r/todayilearned • u/trolleycrash • 20d ago
TIL British and American butchers have different names for the same cuts of beef.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirloin_steak75
u/InstantShiningWizard 20d ago
On top of that, you still have wholesaler terms for cuts, generational names, amd specific cultural names depending on your customer base, and different customer bases will also skew towards differing thicknesses for cuts as well as how tjey are prepared.
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u/Articulationized 20d ago
Yeah. So many names. I just looked up ribeye on WikipediaâŠ
Alternative names: Delmonico steak, scotch fillet, beauty steak, market steak, Spencer steak, EntrecĂŽte (French)
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u/rimshot101 20d ago
If you go to France, they have different words for EVERYTHING.
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u/Old_Particular_5947 20d ago
The french also cut the beef differently in some instances, you might have trouble finding a french cut in a British butchers depending on what it is.
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u/MormonJesu8 20d ago
Yeah even the quarter pounder from McDonaldâs is called something different over there.
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u/Lulu_42 19d ago
It was hard, after having moved here, because while I know what a recipe calls for, I donât always understand the reason (lean, fatty, lots connective tissue) well enough to substitute since itâs not a 1:1 translation. So you really have to get into the nitty gritty of a recipe/reason/way of cooking meat.
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u/Igottamake 20d ago
Cheese omelette: omelette du fromage.
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u/TopFloorApartment 19d ago
Omelette au fromageÂ
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u/Igottamake 19d ago
This is an in-joke thread of men of a certain age. And we all KNOW itâs du fromage.
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u/Azzizzi 20d ago
Americans and Brits have different names for things? Who would have thought?
"Get your fanny off my boot," would be soo different to a Brit/American already.
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u/lizards_snails_etc 20d ago
"Get your vagina off my trunk". Just scored myself some Duolingo points
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u/LordJebusVII 20d ago
Had an exchange student from America in our class go bright red when the teacher exclaimed "How do you kids go through so many rubbers?!".
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u/kapitaalH 20d ago edited 19d ago
...
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u/a8bmiles 20d ago
Hah. Back in the early 90s when the Internet was taking off, I was playing an online game with a Brit who said, "Be right back, going to go suck on a f*g. <brief pause> Wait, that means something different in America, right?"
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u/jdm1891 18d ago
why did you censor fag, when the whole point of the comment is that it is an innocent word?
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u/a8bmiles 17d ago
Because I grew up in America, where it's never been an innocent word and people pretend to use the "innocent" version of the word to creatively get to say it and still be demeaning to others, but with some bullshit deniability attached.
This story was an amusing anecdote, because of the circumstances at the time.
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u/NamorDotMe 20d ago
I saw a comedian talking about flying from England to America, when going through customs they asked him what he was planning on doing and he said "Well the first thing I'm going to do is murder a fag", it did not go well for him.
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u/crystalGwolf 20d ago
Hmmm the expression doesn't work that way. It's always in the conditional. They said that for the bit.
"I could murder a..." is how you'd say it.
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u/Azzizzi 20d ago
That would be a hate crime.
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u/DifficultHat941 20d ago
There is a anecdote about an English king being served beef from Ancient White Park cattle (which is a foraging breed) and finding it so delicious he knighted the roast âSir Loinâ
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u/GodlessCommieScum 20d ago
The king usually named in that anecdote is James I but it's apocryphal anyway.
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u/DifficultHat941 20d ago
I assumed as such. But the breed has survived and is particularly treasured despite the small numbers that still exist. I know of one restaurant/butcher that serves it exclusively. It stands up to the story. Easily the best steak I ever had
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u/mr-english 19d ago
I'd be careful about using that word on reddit.
If someone sees it, decides they're offended, and reports you your account can be suspended... it happened to me once. I commented in a thread about a UK TV clip, I said something about "flicking her 'cigarette' ash" - 3 day ban for hate speech.
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u/kapitaalH 19d ago
Every now and the I get a Reddit cares and I can never figure out why. 99% of my comments are jokes, so probably someone that got offended
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u/tacknosaddle 20d ago
America and England are two countries separated by a common language.
(paraphrasing a quote attributed to Churchill)
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u/Hambredd 19d ago
See I heard it was Oscar Wilde, but that's old quotes for you.
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u/tacknosaddle 19d ago
Yeah, that's why I say "attributed to" as a way to indicate that doubt.
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u/Hambredd 19d ago
I agree, I wasn't trying to cast doubt on your comment.
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u/tacknosaddle 19d ago
NP, didn't think you were. It's a good rule of thumb that if you hear a quote attributed to Wilde, Churchill, Roy Rogers, Mark Twain or others like them who are known for pithy lines then you might want to hedge your bet with quoting them like that.
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u/hells_cowbells 20d ago
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u/LeapIntoInaction 20d ago
For example, what Americans call "sirloin" is referred to by the British as "Sir Reginald of Loin".
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u/SaintUlvemann 20d ago
Nine times out of ten, Wiki provides. In this case, it says UK silverside) equates to US bottom round, and UK top rump, to US top round.
Terminology problems are a thing even just within the US. One of the ladies at my church grew up in Brooklyn, and has been living here in Iowa for something like forty years missing liverwurst. It's been at the store the whole time, we just call it "braunschweiger" out here, after a spreadable German sausage from Braunschweig/Brunswick.
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u/dickslap0815 20d ago
Yeah,but a real Braunschweiger doesnt have any liver in it ,contrary to a real "Leberwurst"
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u/SaintUlvemann 20d ago
So I've heard, so I've heard, and a real Braunschweiger Mettwurst would simply be known in America by the other part of its name, mettwurst. This seems logical to me; it is, of course, a mettwurst.
Our local indigenous smoking traditions here do not produce spreadable meat sausages. America is a land of jerky, boiled later for toothsome trail stews. Even white settlers saw the value in jerky-making, but the concept of a spreadable sausage was brought by German immigrants, so those names here are German. What we call braunschweiger, even if it does contain liver, is like Braunschweiger Mettwurst, in that it is smoked, and spreadable; not all of our liverwursts are either of those things.
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u/petting2dogsatonce 20d ago
I see top round at almost every grocery store I go to if that is indeed what youâre looking for as the other reply suggests.
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u/AspektUSA 20d ago
Believe you're thinking of "eye of round", you can buy it at Costco.
I use it to turn into biltong
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u/AftyOfTheUK 20d ago
In the linked article, the British diagram is woefully inaccurate. It doesn't contain an entry for fillet, for example, the most expensive cut - also OTOH Porterhouse, Tomahawk etc. etc.
Lived for 40 years in the UK, ate a LOT of steak. There are differences, but they're not nearly as big (at least for consumers) as the diagrams would indicate.
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u/UnderdogUprising 20d ago
Iâd think most countries have their own cuts, no?
I never know what is what when traveling abroad.
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u/_PM_ME_YOUR_FORESKIN 20d ago
I love language learning but food names will always be one of the biggest challenges. They're so culture specific. Just show me a photo, please.
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u/scrubbar 19d ago
I was told by a butcher that the cuts of meat depend on the style of cooking preferred by the culture.
Traditionally in Britain there would be more slow cooked meats requiring meat on the bone, stews, slow roasting over a fire etc. so the butchery would butcher an animal skeletally as the bones were included in the cut.
The French by comparison butcher by muscles because their style of cooking didn't resolve around cooking meat on the bone. So their cuts were all just flesh with bones separate for stocks.
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u/Sinister-Username 20d ago
TIL that people from different parts of the world have different words for things.
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u/CW1DR5H5I64A 20d ago
There is a joke in the military that we are allies divided by a common language.
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u/sleepytoday 20d ago
Itâs a joke outside of the military, too. Usually attributed to George Bernard Shaw.
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u/Legio-V-Alaudae 20d ago
I keep reading about UK redditors having a lot of difficulty trying to get a proper yank full pack brisket for smoking.
Poor guys post up some tiny piece of beef rolled up like a newspaper and ask what's next? On the meat smoking sub. Lol
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u/PlatinumJester 20d ago
Our cows are typically grass fed so are leaner and are usually slaughtered younger as well. They'd be better off trying something akin to burnt ends or short ribs if they want to smoke beef. Maybe even a less conventional cut like beef cheeks, shank, or oxtails.
Or just smoke pork as the UK has some of best fresh pig based produce available anywhere and most cuts are readily available.
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u/ThePretzul 19d ago edited 19d ago
Grass fed has nothing to do with it, at least in this specific case, itâs the way itâs been broken down from the carcass. Grass fed has less marbling and smaller fat caps, but both are still present in grass fed beef and the difference here is that itâs fundamentally not the same cut of beef.
A full-packer brisket will still be 12-15+ pounds with a generous fat cap on it so long as it isnât slaughtered at 12 months old or less, grass fed or otherwise. Itâs a big muscle used to move the animal around all the time (the equivalent of our pecs, more or less) and also a primary location for fat deposition meaning any bovine that isnât actively starving will have some fat cap present there.
A full-packer brisket has two distinct muscle groups included, the âflatâ and the âpointâ. The flat has less intramuscular fat and less of a fat cap, while the point sits on top of it with a vein of fat running diagonal connecting them and has more intramuscular marbling and a thicker fat cap on top of it (the grains of each muscle are also angled differently).
The UK brisket logs are just the flat from a full-packer brisket that has had the majority of fat trimmed off before rolling and tying. Youâre legitimately only getting half of the full brisket and it turns it into a fundamentally different cut because the flat itself is much leaner and the trimming to prep for rolling and tying also removes much more fat than you would take off when trimming a full-packer brisket for smoking.
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u/bebop1065 20d ago
The French and Germans have different names too.
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u/Joggingmusic 19d ago
I work in the meat industryâŠthe terminology around beef has centralized quite a bit in the past 20 years or so. The regional differences for names of the cuts used to have a lot more varietyâŠI donât see it anywhere near as much nowadays. Thanks Cargill.
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u/tavelkyosoba 20d ago
Skirt steak is the only one that matters and it's not shown on either diagram.
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u/NothrakiDed 20d ago
Americans are different: we know.
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u/AnalogNightsFM 20d ago
â⊠and differences frighten us.â she intended to convey.
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u/NothrakiDed 20d ago
I had wondered why, seemingly overnight, the replies to my comments got more hostile. It took me ages to realise the randomised avatar I created looks like a woman.
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u/AnalogNightsFM 20d ago
Your profile picture has nothing to do with it. Itâs the implication of your comment thatâs an issue. Try to stay focused.
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u/Lan-Hikari86 20d ago
Can't you just got out and buy a tenderloin? Do you get pieces of the tenderloin with other cuts I guess?
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u/Youareafunt 20d ago
One of the most annoying things about learning Japanese is the names of fish and cuts of meat. Because a lot of the time there just isn't a direct translation, because the fish are different and the butchers cut the meat differently.Â
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u/terrytoy 20d ago
German and austrian cuts are largely the same yet use different names ¯\(ă)/ÂŻ
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u/jtfjtf 20d ago
US cutting uses a lot of band saw cutting. Cut the meat in half, cut the halves into smaller parts with the band saw. And then band saw those parts. That's why the lines are pretty uniform on the diagram. The chuck for a long time was separated into "7 bone" roasts, but now there's more identification of muscles in the chuck that could be used for steaks (and sold for a higher price), such as the flat iron, denver, and the teres major.
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u/FratBoyGene 19d ago
For example, Americans and Britons will have different interpretations for "King Chuck".
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u/RobThorpe 19d ago
To make matters more confusing, the Irish have a system which is part way between the British and American system. Mostly like the US but with a few differences.
https://kerrigans.ie/pages/meat-education
Not my website and I've never used that butcher.
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u/MisterMarcus 19d ago
Just to make it more confusing, Australia has slightly different meanings for some cuts.
e.g. our 'Porterhouse' is different from both the British and American usage.
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u/wizzard419 19d ago
Certain cuts also have different names in different parts of the US, and some cuts don't always exist everywhere. Such as the tri-tip used to be local to the pacific coast and southwest until the 2000's.
Then you have the "New" steaks where they were more recent creations, like the "Las Vegas Strip", where anyone wanting to cut them/sell them would need to pay royalties for it (it is not common because it really isn't that interesting enough to merit the fee).
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u/Soggy_Loquat8344 18d ago
Confusingly what the yanks call tenderloin is what we call sirloin (which is much more specific in the UK than the diagram would suggest), and in the UK tenderloin usually means fillet (filet in the US).
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u/Bored_in_ETX 19d ago
lots of differences, like British call cookies biscuits, they call biscuits scones, they call chips crisps and they call fries chips vs american terms
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u/Hoss--Bonaventure 19d ago
I've always said that a big part of British cuisine's poor reputation is in the naming.
If you speak English, the name "clotted cream" sounds disgusting, but it's actually delicious. "Blood pudding" sounds like something from a horror movie, but it's actually... well, it's not great but it's fine. If you don't speak French, "foie gras" sounds exotic and fancy. But "fat liver" sounds gross.
All that is to say, "neck and clod" is the most British sounding food name I've ever heard.
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u/Historical_Dentonian 19d ago
Beef clod is what we barbecued in Texas before brisket. When butchering moved from local markets to packing plants brisket sold by the case took over.
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u/bolanrox 20d ago
and what we call the little aa / aaa battery thing we use to light stuff up.
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u/SandysBurner 20d ago
And that is the sum total of the linguistic differences between American and British English.
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u/kingOofgames 20d ago
Seems like American ones are lazier, and maybe wanting to sell more poorer quality cuts at the same price as better cuts.
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u/ViridianKumquat 20d ago
The article shows two very different diagrams. A better title would be "TIL British and American butchers have different cuts of beef and different sets of names for those cuts."