How to Slice T-Bone Steak: Stop Cutting the Strip Side WRONG

1. With your knife and cooked T-bone steak, separate both muscles from the t-shaped bone.

Guide your sharp knife along the bone and separate the muscles.

2. Slice Each Muscle Individually (Most Recipes and Articles Get this Part WRONG)

These muscles do not have the same grain direction.

Almost ALL recipes and articles for t-bone steak will show the NY Strip side sliced incorrectly.

The grain of both the muscles is as pictured below:

They’ll say to “slice the steak against the grain” and then slice like this:

But to slice against the grain, you’d actually slice like this:

In the example below I purposely sliced the strip loin incorrectly for three slices just to show you what the grain looks.

Pictured below are pictures of both of these slices:

As we can clearly see, the fibers in the meat sliced vertically are oriented horizontally, telling you that the meat is sliced incorrectly.

You effectively sliced with the grain.

Where-as the second slice is cut horizontally, or against the grain.

For the sake of completeness, here’s a slice of the the tenderloin, note the fibers are vertical meaning we sliced against them.

Why is T-bone Steak Often Sliced Incorrectly then?

This is speculation but I think it just looks cleaner.

I also think people just copy others and genuinely don’t know.

It also doesn’t matter as much with t-bone steak because the strip loin is a fairly tender cut of meat.

Where-as if you sliced flank steak with the grain, it’s a tough muscle and the difference is very noticeable.

If you truly want to have the most tender eating experience, you’d slice against the grain but sacrifice on presentation.