Shell Steak (1949) ("New York Strip")

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   My local supermarket is advertising "shell steak" this week.  OED and Merriam-Webster have 1968 for "shell steak."
   There is also the "New York Strip," but that's been banned from the city since the Giuliani administration.  OED has no entry for "New York Strip," but is surely preparing something "New York" soon.  We'll take a look at the NEW YORK TIMES:


SHELL STEAK
   16 July 1949, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 16:
   And then, of course, this expert reminded us, there are the less common shell steaks.  If the round muscle known as the filet mignon is cut from one side of the short ribs and sirloin, the flesh on the other side becomes the so-called shell.  The trouble is that few butchers deal with beef in such a way as to slice out the filet; it's a specialized extravagant style of meat-cutting.  And no filet, no shell.


NEW YORK STEAK
   2 January 1991, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. C8:
_In Search of New York Steak?  Ask Anywhere but New York_
_By MOLLY O'NEILL_
(...)  In the menu collection at the New-York Historical Society, the first mention of a steak with the New York nomenclature was in 1957, surprisingly recent, and was for "New York Cut Steak," which would seem to mean that it was more significant that the steak was cut in New York than from a particular vicinity of the steer.

   9 January 1991, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. C4 (letters):
_Name That Steak_
To the Living Section:
  Regarding Molly O'Neill's De Gustibus column "In Search of New York Steak?"  Ask Anywhere but New York" (Jan. 2), a New York steak may be a shell steak, and it may be a sirloin steak, but it is not a strip steak, because a strip steak is a Kansas City steak.
   Bon appetit!
STUART TARLOWE
Clifton, N.J.


NEW YORK CUT STEAK
   27 August 1948, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 1:
   ...New York cut steak, also with biscuits and honey, for $2.50.
(Ott's Drive-In of San Francisco menu--ed.)


NEW YORK STRIP SIRLOIN
   10 December 1957, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 5 (ad for Delta Air Lines "Royal Texan" non-stop to Houston):
   New York Strip Sirloin.  charcoal-broiled to order!


KANSAS CITY STEAK
   12 October 1938, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 34:
_FAIR CAFE TO SERVE_
_"HOME-TOWN" FOOD_
(...)  ...there will be fried chicken Maryland, "Philadelphia Pepper Pot," Chicago beef, Milwaukee sausage, Cincinnati wiener-schnitzel, Kansas City steak and Missouri's rich bogan stew.

   31 August 1967, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 22:
_INDUSTRIES DONATE_
_GIFTS TO GOVERNORS_
(...)   ...Missouri corncob pipes, women's travel bags, attache case, Kansas City strip steaks, sleeping bags and fishing rods and reels.


(Unfortunately, we don't have the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE full text, or even the LOS ANGELES TIMES full text available yet.  I believe that the "New York steak" name comes from San Francisco, and I think that's somewhere in the archives--ed.)