Cut of beef

During butchering, beef is first divided into primal cuts, pieces of meat initially separated from the carcass.

Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest; the meat becomes more tender as distance from hoof and horn increases.

Cuts typically refer narrowly to skeletal muscle (sometimes attached to bone), but they can also include other edible parts such as offal (organ meats) or bones that are not attached to significant muscle.

Beef carcasses are split along the axis of symmetry into "halves", then across into front and back "quarters" (forequarters and hindquarters).

Canada uses identical cut names (and numbering) as the US, with the exception of the "round" which is called the "hip".