Steaks & Chops

Which Steak for Which Meal

Most steakhouse menus carry the same handful of cuts, plus a few less-common ones the kitchen brings out for cooks who know what to ask for. Here is how to pick from the steaks on this page:

• Filet mignon — the tender, lean cut from the tenderloin, with mild flavor and a butter-soft texture. The right choice for a Valentine's dinner or a special meal for two, where you want elegance and tenderness over a beefy punch. Cooks fast, since it is small and lean.
• Ribeye — the marbled, beefier counterpart to filet, with the rich fat that makes a steak taste like a steak. The cowboy ribeye (bone-in, short bone) is the classic version. The Tuesday-night and Saturday-cookout cut, the one most people picture when they think "steak."
• NY strip — the firmer, leaner middle ground between ribeye and filet. Less marbled than ribeye but more flavorful than filet, with a satisfying chew. A good pick for someone who wants a real steak experience without the heaviness of a fully marbled cut.
• Tomahawk — a bone-in ribeye with a long Frenched rib bone left attached, like a meat lollipop. Ordered as a centerpiece for two, or for the kind of dinner where you want the steak itself to be the story. The Wagyu tomahawk is the most dramatic version; our Wagyu beef collection has the full range.
• Porterhouse and T-bone — two steaks in one cut, with the strip on one side of the bone and a portion of filet on the other. The shareable steak for a dinner of two who want different things: one person gets the filet end, the other gets the strip. Porterhouse is the bigger version with more filet; T-bone is the smaller cut from further back along the loin.
• Bison ribeye — the leaner alternative to beef, with a slightly sweet flavor and far less fat than a standard ribeye. Cook it to rare or medium-rare; the low fat content means it tightens fast past medium.
• Hanger steak — also called the butcher's steak, since butchers used to keep it for themselves. Intensely beefy, tender if you slice it against the grain, and traditionally a bistro cut rather than a steakhouse one. Great with chimichurri or a peppercorn sauce.
• Grass-fed Piedmontese — leaner than Angus, with less marbling but a clean, mineral beef flavor. The choice for someone who wants the steak experience with a lighter touch, or who specifically wants pasture-raised beef.

Pork Chops and Lamb Chops

The chops side of the page is smaller but worth knowing about. A chop is the steak version of a smaller animal — pork or lamb instead of beef — cut from the loin or rib section. The cuts here come from heritage breeds rather than commodity pork or lamb.

The pork chops are mostly Berkshire and Iberico, the two breeds that produce darker, more marbled pork than the supermarket version. Berkshire pork chops, also called Kurobuta, are sweeter and juicier than the lean commodity chop most Americans grew up on. Iberico pork chops, from the Pata Negra pig of Spain, are even more marbled and meant to be cooked medium with a hint of pink. Both work better with a hot sear and a low-then-high cooking method, just like a steak. For the full Iberico and Berkshire range, the pork collection covers the rest of the cuts.

The lamb chops come from New Zealand stock, milder than American lamb, with fine marbling and a delicate flavor. A lamb rib chop is the same cut as a lamb rack split into individual ribs; a lamb loin chop is the steak equivalent. Both cook fast over high heat and want a quick rest before serving. For a whole lamb rack or other roasts, our ribs, racks and loins collection has the centerpiece cuts.

Cooking a Steak at Home

Worried about ruining a $200 set of filets? Don't be. A great steak at home is about three things: temperature, sear, and rest. Here is the method that works for almost any cut:

Take the steaks out of the fridge 30 to 45 minutes before cooking, so they come up toward room temperature. Pat them dry with paper towels — dry meat sears better than wet meat. Season generously with salt and pepper, more than you think you need. For a thicker cut (over 1.5 inches), use the reverse sear: heat the oven to 250 degrees, put the steaks on a wire rack over a sheet pan, and cook until the internal temperature is about 115 degrees for medium-rare. Then sear in a screaming-hot cast-iron pan or grill for 1 to 2 minutes per side, finishing with butter, garlic, and herbs in the pan. For thinner cuts (under 1.5 inches), skip the oven and just sear hard in a hot pan for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Rest the steak for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting. This is the step most home cooks skip, and it matters: the juices need time to redistribute, or they end up on the plate instead of in the meat. An instant-read thermometer is the only reliable way to hit the doneness you want, especially for an expensive cut. For seasoning, our rubs, spices and seasonings collection has finishing salts, peppercorn blends, and dry rubs that work with any steak on this page.

Also Worth Exploring

Looking for related cuts? Our chef-quality meats collection covers the curated premium subset — dry-aged ribeyes, Wagyu, and the cuts a restaurant kitchen would use. For meats chosen specifically for the grill, including chops, sausages, and kebab cuts, the BBQ grilling meats collection gathers everything built for direct-fire cooking.