T-bone steak

A single cut through the short loin with the T-shaped vertebra left in, carrying a piece of strip loin along one face of the bone and a smaller piece of tenderloin along the other: the T-bone is two steaks sold as one, and the two cook differently, which is the whole challenge of the cut. The strip side is firmer, fattier and more flavourful; the fillet side is leaner and more tender and overcooks first. Where the tenderloin section is wide, at least 32 millimetres by the American grading standard, the steak is a porterhouse; narrower, it is a T-bone. The cut is a product of band saws and refrigeration, so it belongs to the steakhouse era from the late nineteenth century onward, and it is the basis of the Florentine bistecca, which is the same cut from a Chianina, three fingers thick and grilled over embers.