striploin Archives - Grill Nation

Steaks Defined: T-Bone vs. Porterhouse

January 22, 2009 By Chip Carter

Hey Roy, “Love Ya Meat” from up here in Buffalo! Need you to settle a bet: What’s the difference between a Porterhouse and a T-bone?

Devon
Buffalo, New York

Thanks Devon. Lets start with what they have in common (other than being delicious and ideal for grilling!!!). Both the T-bone and the Porterhouse consist of a ‘T’ shaped bone with meat on each side. The larger side contains meat from the striploin while the smaller side contains meat from the tenderloin.

Example of Porthouse Steaks

The Porterhouse is a big beautiful steak – pushing 2 to 2 ½ pounds. It’s cut from the large end (rear) of the short loin and contains more of the tenderloin than the T-bone. Usually pretty pricey, but worth every penny when the mood strikes you.

The T-bone is cut from the narrow end, which is further forward in the short loin and also very tasty!

But in case you need numbers to settle this bet, the good old USDA is here to help. According to their Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications document, the tenderloin must be at least 1.25 inches (32 mm) thick to be classified a porterhouse, while the tenderloin must be at least ½ inch (13 mm) thick for the steak to be classified a T-bone.

Nice.

Devon, you gotta let us know who won the bet and what the ‘steaks’ were!!!

Until next time – like I always say…

Love Your Meat,

What is Marbled Beef? Does it Taste Better?

January 14, 2009 By Dr. T

Marvelous Marbling

Question:
Hey Roy, loved your porterhouse post. Got a question for you concerning ‘marbled beef’. Does it really taste better and what do you look for?
Scott in Ann Arbor, MI

Answer:
Thanks Scott. I really like this question because ‘marbling’ is a term that gets tossed around a lot in cookbooks and on cooking shows, but I don’t think is really understood by a lot of people.

First let’s take a look at what we are talking about here:

Example of Perfectly Marbled Beef

So the ‘marbling effect’ pictured above is produced by the fine evenly distributed flecks of white intramuscular fat distributed throughout this steak – NOT the dense outer fat around the outside.

Compare this to the steak below:

Example of Poorly Marbled Beef

Pretty obvious that there is no marbling in this cut.

Now that we are all on the same page, the next part of your question gets really interesting. Does marbling make for a juicier, more tender better tasting steak? There is no doubt in my mind about the answer here – YES – and if the years of experience aren’t enough for you, believe it or not there is data to support this!

In the May 31, 2007 issue of the well respected Journal of Food Quality, author G.C. Smith published “RELATIONSHIP OF USDA MARBLING GROUPS TO PALATABILITY OF COOKED BEEF”. Their conclusions – and I’ll just cut to the chase here, because you know I could go on for hours about this stuff – “as marbling increased from practically devoid to moderately abundant … steaks were more palatable about 2/3 of the time …”. Don’t you just love science?

Until next time – like I always say…

Love your meat,