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

[Laurence Horn]

As a consumer rather than a lexpert here, I can add that locally (in
New Haven) the supermarkets sell "boneless shell sirloin steaks",
pretty much indistinguishable in quality and price from "boneless top
sirloin".  It's quite a tender cut and often available on sale; I'm
about to cook one up (au poivre) that was purchased for $2.99/lb.  It
does sort of look shell-shaped, whence I assume the name.

larry

At 3:35 PM -0500 2/2/03, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>    My local supermarket is advertising "shell steak" this week.  OED
>and Merriam-Webster have 1968 for "shell steak."
>...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.
>
>...
>    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.