Peter's Butchery

Chuck steak is a cut of beef and is part of the sub-prime cut known as the chuck.

The typical chuck steak is a rectangular cut, about 1" thick and containing parts of the shoulder bones, and is often known as a "7-bone steak," as the shape of the shoulder bone in cross section resembles the numeral '7'. This cut is usually grilled or broiled; a thicker version is sold as a "7-bone roast" or "chuck roast" and is usually cooked with liquid as a pot roast. 

The bone-in chuck steak or roast is one of the more economical cuts of beef. In the United Kingdom, this part is commonly referred to as "braising steak". It is particularly popular for use as ground beef, due to its richness of flavor and balance of meat and fat. 

Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing or moving cattle. This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderise it.

According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, the term derives from the Middle English brusket which comes from the earlier Old Norse brjósk, meaning cartilage. The cut overlies the sternum, ribs, and connecting costal cartilages.

A round steak is a beef steak from the "round", the rear leg of the cow. The round is divided into cuts including the eye (of) round, bottom round, and top round, with or without the "round" bone (femur), and may include the knuckle (sirloin tip), depending on how the round is separated from the loin. This is a lean cut and it is moderately tough. Lack of fat and marbling makes round dry out when cooked with dry-heat cooking methods like roasting or grilling. Round steak is commonly prepared with slow moist-heat methods including braising, to tenderize the meat and maintain moisture. The cut is often sliced thin, then dried or smoked at low temperature to make jerky.

Rump cover, with its thick layer of accompanying fat, is considered one of the best (and most flavorful) beef cuts in many South American countries, particularly Brazil and Argentina. This specific cut does not tend to be found elsewhere, however.

A rib steak is a beef steak sliced from the rib primal of a beef animal, with rib bone attached. In the United States, the term rib eye steak is used for a rib steak with the bone removed; however, in some areas, and outside the U.S., the terms are often used interchangeably. The rib eye or "ribeye" was original, as the name implies, the center portion of the rib steak, without the bone.

It is considered a more flavorful cut than other steaks, such as the fillet, due to the muscle being exercised by the animal during its life. It's the marbling of fat that makes this suitable for slow roasting or grilling cooked to different degrees of doneness. Marbling also increases tenderness, which plays a key role in consumers' rib steak purchase choices.

In U.S. butchery, the plate of beef (also known as the short plate) is a forequarter cut from the belly of the cow, just below the rib cut.

It is typically a cheap, tough, and fatty meat. In U.K. butchery, this cut is considered part of the brisket. It is used for two kinds of steak: skirt steak, used for fajitas, and hanger steak. It may also be cured, smoked, and thinly sliced to make beef bacon.

The beef navel is the ventral part of the plate, and it is commonly used to make pastrami.

The remainder is usually used for ground beef.

The sirloin steak 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 divided into several types of steak. The top sirloin is the most prized of these and is specifically marked for sale under that name. The bottom sirloin, which is less tender and much larger, is typically marked for sale simply as "sirloin steak". The bottom sirloin, in turn, connects to the sirloin tip roast.

In a common British, South African, and Australian butchery, the word sirloin refers to cuts of meat from the upper middle of the animal, similar to the American short loin, while the American sirloin is called the rump. Because of this difference in terminology, in these countries, the T-bone steak is regarded as a cut of the sirloin.

Beef tenderloin is cut from the loin of a cow. It comes from the short loin, or the psoas major of the beef carcass. Because the muscle is not weight-bearing, it contains less connective tissue, which makes it tender. Although it is generally not as flavorful as some other cuts of beef, it is greatly desired for being the most tender cut of beef. Several steaks are actually cut from this region, including the filet mignon, chateaubriand, and tournedos.

These cuts are usually lean and trimmed of all fat and connective tissue. The tenderloin is also called the filet in France or the "fillet" in England.

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 Strip, New York Strip), and T-bone (a cut also containing partial meat from the tenderloin). The T-bone is a cut that contains less of the tenderloin than does the porterhouse. Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a portion of the hindquarter of beef immediately behind the ribs that is usually cut into steaks." The short loin is considered a tender beef.

In Australian, British and South African butchery, this cut is referred to as the sirloin (sometimes as the striploin in South Africa).

The main use for pig heads in North America is the making of head cheese, a large sausage like item. Unfortunately they are still not easy to find even in the ethnic markets in Southern California. The photo specimen, a half head, weighing around 5 pounds and yielded about 3 pounds of material suitable for head cheese. Regretably the ear was removed, but those are easily replaced from the Philippine markets.

A cut of pork taken from the upper portion of the foreleg extending into and including a portion of the shoulder. It is not a true ham because it does not come from the back leg. The picnic ham is smoked, giving it a ham-like flavor. There is generally more waste for this cut because of the bone structure however, at times the bone is removed. It is a little tougher than a typical ham but as an inexpensive substitution for a true ham, it is a good cut to use in soups, casseroles and other baked dishes requiring ham. Is also referred to as a picnic shoulder.

Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking. As a processed meat, the term "ham" includes both whole cuts of meat and ones that have been mechanically formed.

Ham is made around the world, including a number of regional specialties, such as Westphalian ham and some varieties of Spanish jamón. In addition, numerous ham products have specific geographical naming protection, such as prosciutto di Parma in Europe, and Smithfield ham in the US.

Pork jowl is a cut of pork from the head of the pig's cheek. Different food traditions have used it as a fresh cut or as a cured pork product (with smoke and/or curing salt). As a cured and smoked meat in America it is called jowl bacon or, especially in the Southern United States, hog jowl. In the US, hog jowl is a staple of soul food, and there is a longer culinary tradition outside the United States: the cured non-smoked Italian variant is called guanciale.

Boston butt, or pork butt, is the American name for a cut of pork that comes from the upper part of the shoulder from the front leg and may contain the blade bone. Boston butt is the most common cut used for pulled pork, a staple of barbecue in the southern United States.

In the United Kingdom, Boston butt is known as pork shoulder on the bone, since regular pork shoulder normally has the bone removed and then rolled and tied back into a joint.

Fatback is a cut of meat from a domestic pig. It consists of the layer of adipose tissue (subcutaneous fat) under the skin of the back, with or without the skin (pork rind). Fatback is "hard fat", distinct from the visceral fat that occurs in the abdominal cavity and is called "soft fat" and leaf lard.

Like other types of pig fat, fatback may be rendered to make a high quality lard, and is one source of salt pork. Finely diced or coarsely ground fatback is an important ingredient in sausage making and in some meat dishes.

Fatback is an important element of traditional charcuterie. In several European cultures it is used to make specialty bacon. Containing no skeletal muscle, this bacon is a delicacy.

At one time fatback was Italy's basic cooking fat, especially in regions where olive trees are sparse or absent, but health concerns have reduced its popularity. However, it provides a rich, authentic flavour for the classic battuto – sautéed vegetables, herbs and flavourings – that forms the basis of many traditional dishes. Today, pancetta is often used instead.

Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork. Bacon is prepared from several different cuts of meat, typically from the pork belly or from back cuts, which have less fat than the belly. It is eaten on its own, as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), or used as a minor ingredient to flavour dishes (e.g., the club sandwich). Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game, including venison and pheasant. The word is derived from the Old High German bacho, meaning "buttock", "ham" or "side of bacon", and is cognate with the Old French bacon.

Meat from other animals, such as beef, lamb, chicken, goat, or turkey, may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon, and may even be referred to as, for example, "turkey bacon".Such use is common in areas with significant Jewish and Muslim populations as both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Vegetarian bacons such as "soy bacon" also exist.

Chicken Backs are basically about 90% skin and bone. A Chicken Back often includes the piece of meat that is called the “Oyster”, though sometimes that is removed.

Chicken Backs are very popular in the American south: even though there is little meat on them, they offer lots of area to be coated with batter and deep-fried. Cooked in this way, they are often sold in restaurants as “Chicken Ribs.” They are also good barbequed with lots of tasty sauce on them. In this, they are really no different from chicken wings, which also have no meat on them, but which fly off the menu because people buy them for the tasty coatings.

Cooks elsewhere tend just to use Chicken Backs to make stock from. They are good for stock because they have a lot of bones with flavourful marrow inside them. And the bonus is that, with the Chicken Back holding just a fiddly small amount of meat, you don’t need to feel wasteful about just using it for stock.

Neck is a fabulously underrated and inexpensive cut of lamb. It is a tough cut that needs very long, slow cooking. It may look as though there isn't much meat, but it yields a surprisingly generous amount once every scrap is tender. It can be bought on the bone, or off the bone as neck fillet.

Rib sometimes called the "hotel rack," the lamb rib primal cut is where we get some of the animal's most impressive-looking cuts: lamb rib chops, lamb crown roast, and rack of lamb.

Imagine being presented a rack of lamb with all the legs perfectly frenched(fat and sinew trimmed away) and the row of chops in the rack glowing with a top crust of aromatic herbs, garlic, olive oil, and crushed pistachios. Depending on the size of the ribs, some lamb chops might comprise two ribs.

The loin is where we get lamb loin roast and lamb loin chops, both tender cuts that are best prepared using dry heat. The entire lamb loin can also be cooked on the grill slathered with rosemary, garlic, and fresh lemon juice—frequently used with lamb to cut the generous fatty taste of the animal.