Getting to Know Types of Beef Cuts

We are often confused about recognizing the names of cuts of meat on the market. In supermarkets, each piece has its name written on it, but it is often written in foreign terms, not Indonesian terms. In general, Indonesia has adapted the US style of cutting meat as follows:

• Neck (hump)

This piece of beef is taken from the neck where it connects to the front thigh. In the middle there are coarse fibers that lead to the bottom. Usually this meat is used to make a typical food from East Nusa Tenggara, namely Se’i (a type of smoked meat).

• Brisket (brisket)

Brisket is found in the lower chest area around the armpits. This piece of brisket is quite fatty, and is very suitable for making soupy dishes such as soto, rawon or brisket tamarind. The fat part will make the broth more delicious.

• Chuck (showing)

This is the part of the meat taken from the neck to the shoulder of the cow. The color of the meat is deep red, has lots of transverse muscle fibers but little fat. Usually used to make soups, stews, meatball dough or rendang.

• Fore shank (front thigh)

Taken from the top of the cow’s front thigh. The shape of the cut is usually rectangular with a thickness of 2-3 cm. This part is usually used to make meatball dough.

• Rib (ribs)

The part that comes from around the ribs. It has a distinctive taste because the meat is cooked together with the rib bones so that the resulting broth has a delicious aroma. Usually used to make Makassar style rib soup or konro.

• Short loins

Also known as striploin. This cut is attached to the ribs, tenderloin and sirloin. It is the fleshy side of the T-Bone, which is a typical cut of steak with a T-shaped bone in the middle.

• Tenderloin (deep cut)

This is a cut of meat that has the most tender texture and the least amount of fat. In French this part is known as Filet Mignon. The price is relatively expensive. It is taken from the middle of the cow and looks like a long cylinder. The most favorite is processed into tenderloin steak because it doesn’t take a long time to become cooked and soft.

• Sirloin (outside hash)

Like hash, the sirloin cut is also a favorite to be processed into sirloin steak, Yakiniku, sukiyaki or shabu-shabu. This meat has a muscle layer on the outside, the fibers are coarser than tenderloin, so the texture is slightly tougher. Therefore, even though it is included in the premium cut of meat category, the price is not as expensive as tenderloin.

• Top Sirloin (top hash)

This is the sirloin part that is preferred because it is considered tastier and more tender than the sirloin part. It is a cut of meat that is usually prepared as a steak dish.

• Flank (samcan)

It is part of a piece of abdominal muscle, less soft because it contains a lot of muscle but the taste is very strong because it has a lot of fat. Suitable for making soups or stews that require fatty meat to be cooked for quite a long time.

• Short plates

The same as the flank, short plate is a cut of meat from the abdominal muscles, the shape is long and flat, but the texture of the meat is less soft. In British cuts of beef, short plate is categorized as part of brisket. Short plate meat is usually used to make ground beef, corned beef, stews or processed into beef bacon.

• Rump Cap (cape)

This part has a fairly soft texture so it is usually used for baking, frying or stir-frying. This part is most often chosen for making satay.

• Round (gandik)

The texture of the gandik meat is dense, with minimal fat, the fibers look long and the color is lighter red. Suitable for making empal, beef jerky and rendang.

• Shank

It is said that the name shank is adapted from Dutch, shenkel. It is a beef cut from the calf so it has a lot of muscle and takes quite a long time to cook until tender. Widely used to make soup, soto or as a dough for tendon meatballs and read more