The Cheaper, Tastier Cuts of Meat Your Butcher Really Wants You to Order

So you finally decide to visit that cool new butcher shop—the one that’s breaking down whole animals that sound like they had a better childhood than you did—but the meat case is full of a bunch of cuts you’ve never heard of, let alone cooked, before. Is this some kind of butchers’ conspiracy to keep you from subscribing to this “buy better meat” movement everyone’s been talking about?

Well, not exactly. Unlike your local supermarket, which buys cases of familiar cuts like rib-eye, tenderloin, and pork rib chops, a butcher shop typically orders whole animals—which means the butchers have to break cows, pigs, and lamb down a lot more creatively if they’re going to move all that muscle. If a butcher shop gets one cow a week and there’s only one hanger steak per cow, well, you get the picture, hence all those cuts you’ve never seen before.

Our favorite new-school butcher shops spend a lot of time and energy taking apart animals in such a way as to offer the customer maximum cooking versatility. Sure, your local butcher might have short ribs when you come in, but they’ll be able to steer (sorry!) you toward any number of cheaper cuts that you can cook similarly.

“When you walk into our shop, you have to know that there’s a lot more than filet mignon and rib-eye,” explains Terry Ragasa, owner of Sutter Meats in Northampton, MA. “We love helping people to find a steak they’d never ask for, and then have them ask for it again.”

We asked Ragasa and Sean Durnan, head butcher at Maine Street Meats in Rockport, ME, to give us a crash course on 10 of their favorite, less-loved (read: cheaper!) cuts.

Beef

Image may contain Food and Pork