The Best Of Beef: Top 10 Steak Cuts

The first step in cooking a perfect steak is choosing the right cut of beef. You want one that's tender and has plenty of marbling. In general, the best cuts of beef for steak come from the rib, short loin or tenderloin primal cuts. Examples:
The strip steak (sometimes called a New York strip or Kansas City strip), which is from the short loin;
The porterhouse and T-Bone steaks, which are comprised of meat from both the short loin and the tenderloin;
The rib eye steak, which is from the rib primal cut;
Filet mignon, which is a steak from the pointy end of the tenderloin.
Tenderloin steaks can also be taken from the butt or back end of the tenderloin where a small seam of connective tissue may run through the steak, making it less desirable than the filet mignon. Chateaubriand comes from the center cut of the tenderloin.