Where is the Outside Skirt Steak on a Cow?
The outside skirt steak almost seems like a misnomer because it’s found inside the chest cavity spanning ribs 6-12:
However, it’s also quite literally attached/hanging outside the chest wall.
Visually, the outside skirt steak is from from the Cow’s diaphragm muscle’s, muscular wall, this is highlighted below in blue:
Here’s a peeled, whole skirt steak:
Where is the Inside Skirt Steak on a Cow?
Inside skirt steak comes from the inner wall of the cow’s chest, running parallel to the belly.
Scientifically speaking, it’s the transversus abdominis muscle.
On the beef plate, it is found below in blue:
Here’s a picture of an inside skirt steak:
There Aren’t Tons of Differences Between Inside and Outside Skirt Steak
Their small differences really boil down to two things:
- Size of the meat
- Taste/tenderness
Outside Skirt Steak is Longer But Thicker and Inside is Shorter but Wider
Outside pictured top, inside pictured bottom:
Taste Difference?
Both are incredibly beefy tasting.
Outside skirt steak is simply more beefy/minerally tasting than inside skirt steak.
Outside Skirt Steak is More Tender
Inside skirt steak has a more pronounced grain structure and is more “chewy” or less tender than the outside skirt steak.
Regardless of type of skirt steak, both should be cut against the grain to shorten muscle fiber lengths.
You can see how to slice this cut of meat in this article.
Slicing either of these cuts with the grain would result in a super chewy piece of meat.
Price Differences
I personally can’t find skirt steak where I’m from in New Hampshire.
But online, both outside and inside skirt steak are similar in price.
For this article, I sourced both types of skirt steak from Wild Fork Foods.
Their price points are as follows:
- USDA Choice Outside Skirt (Unpeeled)*: $10.98/lb
- USDA Choice Outside Skirt (Peeled): $16.98/lb
- USDA Choice Inside Skirt: $10.98/lb
*”Unpeeled” refers to the rather tough membrane that envelopes the outside skirt steak. This membrane can be a pain to remove but if you do so on your own, you save money.
A Brief History of this Pricing and Why Skirt Steak is So Expensive Today
While skirt steak is a muscle and technically not “offal” in the sense of being organ meat – it used to be treated as such.
These days, People aren’t quite as ignorant and the price per pound reflects that fact.
When researching this topic I adjusted Google’s search for News Articles between 1/1/1970 – 1/1/1990.
The price increase is staggering:
- $2.99/lb – From an article in 1984 in The Washington Post. – “As a result of this newfound popularity, the skirt steak (which had always been an inexpensive cut if not thrown away or ground, according to Smith) skyrocketed in price.”
- $2.50/lb – From an article in 1985 in Chicago Tribune. – “Now it regularly sells for more like $2.50, and a meat market offering it ”on sale” for less than $2 can`t package it fast enough to supply its customers.”
- $3.50/lb – From an article in 1989 in the NY Times. – ”Can you imagine, we’re paying $10.58 a pound,” she said. ”Isn’t that ridiculous? When I opened two years ago it was $7.59 a pound and when I started at Cafe Marimba in 1984 it was $3.50 a pound.”
While there are a host of factors at play – like the rate of inflation – price has only increased due to consumer demand.
This is also where the concept of beef fabrication becomes important.
On a cow you can get 10-20 rib steaks.
However, skirt steaks don’t have this luxury.
On a cow/steer there are only 4 skirt steaks – 2 inside skirt steaks and 2 outside skirt steaks; Hence, supply/demand being a problem.
Since the outside skirt steak is more desirable, it ends up in restaurants.
Inside skirt steak is less desirable and ends up in grocery stores.
