Meat color is a-changin’!

Let’s say you bought some steaks or a roast at the grocery store, brought it home and stuck it in the fridge. (Hopefully, stored on a plate on the bottom shelf.) You don’t get around to fixing it (that’s Texan for preparing it) for supper for a day or two. You take it out of the fridge and it has a brownish color. Maybe a few brown spots or maybe the whole thing is just a little browner than it was when you bought it. Has it gone bad? Should you throw it out? It wasn’t cheap, so you hate to throw it out. What to do?

Check the use-by date. Smell it. Does it smell bad? If it doesn’t smell bad and if you haven’t passed the use-by date, it’s probably ok.

Why is it brown in my fridge when it was red in the store?
 

Short answer. It oxidized. Muscle has an ability to prevent (really slow down) oxidation, but that ability runs out with time. Oxidized muscle is brown.

Long answer. Well, to understand why meat is brown, we need to understand why it was red, first.

Meat contains lots of proteins. Some are structural (they hold the meat together). Some are for contraction (remember that the meat was originally for moving an animal around). Some proteins hold onto oxygen to help provide the muscle with energy.

These oxygen-holding proteins are largely responsible for meat color. The main one is called myoglobin. Myoglobin is closely related to the hemoglobin that holds oxygen as it is transported through our blood. Just like we learned in sixth grade science class that blood comes in two colors (red when it is exposed to oxygen in the arteries and blue when the oxygen is gone in the veins), meat pigment comes in those two colors, too. When it is not exposed to oxygen, meat has a purple color. You can see this color right after it is cut. Meat scientists call this ‘deoxymyoglobin’ because the myoglobin doesn’t have any oxygen. If you buy meat that has been vacuum packaged, it will be purplish in color.

The meat will slowly take up oxygen from the air and turn red. In the meat business, we refer to the time it takes go from purple to red as ‘bloom time’. Most of the meat you buy in the store has been packaged so that the oxygen in the air is available to combine with the myoglobin in the meat. That’s why it is a pretty red color in the store.

We recently did a research project studying bloom time. This is a picture of some steaks from that study. The ones in the front had just been removed from a vacuum package and were the purplish deoxymyoglobin. The ones in the back had been setting out for an hour, and you can see the bright red color.

Purple to red… what about brown?

Ok. So, even though the animal is no longer living, the enzymes in the muscle are still somewhat functional. The enzymes in charge of using oxygen to produce energy will take the oxygen and metabolize it. To do this, the pigment (actually, the iron in the pigment) is oxidized (it loses electrons). When the iron is oxidized, the meat will turn brown.

 In fresh meat, other enzymes can fix the problem by reducing the iron (give it electrons back) and it will turn back to purple. Then, it can grab some more oxygen and produce more energy and the cycle begins again. This really only happens on the surface of the meat where it is exposed to oxygen, so at first, you have a red layer with the purple underneath (everywhere on the meat that is exposed to air will be red. You won’t see the purple unless you cut it). At first, the brown coloring is not around long enough to see. As the process slows with time, a brown layer of pigment will form between the red and purple.

Eventually, the enzymes will run out completely and the muscle will not be able to fix the oxidized, brown pigment and it will turn completely brown on the surface. That is the brown coloring you see. If you leave it long enough, the oxidation could spread to the fat and cause some off-flavors, but the paying attention to the use-by date should prevent that.

Here is a picture from a study we conducted. Some steaks were left in retail cases (in our lab) for a week and allowed to turn brown. Then we cut them into little cubes. You can see the completely oxidized brown coloring on the surface and the purple coloring in the middle.

Just remember to pay attention to the use-by dates on the package and if you don’t cook it by then, freeze it by then.  Use your nose and feel if the meat is slimy. If it’s smelly or slimy, cut your losses and throw it out.

I also have a video blog about why meat is red.

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Recalls

Nothing is more frightening than seeing a food recall or a food poisoning outbreak on the news or online. Especially when it is a very common product that you use all the time, like ground beef or cantaloupe.

A recall means that a problem has been found with a food, and the company that produced it is removing it from the food supply. This can be for a variety of reasons from undeclared allergens (ingredients that people may be allergic to that are not on the label) to contamination with bacteria or a virus.

One recent recall was due to people getting sick from E. coli O157:H7 infection in Ohio (not all recalls are associated with sicknesses). Scientists tested the ground beef in the people’s homes and found that it was contaminated with that strain of E. coli. Meat companies print codes on their packages that allow them to trace any package back to the plant where the meat was produced, the day, sometimes even the production line and the time of day. They can use that information and look at their records to know exactly what other packages may be contaminated with the same bacteria and where they were sold.

How do I find out about recalls?

Recalls of retail products are usually on the local news. If you see something being recalled on the news, you can usually find out more information by going to the news website or to the website of the company that is issuing the recall. Sometimes you may have to search ‘recall’ when you get to their site.

I know that not everyone watches the news, so I have been thinking of some other ways to find out about recalls. Because I’m a meat scientist, the first thing I thought of was FSIS. The Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA has a recall page on their website that you could check, but this will only cover products under the jurisdiction of USDA (meat, poultry and eggs). The FDA also has a recall page, for FDA-regulated products (all food except meat, poultry, and eggs). Both of these pages offer an option to sign up for email alerts. The webpage http://www.foodsafety.gov/ combines the food safety information from FSIS and FDA and has US food recall information on one page where you can sign up for email alerts, follow them on facebook, twitter or as an RSS feed.

How do I know if recalls apply to me?
The recall information should give where the product was produced and the establishment number of the processing plant associated with the recall.

What is an Establishment number?

Every meat processing plant is given a specific number by the USDA. Any product that exits that plant has to have the Establishment number on its label.

If the meat being recalled is red meat and is processed (most of it will be processed), it will have an inspection mark like the one in the middle of the picture above. If it is poultry (chicken, turkey) it will be like the one on the right.

The recall will also tell you what states the recalled product was sold into. For meat and poultry recalls, they will tell you the ‘Best-by’ or ‘Freeze-by’ dates printed on the package. When meat is packaged in a plant, the processor prints a ‘Best-by’ or ‘Freeze-by’ date on the package that allow the consumer to know when to eat or freeze the product and to allow the processor to know when the product was made (simple subtraction).

Sometimes these dates are hard to find. They are printed on the package as the meat goes down the production line, so they are simple, one-line, almost stamp-like. Sometimes they are on the bottom of a can or on the side of the package.

Here are some pictures of some ham I had in the fridge. Notice the inspection mark with the establishment number on the bottom and the ‘best-by’ date at the top.




See the establishment number
in the little circle at the bottom?







The use-by date



Many times when a recall is issued, people will throw out things in their fridge or freezer just because it is the same type of product as what is being recalled. I think that is wasteful. 

Here is an example: According to the Tyson website, a product recently recalled was 73% lean ground beef sold in 3- and 5-pound packages. The chubs had an Establishment Number of EST 245D and a Best-by or Freeze-by date of September 12. The product was produced on August 23. That means if you bought some 3- or 5-pound chubs of 73% ground beef between August 24 and September 12, you should go check your freezer and look to see if your ground beef has the EST 245D and a Best-by date or Freeze-by date of September 12.

Chances are you didn’t buy 3 and 5-pound packages of 73% ground beef. Those are really big packages and it’s the fattiest ground beef available. If you buy leaner ground beef, it is not part of this recall. Don’t just throw out any ground beef you find.

What about buying meat at the store?

If a recall has been issued, you shouldn’t have to worry about that product still being on the shelf at a store. Stores are very diligent at getting recalled product removed from their shelves. Stores that have had recalled product will also have information about it on their website.

What if I find recalled product in my fridge or freezer?

If you find product in your house that has been recalled for any reason, you can take it back to the store. I would call the store first and ask about taking it back. You don’t want to show up with it and no one knows about the recall or what to do. I say this because after my year working in a grocery store, I realized that not everyone is always on the same page.

If the recall was for some type of bacterial contamination (E. coli, salmonella, and Listeria have been the ones in the news lately), remember to treat the recalled product with care. If you find it in the fridge or the freezer, I would take it out, put it in a big, zip-lock-type freezer bag, make sure it sealed, and put it in the freezer. That will lessen the chances of it contaminating something else. Wash your hands thoroughly after you’ve handled it. Be sure to clean any surfaces it touched (plates for thawing, refrigerator shelves, counter top) with warm soapy water. When you do take it to the store, go directly there. Don’t leave it in your car for very long.

If you have a question about a recall, you can always just ask me. If I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does.

 

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Lunch box safety

A study from the University of Texas was recently published in the journal, Pediatrics, and was widely covered on morning talk shows and in web articles. Basically, these scientists went into several pre-schools and daycare centers in Central Texas and took the temperature of perishable foods in kids’ lunch boxes about an hour and a half before lunchtime. What they found was very concerning. Only about 12% of the lunches were stored in refrigerators. (My lunch was never stored in the fridge at school, either). Most lunches were stored in the air-conditioned classrooms in cubbies. Over 97% of the meats, 99% of the dairy and 98% of the perishable veggies were at unsafe temperatures, in the DANGER ZONE of temperatures between 40 and 140°F. Realize this study was conducted in Central Texas in the fall of the year. The outside temperature was 81°F at 9:00 and 9:30 am, so it’s probably a worst-case scenario for temperatures.

Furthermore, the food disease specialists that were interviewed in this article by Food Safety News said that they didn’t know of any cases where children were sickened by their packed lunches, but they were still concerned because the sickness would be isolated incidents and probably not reported. My opinion is similar in that, school lunches getting above 40°F for a very short time is probably not going to cause sickness most of the time, but this was an hour and a half before lunch. It also made me think that many ‘stomach bugs’ that kids get are packed in their lunches and sent with them to school.

So, what to do?

My first thought was to just put an ice pack in the lunch box. Duh! BUT, over 60% of the lunches in the study contained an ice-pack, some contained 2 or more. (Some contained five… I don’t really know how there was any room for food).

The first step is to keep their food clean and cold for as long as possible. Minimize the time in the DANGER ZONE.

Make sure you have an insulated lunch box/bag for your kids’ lunch. One website suggested storing them in the freezer, so the ice packs aren’t wasting energy by cooling down the lunch box (Note to all the Sheldon Cooper’s out there: let’s not get into true thermodynamics today). You could make their lunch the night before and store the whole thing in the fridge overnight, then stick an icepack from the freezer in there on your way out the door.

Make sure your ice packs are as cold as possible. And, use real ice packs or blue ice. Baggies with ice cubes are not going to stay as cold. Some lunches in the study contained frozen teething rings (no joke) or frozen juice boxes. Those aren’t going to work either. Buy two or three ice packs and rotate them in the freezer, so that the one you are putting in the lunch box is as cold as possible.

For older kids, you can make a build-your-own-lunch. Pack the meat in its own baggie and make sure it lies right next to the ice pack. It will stay coldest that way. Then, pack the bread, cheese, and veggies separate. Remember that veggies, like lettuce, also need to stay cold. Bread is a good insulator; put it closest to the opening of the lunch box. Also, don’t use a lunch box that is too large. All the air in the extra space in a large lunch box is hard to keep cold. 

If you are worried about processed meats, you should check out my blog posts on processed meats or nitrates.



The use by date on this package of ham
is at the top under the word 'RESEALABLE'

Pack as fresh and clean a lunch as possible. When preparing kids’ lunches, make sure you wash your hands (especially grubby little helper’s hands). Make sure the counter top has been washed. Wash the inside of the lunch box out. Keep your own fridge as cold as possible and check the dates on your deli meats. You don’t need to store unopened deli meats in the fridge for longer than two weeks, and once you open a package of deli meats, you need to use it all in 3 to 5 days. Remember that every time you put your hand in the package, you are potentially exposing the meat to germs, so make sure your hands are clean. Hot dogs are another popular option for kids’ lunches, but treat them like a deli meat. If you only go to the store once a month, freeze your extra deli meats until you are ready to use them.

Some scientists suggest that the condiments on the sandwich help minimize bacterial growth. Mayonnaise and MiracleWhip are acidic, and mustard can also slow bacterial growth, so adding these may help, too.

Another option is to only pack non-perishable items in kids’ lunch boxes. I am not saying that means cutting out meat. Rather than a ham or turkey sandwich, pack beef jerky or beef sticks with crackers, cheese, and fruit (How Mediterranean!). There are some shelf-stable (don’t need refrigeration) pepperoni products out there. Some types of summer sausage don’t need refrigeration. Occasionally packing a peanut butter (and jelly) sandwich may also be an option, but some kids have peanut allergies.

You could always ask your kids’ teachers about keeping their lunch in the fridge.

I hope this post helps you to feel better about fixing your child's lunch for school. If you have any ideas for lunches, comments or questions, please comment below.

:)

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What is really in processed meats?

While you are reading the first few sentences of this post, imagine (better yet, sing) an accompaniment of dooming background music. Think Darth Vader. I am going to talk about what is in processed meats (this is a good place for the ‘dun dun duh’ part of the song). Everyone knows the old saying about the only two things you don’t want to see being made are… sausage and legislation. And, we all learned from those menacing little raccoons on ‘The Great Outdoors’ that hot dogs are made from lips and assholes. (dun dun duh).

Some processed meats in Germany from a trip
 several years ago.

Well, as entertaining as the raccoons and the jokes about law-makers may be, they are wrong about processed meats (now imagine light-hearted back ground music). Processed meats are an inexpensive source of protein. They are safe and convenient. They are NOT made with lips and assholes (sorry about the language, Mother) unless it’s on the label.

In the US, we have some of the most stringent food labeling laws in the world. If an ingredient is in a food, then it is on the label. (Side note: I worked at a grocery store in college, and occasionally we had to package ‘real Mexican Chorizo’. Being a meat academic, I read the ingredient statement on the label. Do you really think this company would let us know that their product contained pork salivary glands if they didn’t have to? Uh. No.) If you want to know what is in a certain processed meat, look on the label. If it says ‘Beef’ or ‘Pork’ like most processed meats do, it is only skeletal meat (muscles used to move the bones around). As of right now, that means beef products may contain lean, finely textured beef. Any organ meat (hearts, livers) have to be listed on the label. Lips and ass holes really don’t make very good sausage, anyway.

So, why are processed meats inexpensive? Well, not every bit of a beef or pork carcass will make a good steak or roast. Sometimes the pieces are too small, and sometimes it is too tough to be eaten without being ground up. Those pieces are combined and ground up. Processors add other ingredients like salt and spices for flavor and texture. They are adding value to the low-cost parts and giving us a great tasting, inexpensive source of protein. Processed meats are the only source for protein for kids from some families because it is all they can afford.

Furthermore, lots of processed meats (hot dogs, bologna, and deli meats) are pre-cooked and can be eaten straight out of the fridge*. They are quick and easy. Any meat product that is ‘ready-to-eat’, meaning completely cooked and ready to be served to the consumer without any further preparation, is subject to extra regulations by USDA. They have to show how they are keeping their product safe, they may add extra, bacteria fighting measures to the process, and are subject to extra bacteria testing. It is safe stuff.

Some people worry about nitrite in processed meats. Nitrite is a key ingredient that gives cured meats the flavor and color we have become accustomed to enjoying. Think pink hams and hot dogs. Yum! Also, nitrite prevents the growth of a nasty bacteria Clostridium botulinum, the one that causes botulism.

Did you know that you get more nitrite from green, leafy vegetables than from processed meats? Actually, the body makes nitrite using saliva combined with these vegetables because it needs it. The body uses nitrite to perform all kinds of functions from regulating blood pressure to helping heal wounds and brain injury after a stroke.

The folks at the American Meat Institute did an interview with a friend of mine, Jeff Sindelar at the University of Wisconsin about sources of nitrite in the diet. His main research focus is on nitrites in processed meats.

There are some very scary claims out there linking hot dogs with an increased cancer risk. Although these claims are recurrently cycled on the news, the data that they are based on is from over 40 years ago. They claim that the nitrite in processed meats (hot dogs) is a carcinogen. There is a researcher at the University of Texas named Dr. Nathan Bryan who studies the effects of dietary nitrite on the human body, and he says that current research not only found no cancer risk with nitrite, but also found health benefits. Basically, current science says, “Don’t be afraid of hotdogs!”

Also, I have written a post about nitrite and one about making sausage in our meat lab.
Besides, do you really think ESPN would put an international broccoli eating competition on TV?

*(Side note: Just to be extra safe, pregnant women should not eat hotdogs and deli meats, without heating them up first, because of an abortion-causing bacteria rarely found in ready-to-eat deli meats and hotdogs)

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Safety in Knowledge

September is National Food Safety Education Month, so I felt like I needed to supply some info on food safety. This post will mostly be links to other sites about keeping you and your family safe as you prepare food for them. I wanted to get this information to you before the big Labor Day weekend.

Everyone involved with food is responsible for its safety including the farmer/rancher, the processor, the grocery store or restaurant, and the consumer. In the US, we have the safest food supply in the world, and we, as consumers, are partially responsible for that. Yay, US!

The US Department of Agriculture launched a neat campaign called Be Food Safe.

It all boils down to using 4 simple steps to store and prepare food safely. You can also check out the steps with Alvin and the Chipmunks here. Seriously.

1. Clean.

a. Wash your hands with soap and warm water before you start to cook and after you touch raw meat or eggs.

b. Wash all cutting boards, utensils, and anything else that touched the food with hot, soapy water after you are finished with them, or run them through the dish washer. Wiping them down with a dish rag doesn’t get them clean.


c. Wash you counter tops with hot, soapy water.

2. Separate. – I think this video is pretty funny.

a. Keep raw meats away from foods you will eat without cooking, like fresh fruits.

b. This means keeping raw meats away from fresh foods in the grocery cart and in your shopping bags. If you like to use those nifty and environmentally responsible reusable shopping bags, good for you, BUT use a disposable bag for raw meat and poultry. Mother Earth will forgive you and she will be thankful that you are not sick. You don’t want to take the chance of meat juice leaking into the reusable bag and it contaminating fresh vegetables on your next trip to the grocery store.


c. Use one cutting board for raw meat, poultry, and seafood and another one for fresh fruits and vegetables, salads, cheese, or anything else you will eat without cooking it. In many restaurants, the cutting boards are even different colors. Raw meat is always cut on red, seafood on blue, and vegetables on green, for example.


d. When you store raw meat at home, make sure it is kept away from ready-to-eat foods. It is best to store raw meats on the bottom shelf and keep a pan under it to catch any juices that may seep off.

3. Cook.


a. Use a food thermometer. Over 80% of American’s don’t use a thermometer when cooking ground beef or hamburgers. Ahhhhh!!! They are cheap (food thermometers, not the Americans that don’t use them) and available at your local grocery store. When you use it, make sure you stick it in the center of your food (that’s where it will be the coldest).

i. Anything made from ground beef, ground pork or poultry HAS to be temped before you remove it from the heat. That includes meat loaf, hamburgers, and sausage patties. Ground beef and ground pork should be cooked to 160°F (71°C) and all poultry should be cooked to 165°F (77°C). Some people thing they can tell if meat is done by looking at the color. Wrong! Meat color and they way it reacts to heat is dependent on lots of things. Too many to trust color for determining if it’s ready to eat.

ii. Whole muscle meats (steaks, roasts, and fish) have lower cooking temperature requirements because the bacteria are only on the outside of the food, while in ground meat, the bacteria could be all through it.


iii. (Side note, using a food thermometer also keeps you from overcooking your burgers and making them tough and dry. Bonus!)

b. When you microwave something, make sure you stir it, and if you don’t have a rotating plate in your microwave, rotate the dish yourself. Microwaves don’t always cook food evenly, so you have to help it out.


c. When you reheat a sauce, soup or gravy, be sure to bring it to a boil. These foods can be dangerous because they go from hot to cold and back to hot again. They have to make two or more trips through the Danger Zone of temperature between 40 and 140°F.

4. Chill.

a. Your refrigerator should be kept at 40°F or below. I keep ours just above freezing. I know it costs more on the electric bill (my husband pays it anyway), but a few dollars are worth it in the peace of mind of keeping us healthy and our foods last longer. The colder your fridge, the faster it will get foods chilled.

b. Get things in the fridge quickly. Don’t let leftovers set out all night. They will cool and be in the Danger Zone. Try to have them in the fridge in less than 2 hours. Also, store leftovers in shallow dishes so they will chill faster.

c. Keep in mind that you need to thaw meat in the fridge, too. See my post on proper thawing.


Here are some more resources from USDA and others to help you learn how to keep your food safe.

Tips for storage, cooking, and chilling specific foods

USDA facts for kids

After school snacking for kids

A really fun one about pathogens (bacteria and viruses that make you sick)

http://www.meatsafety.org/

http://foodsafety.gov/

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What is the difference between ‘Organic’, ‘Natural’, and ‘Grass-fed’ meat?

I know you have seen lots of claims about 'Natural' or 'Organic' or 'Grass-fed' on meat labels in the grocery store and in menus at restaurants. Along with that, there always seems to be something on TV or the radio or the internet about organic this or natural that and people making claims why this product or that one is better than all the rest. What most people don’t realize is what those claims really mean when they are printed on a meat label or in a restaurant.

Since I've written this post, I've also done a series of posts on food labels.

Organic. The United States Department of Agriculture (through the Ag. Marketing Service) manages the National Organic Program which certifies producers that produce and handle organic produce. Organically raised livestock must be in compliance with the National Organic Program rules beginning at the last 1/3 of gestation. They must be only fed organic feed and allowed to graze only organically-managed pastures. They are not to be given hormones or any other growth-promoting agents, and only allowed to be given vaccines when they are not sick (nothing else). There are requirements that they must be allowed access to outdoors. All of these regulations are certified by agencies accredited through USDA. In order to place the USDA organic seal on the label of a product, it must be made with 95% or greater organic ingredients. Meat labeled as “organic” is very expensive because it costs a lot to produce.

Natural. Lots of people think that ‘Natural’ is the same as ‘Organic’. It is not. According to USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, a product with the word ‘Natural’ on the label must be …

 A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed. Minimal processing means that the product was processed in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product. The label must include a statement explaining the meaning of the term natural (such as "no artificial ingredients; minimally processed").

So, ‘Natural’ is pretty open-ended. It usually comes with another claim like ‘no antibiotics added’ or maybe ‘grass-fed’. Other than that, it’s pretty similar to all the other meat you see. If it doesn’t say ‘grass-fed’, it’s probably not. If it doesn’t say ‘no antibiotics’, they may have been given. Realize that antibiotics have regulations for food animals that ALL producers must follow, natural or not.

The USDA has a nice webpage explaining requirements for several phrases we see on meat labels.

Grass-fed. Most people understand that, in the United States, producers feed cattle grain for the last 3 or 4 months of their life. This is an efficient way to get the cattle to gain weight and fatten to a point where American consumers like to eat beef. Face it, most of us like juicy, tender beef, and that comes from fat beef. Some people don’t like their beef fattened this way. Several countries around the world don’t feed cattle like this. Some cattle spend their entire lives eating grass. Grass-fed beef is generally leaner and has a stronger flavor than grain-fed beef. Some people like it that way (not me).

2016 Amendment. Some of the rules for labeling meat as grass-fed have changed lately, but the premise has stayed the same. Meat processors that want to label their product as 'Grass fed' must have each label approved independently, so technically, the label could mean something slightly different for each company. However, small and very small processors can still use the 'Grass fed' label with the following definition.  The animal must have only been allowed to eat grass or hay for its entire life (except milk when they are babies). They should also be allowed continuous access to pasture during the growing season.

Grass-feeding takes a longer time to get cattle large enough to slaughter, and there is not as much meat on grass-fed beef. So, it costs more.

I am not trying to say that meat labeled as ‘Natural’ or ‘Organic’ or ‘Grass-fed’ is any better or worse than any other meat you may find in a grocery store or a restaurant. I will tell you that it is also not any safer or more nutritious than other meat. I just tell people, eat what you like, and when it comes to food labels, know what you are paying for.

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What is this cut of meat? Steaks

I guess most high school and college curriculums don’t require beef or pork anatomy. I don’t really know why that is, but as a result, most of the general public doesn’t have any idea where their cuts come from or why they taste the way they do.

Steaks we see at a steak house restaurant.

Ribeye. This is undoubtedly my favorite cut of meat. Beef, pork, chicken, whatever! I would never turn down a ribeye. Very juicy and tender, the ribeye is the muscle attached to the ribs, close to the back bone. Technically, ribeye steaks are boneless, but lots of restaurants offer bone-in ribeyes. I like them boneless because they are cooked more evenly.

Most ribeye steaks will have an oval-shaped muscle and a smaller, crescent-shaped muscle circling it. That smaller muscle is called the spinalis and is extra tasty. So, if you are splitting your ribeye steak, be sure to offer the half without it to your friend. And, what they don’t know, can improve your eating experience.

New York Strip/ Kansas City Strip. I’ve only been to NYC once, but I’ve been to Kansas City several times, and I can tell you from my visits and from watching countless episodes of Law and Order that those two cities are not a whole lot alike. On the other hand, New York Strips and Kansas City Strips are exactly the same, technically a Top Loin steak.  It doesn’t matter which geographical locale associated with it.

Strips are the same muscle as that found in the ribeye, but the steaks are cut from further down the animal’s backbone, further away from the head (from the Short loin, where the lumbar vertebrae are). Usually boneless, strips are also relatively tender, but they don’t have the tasty spinalis attached. Sometimes they are narrower and have more connective tissue (gristle) than ribeyes. Because they are usually just one muscle, they are a leaner than the ribeyes (well, it’s easier to avoid the fa… not-lean parts).

Filet mignon or tenderloin. As the price tag indicates, this is THE MOST tender cut of meat on the animal. It lies under the backbone along the lumbar vertebrae. As a muscle in the live animal, it must not have had much to do because it is very tender. Sometimes it has some off-flavor problems. Filets are also rather small, so if you don’t have a large appetite, it could be a good choice.

T-bone. This is a favorite of lots of men. It’s BIG and it has a bone. Basically, the T-bone is the Strip and the Filet still stuck together with a bone in the middle. It’s a good one for sharing, especially if you and whoever you are sharing with don’t like your steaks cooked to the same degree of doneness. Generally, steaks are less done closer to the bone.

Sirloin. If I’m not in the mood (I don’t have enough money) for a ribeye, I usually order a sirloin. The story goes that an English king liked the steak so much that he knighted it, hence ‘sir’ loin. According to Wikipedia and Snopes.com, that’s not true. (It doesn’t mean you can’t pass the time telling the story to your kids while waiting on your meals at the steakhouse.)

The sirloin steaks are the very last steaks cut from the loin. Made from two large muscles, full-size sirloin steaks are very large, but are usually cut into smaller steaks for restaurants. At some places, you can order a sirloin steak as small as 6 oz. That’s uncooked weight, so the cooked weight should be between 3 and 4 oz (close to the suggested serving size).

Sirloin steaks are often marinated or flavored, which makes them tastier, but can it also add calories (like I care). Sirloin tips are from the same area, just cut up before they were cooked. Sirloin steaks are generally lean, but can be inconsistent in tenderness. When I cook them at home, I try to make sure I don’t overcook them.

Flat-iron. I love it when people say that the Flat-iron is a ‘new cut of beef’. Like cattle just suddenly started growing a new muscle. Really what happened was that some researchers decided that they would test the tenderness of every muscle in the animal, just to see. And SURPRISE! SURPRISE! There was a muscle in the shoulder (Chuck) that was really tender (2^nd most tender in the animal, only one that beat it was the Filet). The scientific name for the Flat-iron is the Infraspinatus, and it is found right next to the shoulder blade. It has a big hunk of connective tissue (gristle) that runs right through the middle…problem.  The folks at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) worked on a new way to cut it to remove the connective tissue and so that it was a nice portion size, renamed it the ‘Flat-iron’, and started teaching the rest of us in the industry how to cut and prepare it. And POOF! a new steak!

The Flat-iron is always tender and juicy. Sometimes, if it isn’t cut correctly, some of the gristle gets left on it.
 

That’s pretty much it for ‘grillin’ steaks’ or steaks you will commonly find at restaurants. Several of these steaks are among the 29-cuts of lean beef that qualify for the USDA definition on ‘lean’. Those include the strip, the tenderloin, the T-bone, and sirloin steaks. So, go out and enjoy a good steak tonight.

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