Everybody wants the Ribeyes. The problem? A cow only has so many of them. The rest of the animal doesn't magically turn into premium steaks. One beef animal produces hundreds of pounds of different cuts, and understanding where all that beef comes from might completely change the way you look at the meat case.
Let's say you buy a cow.
And you tell the butcher:
"I want Ribeyes."
Great.
How many?
Well...
Not as many as you might think.
There are only two rib primals on a beef carcass.
Two tenderloins.
Two strip loins.
Two briskets.
And once those muscles have been cut into steaks, they're gone.
There isn't another Ribeye hiding somewhere in the chuck.
You can't ask the butcher to make more.
And you definitely can't turn half the cow into filet mignon.
A cow comes with what a cow comes with.
That sounds ridiculously obvious.
But when you look at the cuts people tend to shop for, it becomes pretty interesting.
Because some of the most famous cuts of beef actually represent a relatively small portion of the animal.
Let's take a look.
A COW ISN'T MOSTLY STEAK
Picture a beef carcass.
Most people probably imagine steaks.
Ribeyes.
New York Strips.
Filet mignon.
Maybe a few roasts.
And then ground beef.
But anatomically, a beef animal looks very different.
The carcass is divided into large sections called primal cuts.
According to Penn State Extension, approximately:
29% is chuck.
22% is round.
16% is loin, including sirloin.
9% is rib.
9% is plate.
5% is flank.
4% is brisket.
3% is shank.
Look at those numbers again.
The chuck and round alone account for about 51% of the carcass.
The rib?
About 9%.
And even that entire 9% isn't Ribeye steaks.
WAIT. ONLY 9% IS THE RIB?
Yep.
The rib primal represents approximately 9% of carcass weight.
And that primal can be fabricated in different ways.
It can become Ribeye steaks.
Bone-in rib steaks.
A Ribeye roast.
A standing rib roast.
Other cuts and trim.
So when someone sees an entire animal and imagines hundreds of pounds of Ribeyes...
That's not how the animal is built.
Ribeyes come from one particular area.
Once that area has been used?
That's it.
If you cut it into steaks, you don't also get to keep it as a roast.
Every cutting decision has a tradeoff.
THE SAME THING HAPPENS WITH NEW YORK STRIPS
New York Strip steaks don't come from the rib.
They come from the loin.
More specifically, they're cut from the strip loin.
That means there's another choice to make.
That strip loin can become New York Strip steaks.
Or it can be used differently depending on how the carcass is fabricated.
But again:
There are only two strip loins on the animal.
When they're gone, they're gone.
A butcher can't simply move farther down the carcass and keep cutting New York Strips.
Eventually, you're cutting a completely different muscle.
And different muscles produce completely different beef.
AND THEN THERE'S FILET MIGNON
This may be the best example of all.
Filet mignon comes from the tenderloin.
And the tenderloin is exactly what its name suggests:
one specific muscle.
Technically, a pair of them, one on each side of the carcass.
It's prized because that muscle does relatively little work compared with many other muscles on the animal.
That helps explain its tenderness.
But there's a downside if you really love filet:
There isn't much of it.
You cannot turn the round into tenderloin.
You cannot turn the chuck into tenderloin.
And you cannot tell a cow:
We'd like you to grow four extra tenderloins this year.
It doesn't work that way.
THE MOST POPULAR STEAKS COME FROM A SMALL PART OF THE ANIMAL
Here's where the economics of beef start to make more sense.
Research examining the retail beef case has found that cuts from the rib and loin, often called the "middle meats," represented only about 13% of saleable beef product in the study, yet accounted for approximately 35% of its value.
Read that again.
About 13% of the product.
About 35% of the value.
Why?
Because that's where many of the steaks consumers prize most are located.
Ribeye.
Strip steak.
Tenderloin.
Demand for those cuts is high.
Supply is inherently limited.
And no matter how much consumers want them:
The animal doesn't rearrange itself to match the grocery list.
MEANWHILE, HALF THE CARCASS IS CHUCK AND ROUND
Remember those numbers?
Chuck:
29%.
Round:
22%.
Together:
51%.
That's more than half the carcass.
And these aren't "bad" parts of the animal.
Far from it.
They're simply different muscles with different jobs.
The chuck comes from the shoulder region.
The round comes from the rear leg.
These are areas involved heavily in movement and support.
They can give us chuck roasts, Denver steaks, flat irons, chuck eye steaks, top round, bottom round, eye of round, sirloin tip and plenty of other useful cuts.
Some are fantastic on the grill.
Some shine when they're braised.
Some make great roasts.
Some become ground beef.
Different muscle. Different job. Different way to cook it.
That's part of what makes beef interesting.
A BRISKET ISN'T JUST A GIANT STEAK EITHER
Brisket represents only about 4% of carcass weight, according to Penn State Extension.
And brisket is another great example of why understanding the animal matters.
It's a hard-working area.
That means connective tissue.
Cook it quickly like a tender steak and you probably won't be impressed.
Cook it slowly and give that connective tissue time to break down?
Now you've got something completely different.
The same basic principle applies throughout the carcass.
The animal tells you how the cut wants to be cooked.
We just have to listen.
THEN WHAT BECOMES GROUND BEEF?
This is another misconception worth clearing up.
Ground beef isn't simply:
"Whatever was left over."
When an animal is fabricated, there are muscles and trimmings that don't become traditional steaks or roasts.
Those can become valuable ground beef.
But larger cuts can also intentionally be ground.
Chuck is commonly associated with ground beef because of its flavor and useful fat-to-lean characteristics.
Round can be ground.
Sirloin can be ground.
Different combinations can be used to achieve different lean-to-fat ratios.
Ground beef isn't a mystery category.
It's another way of using the animal.
And when you think about whole-animal utilization, it's an incredibly important one.
THIS IS WHERE BUYING A WHOLE OR HALF COW GETS INTERESTING
Buying beef by the individual cut lets you choose exactly what you want.
Want six Ribeyes?
Buy six Ribeyes.
Want nothing but New York Strips?
You can do that too.
But when you buy a share of an animal, you're buying something fundamentally different.
You're buying your share of the animal that actually existed.
That means your freezer begins to reflect the anatomy of a cow.
There will be premium steaks.
But there will also be roasts.
Everyday steaks.
Ground beef.
Short ribs.
Brisket.
Stew meat.
And other cuts depending on how the animal is fabricated.
Suddenly, buying beef becomes less about:
"What steak do I want tonight?"
and more about:
"What can I make with this animal?"
There's something refreshingly old-school about that.
YOU CAN'T ORDER A QUARTER COW MADE ENTIRELY OF RIBEYES
This sounds like a joke.
But it's actually one of the most important things to understand about buying beef directly.
If four people divide one animal into quarters, each person can't simply request:
Mine will be all Ribeyes and filet.
There isn't enough.
A quarter, half or whole beef has to account for the natural proportions of the animal.
And those proportions are not equal.
Penn State's carcass breakdown makes that incredibly clear.
The chuck is roughly three times the proportion of the rib.
The round is more than twice the proportion of the rib.
That's the cow.
Not a product catalog.
HERE'S WHAT WE'RE QUESTIONING
Have we become so accustomed to buying individual cuts that we've forgotten they all have to come from the same animal?
Walk into a grocery store and you can see rows of Ribeyes.
Another row of New York Strips.
Another display of filet.
It creates the impression that these are simply products manufacturers produce according to demand.
But every Ribeye requires a rib primal.
Every New York Strip requires a strip loin.
Every filet requires a tenderloin.
And attached to those highly desirable cuts is:
the rest of the cow.
Chuck.
Round.
Plate.
Flank.
Brisket.
Shank.
Trim.
Bones.
Fat.
And everything else that animal provides.
We can't celebrate whole-animal agriculture while only wanting a tiny portion of the animal.
MAYBE "PREMIUM" NEEDS A BIGGER DEFINITION
Ribeye is fantastic.
Filet mignon is fantastic.
New York Strip is fantastic.
Nobody needs to stop eating them.
But some of the most satisfying beef dishes don't begin with the most expensive cut in the meat case.
A chuck roast slowly cooking all afternoon.
Short ribs braised until they fall apart.
Brisket smoked for hours.
A flat iron seared hot and sliced across the grain.
Stew meat simmered until tender.
A burger made from flavorful beef trim.
Those cuts aren't failed Ribeyes.
They're exactly what they're supposed to be.
And learning how to use them means getting more value, more variety and ultimately more appreciation out of an animal.
THE BEEF REPORT BOTTOM LINE
One cow can provide a remarkable amount of food.
But it doesn't provide unlimited amounts of every cut.
Approximately 29% of the carcass is chuck.
About 22% is round.
About 16% is loin.
And only about 9% is rib.
That's anatomy.
And anatomy doesn't care which steak is trending.
So yes.
Enjoy the Ribeye.
Order the filet.
Grill the New York Strip.
But don't overlook the chuck roast.
The short ribs.
The brisket.
The round steaks.
The ground beef.
Or the dozens of other cuts that came from the exact same animal.
Because a cow is a whole lot more than Ribeyes.
And that's actually one of the coolest things about beef.