Short Cuts: Striploin

Where’s it from?

The striploin is a boneless cut from the shortloin (sometimes called loin). Many premium cuts are taken from this primal cut, which wraps around both sides of the spine midway along the cow’s back: this is where butchers and chefs find the prized tenderloin, and within that, the filet mignon or eye fillet. The striploin runs along the spine, between ribs and rump. Officially, it’s part of the longissimus dorsi muscle: you can think of it as the ‘eye’ of the ribeye.

A Fine Fillet, By Any Name

Striploin has many names. In the US it’s often called New York strip, in Australia it goes by porterhouse or sirloin. The UK often dubs it sirloin too, while over the channel, the French call this tender cut contre-filét. In Brazil, it’s contrafilé and in Korea, it’s the chaekkeut (채끝) which is often thinly sliced for bulgogi.

Character and qualities

Tender and leaner than some harder-working cuts, the striploin is a premium pleaser with milder flavour notes than some of its neighbours.

Tender and leaner than the tougher cuts found on harder-working areas of the animal, striploin has an inherently luxurious quality owed to its milder flavour and consistently buttery texture. It can be sliced for steaks or roasted whole or in large pieces. Westholme’s striploins are buttery and rich with a dissolving finish that feels like butter melting in your mouth.

“Slicing, skewering and grilling the meat is a beautiful way to show off the marbling and the flavour of this incredible meat.”

We love it like this...

Sarah Grueneberg of Monteverde in Chicago uses thick-cut striploin for an Italian-style tagliata with charred olive salsa verde. It’s cubed to form the central hero of Jenner Tomaska’s pithivier from Esme, also in Chicago, (“It’s hard to beat pastry and beef,” he tells us). Australian grilling experts and Melbourne chefs Charlie Carrington of Atlas and Scott Pickett of Matilda (and others) love striploin over coals: Charlie turns it into casual tacos, while Scott thinly slices the fillet, furls it onto skewers and brushes it with a sweet-tart dressing redolent of tamarind, fish sauce and ginger. “Slicing, skewering and grilling the meat is a beautiful way to show off the marbling, the rendering and the flavour of this incredible meat,” he says.

Striploin loves the steak au poivre treatment. Chris Cosentino, a San Francisco chef who has opened five different restaurants, reworks the classic into a contemporary turf ‘n’ turf dish with buttered snails, while Nancy Silverton gives her Pepper Steak Dal Rae a bacon topping for dimension and contrast.