A lot of meat cuts of beef have different cooking preferences. Some are ideal for mince, while some are best suited for steaks. Now coming to the steaks, they also have different portions from the beef. Strip steaks are one of the most tender and juicy steaks cuts out of the beef. The New York strip and the Kansas City strip are two major beef cuts that are perfectly capable of making finger-licking steaks.
However, most people are perplexed are about how New York strips are different from the Kansas City strip. Despite belonging to the same loin cut of beef, both are slightly different from each other. Although the differences aren’t too extensive. In this post, we will differentiate between the New York strip and the Kansas City strip, and later you may decide which one is better for you.
What Are Strip Steaks?
Before we differentiate between the NY strip and the KC strip, let’s first understand what strip streaks exactly are.
The strip steak is a majorly tender and juicy cut of beef streaks that are extracted from the comparatively shorter loin of a cow. This tender streak consists of a beef muscle which is a little active making this piece of the streak very tender. However, strip steaks aren’t as tender as the steaks from the tenderloin. Although strip steak is still a great option for those who prefer well-chewable cuts of meat and intense beef flavors. Strip steak contains great beef flavor with perfect chew.
New York strips and Kansas City strips come from the same cut of cow, yet they have very minor differences. Since they both are near in taste and flavors, their differences usually don’t matter much when it comes to making streaks out of them.
Let’s study them both. Read on.
How Are New York Strips?
The New York Strip usually is the extraction of the top part of the short loin of the cow. This part is located at the back of the ribs, which is the longissimus muscle of the beef. Since this muscle is a little bit more active, the New York strip steak is tenderer than other steaks.
New York strip is boneless and doesn’t have a too flat edge while Kansas strip steak is little marbling throughout its surface. This is a larger strip steak with no bones at all.
How Are Kansas City Strips?
A Kansas City strip steak, just like the New York strip steak, is a cut from the short loin of the cow behind the ribs. Although, the Kansas City strips are totally flat with a small portion of the bone above. The Kansas City strip is thinner and short.
Overall, Kansas City strips are more preferred for the restaurant’s use. They are shorter and much more tenderer. But not as tender as tenderloins.
New York Strip Vs Kansas City Strip
Since both the New York strip and Kansas City strip come from the same cut of beef – loin, there aren’t too many extensive differences between them.
The chewing and tenderness of both the strip steaks are remarkable. However, they aren’t as tender and juicy as other cuts of beef such as tenderloins. Moreover, the New York strip and the Kansas City strips are both not much flavorful as the other cuts of beef such as eye and ribs. But they have more flavors matching to the cow and hence taken as a good cut of steak. Both the NY strip steak and KC strip steak are juicy and have loads of intensified flavors that are liked by many people.
Kansas City strip has a minor portion of bone attached and hanging from the corner of the T side of the strip with a thin and flat stripped shape. On the other hand, New York strip steaks don’t have that bone attached at all. They are also not that flat as the KC strip but the tenderness of both the strips is almost equal. So, we can’t say there are many differences between New York City strip and the Kansas City strip. They both come from the same cut of meat and have the same tender and juicy, yet intensified flavors.