Go to bed. In the morning test with a fork. It should be soft and pull apart, if not, keep cooking.

Put the ketchup, mustard, vinegar, onions and cooking liquid in a pan. Stir and simmer. Add other seasonings to taste.

Shred the meat with a fork and removing any bones and excess fat. Make a couple of sandwiches for yourself before everybody else devours it.

The vast majority of meat I buy is:

  • Pork shoulder roasts
  • Beef chuck roast

Both are well marbled, flavorful cuts of meat, and very versatile.

The pork is used for sausage and for Mexican style taco filling - chipotle or green tomatillo or mole or whatever flavor I’m in the mood for. It can be as simple as chopping it into about 1" cubes, browning in a big pot, then dumping a couple cans of whatever looks good in the Mexican aisle (salsas, sauces, whatever). Cook for a couple hours, until the pork is tender enough to pull apart. Use to fill tortillas or enchiladas or tamales or in rice & beans.

That’s the simple recipe, it gets more complex from there, depending on my energy level.

Sausage is a whole different thing, you need a grinder for that.

The beef is used for:

  • grinding into ground chuck for burgers. WAY better than grocery store hamburger.

  • Beef pot roast: salt & pepper the meat, put it in a pot with some olive oil. Brown on both sides. Put on low heat or a 300 degree oven, covered. An hour or so later, add some carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, or a mix of any of those. Marvel at how much juice has come off the meat. Throw in some red wine or a beer if I’m in the mood. Cover, return to cook for another hour or so, until the beef pulls apart and the veggies are done.

  • Beef soup: Cook the beef per above, only don’t add the veggies. Use resulting meat and juice along with more beef stock, various veggies/beans/greens/noodles/barley to make soup.

Steaks, hmm, every time I cook up steaks, I’m disappointed. Every once in a while I like a good filet, but it’s sometimes hard to find good filets around here. T-Bone/New York Strip/Ribeye/etc just don’t do much for me, at least in the steak sense. I’ll use 'em for beef stroganoff or something though.

Tripolar, for whatever reason my cookbooks tend to the “quick cooking” cuts of meat. The pork never looks appetizing at all; they mostly center on seafood and chicken.

That pulled pork sounds faaaantastic, just what I was looking for. Thanks :slight_smile:

Athena, when are you and Sampiro teaming up to write a book? Half food, half random Southern stories. Do you ever cook Asian recipes with beef? If so, what are good cuts? Now, those shoulder roasts you mention - do I get a “whole” one, or can I get sections of it, and if not, how the hell do I cut it up myself?

Frankly, I won’t cook steak at home on my own. Not worth it to me. I’d rather have hangar steak or something ultra-fresh at a restaurant.

ETA: On second glance, Tripolar, don’t you cook the butt in all the ketchup/wet ingredients? How much do you simmer and do you return it to the pot after doing so…?

No. You are slow cooking, not boiling or simmering. The dry spices are a rub. Too much liquid will transfer heat too rapidly to the pork and reduce the tenderness (it will still fall apart though). This goes for almost everything cooked in a crockpot except soup. Sadly, one effect of using the crockpot is that a lot of moisture will come out of the meat and it may become immeresed. I use a turkey baster to extract excess liquid.

Sauce is not the cooking seasoning for these kind of dishes. It’s a condiment added for additional flavoring to the final product.

Of course others may disagree, but when it comes to meat I’m mainly a traditionalist.

Haha, that’d be great - Yooper girl meets Southern boy, our stories and recipes would cause the universe itself to inverse and blow up. If we’re lucky, it’ll be at the precise temperature to perfectly cook a pizza on the sidewalk.

Sure - I do stir fries with beef sometimes. Usually with those steaks I buy thinking “OK, I’ll see if I want to cook a steak at home again” and then it sits in the freezer for 2 months until I go “Oh, let’s do a stir fry!” What you want in stir fries is a lean, flavorful cut of beef. New York Strips work well, if you want to spend the money. So does sirloin.

Pork shoulder (aka Pork Butt Roast) often comes boneless, so it’s easy to cut into chunks. Freeze whatever you don’t use. But honestly, I find it easier to cook up the whole thing then freeze it cooked.

Beef chuck can usually be found in 2-3 pound pieces, which isn’t as big as it seems. A 2# chuck roast will feed two people and have a moderate amount of leftovers. If you pour wine into the braise and add pearl onions and mushrooms, you can call it beef burgundy and impress your friends!

With either of these cuts, braising is your friend. Heck, this time of year, braising is ALWAYS your friend. I can highly recommends Molly Stevens’ All About Braising if you’re interested in learning more.

Anyone ever tried pork diaphragm? Beef diaphragm (skirt steak) is one of my favorite beef cuts but I’ve never even seen the pork equivalent for sale. Good? No good? Delicious?

A local farm market butchers their own cattle on a very small scale. The other day my gf bought some tails that she is going to use to make soup. Time will tell.

Something important to consider is that just about any chicken recipe can be used quite successfully for pork. If it’s a recipe you’d use boneless, skinless chicken for, use lean (well-trimmed) boneless pork chops. If it’s a chicken recipe where you leave the bone in, use bone-in pork chops.

Here’s a really simple pork chop recipe I use:
Pork chops with Apricot Mustard Sauce

6 pork chops
Salt
Pepper
2TBSP each finely chopped rosemary and sage
2TBSP butter
1/3C apricot fruit-spread (I use the no-sugar-added kind, like All Fruit)
1/4C grainy spicy brown mustard (doesn’t really have to be grainy, that’s just what we like)
1C dry white wine or chicken stock

Preheat oven to 325. In a large skillet, melt butter. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. When the pan is very hot, sear the chops on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Turn heat under pan down to medium.

Transfer chops to baking dish and put in hot oven.

Deglaze the pan with wine or chicken stock. Add fruit spread, mustard and herbs; whisk until the fruit spread “loosens” and everything is well-blended. Turn heat down to low until chops are finished baking.

If using boneless chops, 20 minutes in the oven will be plenty. If using bone-in, 25-30 minutes.

Remove chops from oven, put back in pan, turning in sauce to coat. Transfer to serving plate; pour extra sauce over the top.

One thing to remember about beef or pork is that while the boneless is easier to work with, if you are roasting or using any other fairly slow-cooking method, a lot of flavor comes out of the bones.

Gotcha. Lean, flavorful. Now, what knife do you use to cut it, just a big chef’s knife? I know freezing it for 15 min makes it easier to cut.

Cook then freeze. Good idea.

Ahh, I’ll check to see if it’s at the library, if not I’ll just buy it. Thanks!

Sorry, I’m not making myself clear. Are you putting the sauce into the crock pot to slow cook it with the meat? Or is the meat with the rub by itself in the crock pot? I’ve never heard of the latter, so I was confused.

I don’t think I quite realized how much stock/bones matter till I made Thanksgiving dinner this year for the first time. The gravy I made - boiling the neck and such, using pan drippings and Wondra flour and good wine - was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. It tasted exactly like you imagine (or hope) gravy to taste. What that all means is that I have to get over my initial dislike of bone-in cuts of meat :p.

You would be just cooking the meat with the dry rub, and making the sauce later. You could make the sauce in the crock pot later after you remove the meat and excess liquid.

You can also cook brisket and beef or pork ribs in a similar manner.

norinew’s post about substituting pork for chicken is a good idea. Both have about the same cooking time and the seasonings match up well.

Another nice & easy cut that hasn’t been mentioned yet is pork tenderloin. It’s not overly flavorful, and can easily be overcooked, but it’s pretty versatile and small enough that it feeds two people without having a ton of leftovers.

I like stuffing them. Cut them sort of like this (that’s a pork loin - it’s bigger but the technique is the same) and then stuff with whatever’s handy. Pesto, feta and sun dried tomatoes, cooked spinach, ham, curry powder, just about anything works. Put in 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until the middle gets to be about 135 or 140 degrees. Allow to sit for 5 min or so, then slice and serve.

It also works in a pinch for stir fry, though it is a bit mildly flavored.

Just chiming in to second any of the crock pot recipes posted here - using a crock pot is a great way to make any piece of beef or pork tender and wonderful, and it’s sooooo easy. The hunk o’ beef we usually use for this is boneless bottom round roast. Around here, it’s usually a little more than $2 a pound (less than $2 on sale), and comes in chunks just the right size to fit in our crock pot. When we do pork, it’s usually any piece, boneless or not, that will fit into the crock pot.

If you like pork chops, I recommend buying a whole boneless pork loin, cutting it up, and freezing it. There’s no special skill involved: it’s just a long “tube” of meat, and all you have to do is slice pieces off of it. A good-sized serving for two is two slices, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. We make a bunch of packages like this and freeze them. I like that we can control the thickness of the chops. Also, when you buy a whole loin, there’s one end of it where the “white” loin gives way to mostly “red” meat; before I start slicing chops, I’ll cut a 2 or 3 pound piece of that end off and save it as a roast for the crock pot.

Best of luck in all your carnivorous endeavors!

Brisket and Chuck should be cooked low and slow. The flavor is in the fat, so you want well-marbled beef. Braise the chuck roast and smoke the brisket.

I completely forgot about pork tenderloin. Great idea. A friend we’ve lost touch with (he moved to the suburbs and…) used to make them all the time.

Ahhh I gotcha. I thought you had to have liquid in the crockpot. Or the universe would implode ;).

ETA:** PaperBlob**, can you explain the red meat/white meat thing? I don’t think I follow. I thought pork tenderloins were generally like 5-6 pounds, so wouldn’t trimming off 2-3 pounds be half the loin?

Pork loin and pork tenderloin are two different cuts, and I think a tenderloin is much smaller, more tender, and more expensive. I’m talking about whole pork loin, which is a much larger beast, and is where pork chops come from. I’m not sure how many pounds they are, but we’re talking about a piece of meat that’s 2 feet or more long, and pretty dense, so taking a hefty chunk off the end leaves you with plenty of pounds of meat for pork chops.

I tried to find an image to show you what I mean about “white” vs. “red” meat, and this is the best I could come up with:

http://skinnymenny.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/101209-001.jpg?w=455&h=341

See how each chop has a little piece hanging off the end of it, connected by a bit of fat? These little pieces are much more red than the bulk of the chop, and that’s the difference I’m talking about. The “whiter” part, the bulk of the chop, is more firm, especially when cooked, than the “red” part. Towards one end of a whole pork loin, the “white” part narrows as the “red” part widens. The end where there’s a much larger proportion of “red” is what I cut off to use as a roast.

Though a whole loin is a big piece of meat, and costs a lot to buy, it actually fits pretty well in a standard refrigerator freezer once you cut it up into portions. I buy it on sale for anywhere between $1.49 and $1.99 a pound, so the cost per portion is pretty small.

Hope this helps!

I usually have the butcher at the supermarket cut these into chops for me. I’ll have about a pound trimmed off one rounded end, and use it to make ‘pork medallions’ (more later), and a pound and a half off the other end to use as a pork roast. The pork loins I buy usually run about 6-7lbs so this leaves plenty of meat to cut into chops!

Pork Medallions:
I’ve pounded them out a bit, breaded and oven-fried them and served them as an alternative to chicken nuggets! You can simply pan-fry them (with some seasoning) and serve them with some sort of savory sauce over rice or noodles; you can pop them in the Crock Pot with whatever seasonings/saucing stuff you like and cook them that way. They’re very versatile.