Beef prices have gone up. We are being told all sorts of reasons why. We are being encouraged to eat things that either are not food at all, or are so nutritionally incomplete it’s laughable. Don’t be discouraged! Keep meat, especially meat from ruminants, like cows, front and center on your plate. There are several ways you can make it a little cheaper: buy the cheaper cuts and learn to cook them, shopping sales and stocking your freezer, make friends with a rancher or butcher.
There is also the method I am showing you today. While not the lowest effort method, it can save a significant amount of money. Think of it this way, you are trading a little bit of your time to save several dollars per pound. Which in turn means you and your loved ones can continue to eat proper amounts of nutrient dense, delicious red meat.
What is a strip loin primal?
I found a good description here. It comes from the loin, which is behind the rib cage, but before the round (rear end) of the cow. (I think of it kinda like the waistline of the cow.) I really like strip steaks, they have great beefy taste and are easy to cook. While they lack the fat of a cut like rib eye, they remain relatively tender.
Where can you find a strip loin primal?
While I don’t know where you are in the world, there are some general places to look.
- Restaurant Supply Stores. Some are open to the public. They usually have a variety of the primal cuts.
- Warehouse Membership Stores like Costco or Sam’s Club. While the variety varies by location, they almost always have some cuts.
- Grocery Stores. You may not see the entire loin at a grocery store, but you might catch a loin roast on sale. You can easily turn it into steaks.
- Butcher. If you are lucky enough to have a local butcher, you can talk to them about buying a whole primal cut from them.
Let’s Get to It
Here’s the loin I am working on:
What I didn’t know at the time, was how much work this particular loin was going to make for me. I am thankful it was, because I get a chance to share with you what to do with a less than ideal cut. In the end, my family still has nutrient dense food on their plates.
Step One
Take your loin out of its packaging and pat it dry with paper toweling. I like to cut the bag open over the sink so any collected liquids drain out and don’t make a mess on my counters. Drying off the loin keeps it from slipping while you’re cutting. You could also remove it from the packaging and store it on a rack over a catch pan in your refrigerator for a few days, until it is dry. I have too much stuff in my refrigerator to have the space for age-drying, so I just pat the cut dry.
Step Two
As with most primals, there is going to be some trim work required. This is why pre-done steaks cost so much more in the store. We are trading our own labor for some significant savings.
Once you have your loin on your cutting surface, take a look at both sides. One will most likely have a cap of fat, and the other will be mostly muscle with a few patches of silver skin. Silver skin is the shiny or pearlescent looking connective tissue. I like to start with the fatty side up.
I am holding some of the silver skin in this picture. This was the thickest I have ever encountered, and it covered the entire top of my loin. Since silver skin is tough and not pleasant to eat, I am going to have to trim off all the fat cap. In my experience, this is a bit unusual. But if you do encounter this same thing, don’t panic! It will mean a little more work, and a little leaner strip loin once you’re done cutting. I’ll show you what I do with all that I trim off a little later on.
So how do we start trimming? I like to use a filet knife. The thinner blade and smaller size makes it easy to get underneath that silver skin. Keep in mind that I am trying to save as much of the meat as I can, and not really concerned that it won’t look as nice as the steak from the store.
Grab your filet knife, slide in under the silver skin, and cut through one side. You should be able to grasp the cut end and lift it up away from the meat. Take your filet knife and start cutting away at the base of the silver skin to remove it from the meat. If it comes off completely, slide your knife under another section of silver skin and cut one end again. Repeat this until you remove all the silver skin.
Above is where I cut away that section of silver skin. I also trimmed back some of the fat there on the right, revealing yet more thick silver skin. For this loin, I had to remove all the fat from this side. In the past, I have not had that thick of a silver skin to contend with. Again, don’t worry if you have a similar experience! There are plenty of things to do with the scraps.
Third Step
Time to flip the loin to the other side and do some more clean-up. There is a lot less to clean up on this side, usually just some patches of silver skin.
You’ll use the same technique as you did for the front, slide your knife under the silver skin, and cut it away from the meat.
Fourth Step
Now you will need to remove a strip of muscle that runs along one side of the loin. Well, technically you don’t have to, you could just start cutting steaks now, but if you want your steaks to look a little more like the finished product from the store, you need to do this step.
Let’s look at the picture just above for a bit. See on the left just above my hand, where it almost looks like a dent or hole? the muscle we want to remove is right there. You can tell it is a separate muscle because of the fat and connective tissue layer, the white part in my hand. Just follow that line with your knife. It should cut away easily. Don’t discard it! I am going to show you what to do with it later.
Fifth Step
Once you’ve completed step 4, if you’re doing it, flip your loin back over. It is time to start cutting steaks! This part is so easy, especially after all of that trimming and clean-up work! You should decide now how thick you want your steaks to be. If you want to be precise, check out how I use a ruler to keep consistent on my pork loin post. It is also time to switch to a carving knife, or chefs knife if you don’t have a carving knife. I use the flat side of my carving knife to measure out my steaks, I think it is around 3/4 inch, maybe 1 inch thick.
As you can see in the picture above, I just lay my knife on it’s flat side to measure. I will flip it up onto the blade once I have it lined up.
To make your first cut, hold you blade steady and draw it back toward you. Don’t press down crazy hard or saw back and forth. Place your knife back in the same track from your first cut and pull it back again. You should be through the meat now, if not take one more pass. Line up your next cut and repeat the steps for your next steak.
Before you cut the entire loin, there is one more consideration.
See where my knife is pointing? That is another muscle sitting there on one end of the loin. There is a decision to be made here: to remove it or not? Either answer is fine. You will still have steak to eat. Because of the amount of silver skin on my particular loin, I chose to trim this muscle off. Once you have made that decision, cut the entire loin into steaks. If you remove that muscle like I did, the steaks on that side will be a little smaller that the ones you cut from the other end.
Sixth Step
Once your steaks are cut, you need to get them in the freezer for storage. I use a vacuum sealer. Use whatever method works best for you.
What about all those scraps?
There are a lot of ways to use those scraps. Here is what I did:
I took the muscles I trimmed off and cut them into chunks for stew meat. You could also use them for ground beef or dog food.
I put the fat and silver skin scraps into a freezer bag. I will render the fat down into tallow at a later date. Let me know in the comments if you want a tutorial on rendering fat.
Final Thoughts
While it does take some time, cutting your own meat from primals is a great way to save money. There are so many tutorials out there, many better than my own. In fact, that is how I got started. If you aren’t feeling confident yet, go and check out more. It really is easy once you get going! Don’t worry about being perfect, doing the work to ensure that you and your family can continue to eat meat is way more important that the perfect looking steak.
I’d love to hear from you if you have any questions or want to share how your steak cutting went. If you like what you’re reading, and haven’t subscribed yet, please do! Not only will you be notified when a new post goes live, I also do subscriber exclusive tutorials.
One thought on “How to Cut Strip Loin Steaks and Save Money”