Lost but not forgotten cut: Porterhouse

[OkieFarmer]

   The forgotten porterhouse steak. In my opinion, the best of the short loin steaks. Most of the younger generation do not even know what a porterhouse steak is much less many adults. To break it down there are two ways to deal with a short loin, bone in or bone out. 

   The first is bone in cuts The porterhouse is cut first following the pin or wedge bone what squares the short loin for cutting (Hanging Beef) the porterhouse contains a full tenderloin on the bottom side, next cuts are T-bone with less than full to no tenderloin.  Modern day cutting techniques play to your advantage by paying the same price for the superior cut with a full tenderloin. One example is you may have it cut a full 1" thick then separate the tenderloin and strip, Wife gets the tender and you get the strip saves a lot of money from buying two steaks or just enjoy your porterhouse.

 

   The second method is boning out the loin you end up with the top (strip) and the bottom (tenderloin) I will focus on the strip everyone is well educated on the tenderloin. You will notice in many stores the strip is sold under different names. The KC Strip or NY Strip, Delmonico or simply strip steak the later being what it truly is. Why I point this out as I've seen in markets both labels with different prices but in the end, it's the same cut.

   From time to time, you will hear about the origins of the strip steak starting from KC first naming the steak to NY could not sell a steak called KC to other claims that a KC is bone-in and NY cutting it thicker, even some claiming it as a Delmonico named after the NY restaurant way of preparing it. But those myths and opinions will remain till the end of time.

 

  Notes; try to avoid steaks that the tails have not been trimmed or removed it will lesson the flair ups on the grill and in most cases, it's something your buying and not eating. On the top front of the strip, you will notice a small piece of cartilage just cut it off because that is most often your first bite and the first bite is the first impression of a nice steak.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I'm with you @OkieFarmer, if you're going to buy a Porterhouse/T-bone, then go with the Porterhouse. You are buying bone anyway, and it seems that the bone gets heavier/longer as the fillet portion disappears. Do you, as a butcher, find this to be true? 

 

Personally, I only buy Porterhouse when it's on a really good sale, and my favorite cut, rib eye isn't, so is much more expensive.

[OkieFarmer]

  Great question Crepes. Depending on the packer or slaughter splitting the carcass and how far down the cutter is willing to cut down the chine bone on an off center split, this mainly applies to hanging beef the cutter has to separate the sirloin and square off the short loin for a uniform cut. 

    As the tail of the tenderloin narrows consumer consumable loss is increased. Interestingly you bring that point up, back in the seventies we tried cutting T-bone steaks a little different they were the "last to sell" by trimming off the fat behind the tenderloin and thinning down the chine bone yielding more meat less fat. Those altered steaks in the display case were avoided like the great plague. It only took us a few times to avoid making that mistake. Our conclusion was although it was more beneficial from the consumer stand point, the steaks simply did not have any uniformity or eye appeal.