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Is this correct? Is it on the inside of the hind quarter or the entire piece as shown in the picture? Is that the “top sirloin”? Any tips to cutting the sirloin for steaks?
Check out the bearded butchers on you tube. They are professional butchers and avid hunters. They have videos on butchering many types of animals. Hope this helps!
Sirloin tip roast = top sirloin steaks when cut into steaks?
The way I understand it, the sirloin is the one that you have to fillet off of the femur that is football shaped. It has a small muscle on top of it that’s high on the front part of the leg that is very small, but pretty tender. I think this is the sirloin tip. I make medallions out of these and fry. The sirloin is generally a good piece of meat on a doe or young animal and I usually freeze it whole and slice it into steaks, pound it out, and roll it after stuffing, cover in bacon, and broil.
Butcherboy is a professional meat cutter that will probably see this thread eventually and will add to this and correct me if I’m wrong - he’s a great resource for all things meat cutting. I’ll be harvesting the bacon off of my moose if I can manage to shoot one due to his education.
X2 on the bearded butchers. Seem like knowledgeable nice guys I’d share a camp with
When you go to cut the sirloin or any meat just make sure you cut against the grain which will look like lines in the meat and you will do fine. I just break up the entire hind quarters by cutting where all the muscle groups are connected by what will look like as a white line. When done properly you should just be able to touch it with the knife blade and separate it. If you are actually cutting into meat you are doing it wrong. Once I separate everything it is easily identified as to what cut of meat it is.
Where does a ribeye come from? Obviously, the forward part of the animals, but I was hoping for a more detailed description....
Sirloin is on the back end of the loin. Sirloin tip is not the sirloin, its part of the round. Ribeye is in front of the loin (actually called the rib).
I always thought that ribeye was just backstrap.
The sirloin is the furthest continuation of the loin, were it meets the hind, The loin will be in front of it and hind(round) below it. When you separate the hind quarters from the loin you will bone the sirloin off the pelvic bone. On deer size animals leave it whole and grill it. On bigger game square the face off then cut 3 or 4 steaks.
It's NOT the "football", which is in fact the sirloin tip which is part of the rounds. On smaller game like deer you can cut steaks out of the whole tip, however its not ideal with its three muscle structure. A better choice is to cut the silver side of the tip off( it's the largest of the three mussles) follow the seam down on an angle. The steak or cutlets off only the silver side. Then take the remaining portion and tie it into a roast.
The rib eye starts just before location that the tenderloin meets the loin. Rib eye is just a retail name for any steaks cut off the rib section. Nobody at this point with beef prices so high is will cut the eye a rib Steak out of the middle. In fact it makes a poorer steak. Dont confuse a rib eye with a chuck eye. The chuck eye the loin entering the chuck, think of cutting the back strap done further into the chuck. On a beef there is only about 4inches total of chuck eye on each side of the chuck. Literally three hand size 1.25 thick steaks. On game leave the chuck eye intact and cut your chuck normally.
Chuck eye is also known as poor mans ribeye but I find it very tender and flavorful on a cow. The back strap is the equivalent of a NY strip steak in a cow and is also a Tbone without the bone and tenderloin.
Regarding the sirloin tip (I call it the football round), I always freeze whole then slice into 1/4" thick steaks. Add garlic salt, then fry hot and fast in ghee. Barely a couple minutes. They should be seared on the outside but super rare inside and will melt in your mouth!
“I always thought that ribeye was just backstrap” Technically the “Backstrap” is the tendon that runs along the top of the ribeye. But most people refer to the entire loin area as the backstrap.
The diagram shows a "sirloin tip" or bottom sirloin which is different from the sirloin and is in fact part of the leg or round.
I was pointing out that the "backstrap" literally speaking. is the tendon that runs from the top of the shoulder down the top of the back between the rib lifter and ribeye, attaching to the loin.
Yep, sounds like we’re saying the same thing.
What I know about backstraps is there should be six of them on an animal instead of just two. :-)
Pole Mtn: "Sirloin is on the back end of the loin. Sirloin tip is not the sirloin, it's part of the round. Ribeye is in front of the loin (actually called the rib)." Yep. Sirloin tip (the football) is nowhere near as tender as the other leg cuts...sirloin, top round, bottom round and eye of the round (not very big on a deer). I usually reserve the sirloin tip for corning...my corned beef and cabbage. Then it becomes very tender...I crock pot it. Tip...if you corn it, cut it lengthwise prior otherwise the center may not get pickled, even after 5 or 6 days.
There are some good explanations posted here and some are a bit off. The sirloin is a part of the hind leg if you consider the hip as part of the hind leg. The bottom sirloin, or tri-tip, flows right into the top round. This muscle is the part that covers the hip bone. the hip bone and loins are separate from each other but the sirloin does start where the loin, or new york strip ends. The diagram is pretty accurate except for calling the sirloin a rump roast. It also shows the inside tenderloins running the full length of the rib eye and ny strip loin. We all know it doesn't do that.
The sirloin consists of two muscles. The top and bottom sirloin with the bottom more commonly called the tri-tip. The tri-tip is thick on one end tapering down to a point and makes a triangle shape. The sirloin tip starts right above the knee cap going right to the ball joint and then out straight.If you look at a hind leg you can see the "white line" that traces out this muscle. I could get a lot more technical with cuts like chuck eye, rib roast, standing rib roast, chuck roast, chuck steak, flat iron steak/roast, mock tender, petite tender, 7 bone roast, rolled rib, skirt steak, flank steak, and on and on. These are all beef cuts and don't really work well for wild game. You could do it with wg but some would have to be cut bone in and that doesn't work well because most wg is so lean it doesn't cut well bone in. I like to make breaking down wg as easy and simple as possible.
Chad, could you post a pic/ diagram of the ribeye on an elk or moose?
If I’m buying a steak at a restaurant, it’s always ribeye if available. Not sure if game animals are comparable to beef?
Sure, I’ll take a picture of one tomorrow and post it after work. The cuts are all taken from the same areas on both WG and beef. They will differ in of course flavor and tenderness. A lot of grass feed beef are eating the same types of grass as WG. Big difference if they are finished with grain which I prefer. I’ve cut a lot of game on the bandsaw if customers request it but I try to talk them out of it. It just looks terrible and only works if the elk or deer has a nice white layer of fat across their back like a grain fed beef would.
Someone posted earlier about The Bearded Butchers and I think they are a pretty good source for info as well. I’ve thought about doing something similar but I can’t figure out where I would get the time plus I’m not very computer or video savvy. Lol
Always informative, Chad. Thanks!
Hers an elk quarter in which you can see the sirloin hanging below the ball joint. However, part of it is missing
Here’s another from the other side
Here’s one where I’m pointing to where the backstrap ends and sirloin starts though this one was cut through the center of the sirloin as well
Showing where the chuck eye would end
Showing where the chuck eye would end
These types of cuts on a backstrap are pointless to make on a wild game animal. Best to just pull the whole loin, trim and cut into steaks. Call them loin steaks, backstrap steaks, or ribeyes. Whatever you like. Or, you can leave them whole and cut later, smoke them, souse vide, etc.
Chad, Even on a animal as large as a bison or a moose?
Here’s a backstrap trimmed and one untrimmed
Here’s a sirloin with top and bottom attached though it was cut in half in the field
Here it separated into top sirloin and tri-tip. You can see half of the triangle shape on the tri-tip. If it hadn’t been cut in half it would extend further into more of a triangle point.
A bison backstrap isn’t as large as you might think once it’s been trimmed. It’s different in the area where the chuck eye would be. It’s layered with multiple muscle groups instead of one straight muscle. This is the area where a Buffalo hump roast would come from.
Moose would be like an elk or deer but on a little larger scale. Larger as in a little wider but not necessarily thicker.
Some trimmed up elk straps!
Some trimmed up elk straps!
I always look forward to butcherboy posts. Thank you!
Some other overlooked cuts are skirt steak and flank steak. Marinate them, smoke or grill, cut into strips for Carne Asada. Skirt steak is the diaphragm muscle but you need to open the belly and eviscerate the animal. I do one half gutless then open the belly and roll everything out. Pull the tenderloins at this time and the skirt. Roll over and duplicate the other side.
Great info Chad, thanks! I'll carry on cutting the trimmed back straps into steaks and forget about naming them :)
Excellent and very informative pics Chad thx bro
