Meat Education
Beef
Going to the grocery store to buy meat is convenient but also misleading.
You walk into the meat department of your local grocery store and their display cases are full of all kinds of meats. You see endless packages of ribeye’s and New York strip, lots of roasts and briskets, there is just so much to choose from. That is the misleading part. What you see in the display case are steaks and roasts from many different kinds of beef. One beef only produces a small number of steaks and roasts. One-third of the entire beef is going to be ground meat.
So how many steaks can you get from a beef? I’m going to break it down for you by primal cuts. Keep in mind that every beef is different, and the thickness of your steaks will also affect the quantity of Steaks you get.
8 Basic Primal Cuts
Primal Cuts
There are 8 basic primal cuts, 9 if you include the foreshank.
Chuck
There are a variety of different cuts that can be made from the chuck area.
The most common are chuck roasts and chuck steaks. Flat iron, petite tender, Delmonico, and chuck eye are some other steaks that can be cut from this area. When doing these specialty cuts, keep in mind that there is only 1 petite tender on a half beef, and it is small. Same with your flat iron, Delmonico, and Denver. There will only be a few of these steaks.
Brisket
There is nothing better than a smoked brisket done low and slow. But there is only one full-size brisket on a half beef. Depending on the size of the beef, one brisket can range from around 7lbs-13lbs.
Short Plate
This is where the skirt steak is found. Typically, you can get 2 skirt steaks on a half beef. This is also where your short ribs come from.
Flank
This is where the flank steak comes from. There is 1 flank steak on a half beef.
Rib
This is where you find your prime steaks. There are a few different cuts that come from this primal. Most customers have it cut into rib steaks, also referred to as a ribeye, but in reality, a ribeye is a boneless center cut of the rib steak.
Prime rib roast also comes from this section, but if you are doing all rib steaks then you would not get prime rib roast. This primal section is a 7-bone section. So, if you are doing roasts, you can get around 2 decent size roasts on a half beef, one would be a 3-bone roast and one would be a 4-bone roast. If you are making rib steaks at around 1” thick, typically you can get 12-14 steaks on a half beef. If you go boneless on your rib steaks, then you can also get beef back ribs.
short loin
This is where you find your T-bone and porterhouse steaks. You can also get New York strip and tenderloin (aka fillet mignon). A T-bone and porterhouse steak are almost identical, they both consist of the New York strip and tenderloin, but the porterhouse is cut from the end of the primal where the tenderloin is the thickest. So typically, on a half beef, you would end up with about 4 of each steak. If you like New York and tenderloin, then I recommend not getting T-bone or porterhouse steaks. Just go with all New York and tenderloin steaks. This will increase the amount of those steaks.
sirloin
This is where the Tri-Tip roast and sirloin steaks come from. There is only 1 tri-tip roast on a half beef and typically around 5 sirloin steaks.
Round
This is where you find a lot of roasts like bottom round and sirloin tip roast. London broil is also cut from this primal. You can cut those round roasts into round steaks, but if you do round steaks, I recommend having them tenderized.
This is where you find a lot of roasts like bottom round and sirloin tip roast. London
Keep in mind that there is only so much that can be cut into usable steaks and roasts from each primal, so whatever can’t be made into a steak or roast would go into your ground meat.
Typically, your ground beef will be one-third of your finished meat for bone-in cuts. You can get more ground beef by opting to grind some of your roasts, short ribs, or shanks. broil is also cut from this primal. You can cut those round roasts into round steaks, but if you do round steaks, I recommend having them tenderized.
Typical Meat yeild
Here is an actual meat yield breakdown from one of my more recent beefs.
Live weight: 1240lbs
Hanging Weight: 750lbs
Finished meats: 478lbs
Again, these weights will vary from beef to beef. A good rule of thumb is your finished meat will be around a third of the live weight.
