Beef Cuts Quiz – Chuck, Brisket, Short Loin and Round

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

This beef cuts quiz names a cut and you tap where it sits. It asks for the big blocks of a United States beef chart, forequarter first, not the steaks sold from them.

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Labeling beef cuts practice: where the lines fall

Two of the lines between cuts are counted in ribs. The chuck ends between the fifth and sixth ribs. The rib cut holds the next seven, the sixth to the twelfth, and the short loin behind it holds the thirteenth. The plate, straight under the rib, holds the lower ends of the same seven. The brisket takes in the front end of the breastbone.

Cuts with a second name

The plate is also called the short plate. The shank asked here is the foreshank; the hind shank is counted with the round. In Canada the round is called the hip. The neck has no block of its own: on a United States chart it is part of the chuck.

Questions and answers

What is a primal cut of beef?

A piece first separated from the carcass in butchering. Steaks and smaller cuts are divided from the primals afterward. The quiz asks the United States primals, with the loin split into short loin and sirloin.

Where is the tenderloin on a cow?

Inside the loin, under the backbone. It is the third section of the loin, with the short loin and the sirloin, and a side view cannot show it, so the quiz does not ask for it.

What cut of beef do short ribs come from?

Three of the cuts asked here. The USDA purchase specification cuts short ribs from the rib and the plate, ribs six to ten, and chuck short ribs from the chuck, ribs two to five.

What part of the cow is corned beef?

Usually the brisket, the chest cut under the chuck. Pastrami is made from brisket too, or from the navel, the lower part of the plate.