Parts of a Cow for Meat – Beef Cuts Diagram

All 9 cuts on the diagram

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Forequarter 5

Chuck The front of the forequarter. Chuck steaks and roasts are cut from it, and much of the rest is ground.
Rib Seven ribs, behind the chuck. Rib eye steaks and prime rib are cut from it.
Brisket It takes in the front end of the breastbone. It has two muscles, sold as the flat and the point. Corned beef and pastrami are made from brisket.
Plate Also called the short plate. Short ribs and the outside skirt steak come from it.
Shank The front leg. The purchase specification calls it the foreshank. The specification cuts it from the chuck.

Hindquarter 4

Short loin Porterhouse and T-bone steaks come from it with the bone in. Strip steaks are cut without it.
Sirloin It lies between the short loin and the round. Its two parts are top sirloin and bottom sirloin.
Round Round steak, eye of round, top and bottom round come from it. Canada calls this cut the hip.
Flank The belly muscles below the loin. The long, flat flank steak is cut from it.

How this list was compiled: Every cut name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where both sources use it: (1) USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, Fresh Beef, Series 100, https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IMPS_100_Fresh_Beef%5B1%5D.pdf (items 103 primal rib, 113 square-cut chuck, 117 foreshank, 118 brisket, 121 short plate, 158 primal round, 172 full loin, 173 short loin, 181 sirloin, 193 flank steak; the forequarter and hindquarter parted between the 12th and 13th ribs; the chuck cut from the rib between the 5th and 6th ribs; the rib's seven ribs, 6th to 12th; the short plate directly below the rib; the round sometimes called the beef hip); (2) Wikipedia, Cut of beef, the American and Canadian list, with Brisket and Rib eye steak, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_of_beef (chuck, rib, brisket, shank and plate in the forequarter; loin with its short loin, sirloin and tenderloin, round and flank in the hindquarter; which steaks come from which cut; Canada's name hip for the round; the brisket's flat cut as the deep pectoral and its point as the superficial pectoral, which the specification's items 120A and 120B confirm; the rib eye's longissimus dorsi or eye, spinalis or cap, and complexus, which items 112, 112C and 112D confirm). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-04 by a generator script, as one side view of a polled steer with the nine primal cuts of the North American chart. The proportions of the silhouette (back line, belly line, depth of chest, place of the legs) were read off the public domain drawing "US Beef cuts.svg" on Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Beef_cuts.svg (Ysangkok, 2012, after "Beef cuts.png" by JoeSmack, 2006; released into the public domain by its authors); the head, ear, legs, hooves, tail and the curved cut lines are our own drawing. Not to scale; a schematic chart, not a butcher's cutting guide. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a cow for meat are called cuts. This chart shows the big ones on one side view: five in the forequarter, four in the hindquarter.

Read the full guide

The forequarter

Numbers 1 to 5 are the front half. The chuck is the shoulder and neck end, and the rib comes behind it. Under them lie the brisket, at the chest, and the plate, below the rib. The shank is the top of the front leg.

The hindquarter

Numbers 6 to 9 are the back half. The loin is asked in two sections: the short loin behind the rib, then the sirloin. The round is the rump and hind leg, and the flank is the belly under the loin.

Short loin comes before sirloin from front to back, just as it does in the alphabet.
Top row for the back, bottom row for the belly: brisket, plate and flank sit under chuck, rib and loin.

Questions and answers

What are the main cuts of beef?

United States charts list chuck, rib, brisket, shank and plate in the forequarter, and loin, round and flank in the hindquarter. The loin is divided into the short loin, the sirloin and the tenderloin.

What parts of a cow are steak?

T-bone and porterhouse steaks come from the short loin, rib eye from the rib, and sirloin steaks from the sirloin. Round steak comes from the round, flank steak from the flank, skirt steak from the plate and chuck steak from the chuck.

What are the two parts of a brisket?

The flat and the point. The flat, or first cut, is the lean deep pectoral muscle. The point, or second cut, is the fattier superficial pectoral muscle. The whole brisket comes from the chest, under the chuck.

What are the parts of a ribeye steak?

Mostly one muscle, the longissimus dorsi, called the eye. Around it lies the spinalis, called the ribeye cap, and at the front end is a small muscle called the complexus. The steak is cut from the rib.

What is the difference between the forequarter and the hindquarter?

A beef carcass is split down the back into two sides. Each side is then cut across between the twelfth and thirteenth ribs: the front piece is the forequarter and the back piece the hindquarter.