Cuts · US butchery
Strip steak
The US name for the loin steak a British butcher calls sirloin. Included because the word 'sirloin' means different cuts on either side of the Atlantic, which is the single most expensive naming trap in beef.
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
- Strip steak
- New York strip
- Kansas City strip
- Top loin steak
- striploin — butchery
What to ask a butcher for
- United States: Sirloin steak, in the UK.
- United States: Sirloin steak, in the UK.
Where it comes from on the animal
Longissimus lumborum (sirloin)
Loin · low use · connective tissue: low
The continuation of the same back muscle behind the ribs. It is the same anatomy the rib eye comes from, which is why 'where does the rib eye stop and the sirloin start' is a butchery question rather than an anatomical one — and why the systems answer it differently.
Muscles: Longissimus lumborum
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
- Strip steak, or New York strip (US), Kansas City strip (US), Top loin steak (US) depending where you are.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for loin — the muscle is Longissimus lumborum.
- What to specify
- Typical weight is 280–450 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
What a British menu calls sirloin. IMPS item 180 is the anterior section of the loin containing the 13th rib mark, tenderloin removed. Do not ask for 'sirloin' in the US expecting this — the word points at a different primal there.
- US 'sirloin' is a separate, cheaper cut from behind the short loin.
- IMPS 180 fixes flank removal distances; AHDB Sirloin V005 fixes different ones (flank at 40 mm from the eye, 25 mm backstrap) and neither fixes a steak thickness.
Asking for it in another country
UK butchery: Overlapping cut
What a British menu calls sirloin. IMPS item 180 is the anterior section of the loin containing the 13th rib mark, tenderloin removed. Do not ask for 'sirloin' in the US expecting this — the word points at a different primal there.
What differs
- US 'sirloin' is a separate, cheaper cut from behind the short loin.
- IMPS 180 fixes flank removal distances; AHDB Sirloin V005 fixes different ones (flank at 40 mm from the eye, 25 mm backstrap) and neither fixes a steak thickness.
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
280–450 g