Journal · Names

One muscle, ten names

A cut of beef can carry ten names, and one name can mean three cuts. Order a sirloin in New York and in London and two different steaks arrive; ask for lomo in Buenos Aires and in Madrid and you get two different muscles. These are the confusions we meet most, and the one thing that settles them.

Also known as: Names are a mess · Los nombres son un lío · Tên gọi là một mớ rốiBy Steakpedia EditorsLast reviewed 20 Oct 20265 sources

Local knives, local names

Beef cutting traditions grew locally. Each country, and often each region, divided the carcass along different lines and named the pieces in its own language. When the trade went international, the names travelled but the cutting lines did not. Translation makes it worse: a dictionary gives one word for another, but the butcher on each side is drawing the boundary in a different place.

In a kitchen with suppliers from four countries and a team working in two languages, this is not an academic problem. It decides whether the right box arrives.

Sirloin

In the United States, the sirloin is the section behind the short loin, towards the hip: top sirloin and bottom sirloin. In the United Kingdom, sirloin is the boneless loin along the back, the piece Americans call the strip loin. The British equivalent of US top sirloin is the rump. So an order for "sirloin" placed in London and filled from a US price list returns the wrong muscle, and the same is true in reverse.

Lomo

In Argentina and Uruguay, lomo is the tenderloin. In Spain, lomo refers to the loin along the back, and the tenderloin is solomillo. In Chile, lomo vetado is the ribeye and lomo liso the striploin, while the tenderloin is filete. In Mexico, the tenderloin is usually filete and the loin sold as steaks often appears as New York or rib eye, in English. One word, at least three cuts.

Matambre is not flank

The Argentine matambre is a thin, wide sheet of muscle that lies between the hide and the ribs, the cutaneous trunk muscle. It is rolled and stuffed or grilled flat. Translations and menus abroad often call it "flank steak", which it is not. The Argentine cut that does correspond to flank is vacío, from the flank region below the loin, and the American flank steak is one muscle within it. Ordering matambre from a supplier who reads it as flank gets you a thicker, coarser, completely different piece.

The rump cap, five ways

The opposite problem is just as common. The triangular cap on top of the rump with its fat layer is picanha in Brazil, tapa de cuadril in Argentina, coulotte in France and in much of the US trade, rump cap in Australia and the UK, and top sirloin cap in US specifications. The diaphragm muscle is entraña in Argentina, skirt in English (inside or outside), arrachera in Mexico and onglet or hampe in France, depending on which part of the diaphragm is meant.

Vietnamese adds its own layer. Thăn nội is the tenderloin and thăn ngoại the striploin, but many imported cuts are sold under their English name, so a Vietnamese kitchen hears "ribeye", "striploin" and "thăn ngoại" for overlapping things on the same day.

A number, not a name

Names will not be standardised. What works is a code. The US Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications number each cut (the boneless strip loin is item 180), and the AUS-MEAT Handbook of Australian Meat gives each one a product code and a precise description of where it is cut. Writing the code next to the name on a purchase order removes most of the ambiguity, because the code describes the cutting lines, not just the word.

That is why every cut page in this reference lists the names by language and country next to the trade codes, and why the cut-name converter under Tools exists. When two names disagree, the code decides.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

5

1. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications: Fresh Beef Series 100. Washington, DC, 2014. www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IMPS_100_Fresh_Beef%5B1%5D.pdf
2. AUS-MEAT Limited. Handbook of Australian Meat, 7th ed. (International Red Meat Manual). Brisbane, 2005. www.ausmeat.com.au
3. Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (UK). Beef Meat Purchasing Guide. Kenilworth, 2016. ahdb.org.uk
4. Instituto de Promoción de la Carne Vacuna Argentina (IPCVA). Cortes de carne vacuna argentina — nomenclatura y usos. Buenos Aires. www.ipcva.com.ar
5. Brasil, Ministério da Agricultura, SIPA. Portaria nº 5, de 8 de novembro de 1988 — Padronização de cortes de carne bovina.

Related