Cuts · US butchery
Ribeye steak
The US rib eye. Registered separately from the UK cut so the mapping between them is a record rather than an assumption.
Known as
The same muscle carries different names in different butchery systems, and some of those names mean different cuts elsewhere. Where a name is ambiguous, BBQHQ says so rather than picking one.
- United States
- Ribeye steak
- Delmonico
- Cowboy steak
A bone-in ribeye.
- ribeye — retail
Where it comes from on the animal
Longissimus thoracis (rib eye)
Rib · low use · connective tissue: low
A back muscle that carries little load, so it stays tender and is suited to fast, hot cooking. Its low connective tissue is why it is one of the cuts that can legitimately be served rare.
Muscles: Longissimus thoracis, Spinalis dorsi, Complexus
Asking a butcher for it
Named the way us butchery names it. If the counter does not recognise the name, the anatomy is the fallback: ask for the cut by where it comes from.
- What to say
- Ribeye steak.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for rib — the muscle is Longissimus thoracis, Spinalis dorsi, Complexus.
- What to specify
- Thickness, which governs the timing more than weight does — the usual range is 25–50 mm. Typical weight is 280–500 g.
What it is suited to
Derived from how hard the muscle works and how much connective tissue it carries, which is the pairing that decides whether a cut wants a fire under it or beside it. BBQHQ does not rank cuts and does not name a best one.
- Low connective tissue: there is nothing here that a long cook would improve. Direct or two-zone heat, taken off at a doneness rather than at a texture, and every extra minute past that point costs moisture.
- A supporting muscle that does little work, so it is tender to begin with and has nothing to gain from time.
What to use instead
A substitute is not the same as an equivalent. These are graded, because “yes, use that instead” is the answer that ruins dinners: most real substitutions work only once something about the cook changes.
Workable, once you change the cook
The nearest thing to a clean transatlantic match in this catalogue. The name travels, the muscle is the same, and BBQHQ stops short of calling it identical because it has read no US specification.
- US steaks are commonly cut thicker, which changes the cooking substantially.
- The rib/loin separation point is unconfirmed on the US side.
Asking for it in another country
UK butchery: Overlapping cut
The nearest thing to a clean transatlantic match in this catalogue. The name travels, the muscle is the same, and BBQHQ stops short of calling it identical because it has read no US specification.
What differs
- US steaks are commonly cut thicker, which changes the cooking substantially.
- The rib/loin separation point is unconfirmed on the US side.
The UK side of these mappings rests on AHDB’s published cutting specifications, which BBQHQ has read. The US side does not: USDA’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and the Beef Checkoff cut pages both refuse automated access, so no mapping here reaches “same cut” across two butchery systems. See the open question.
Typical size
280–500 g