The Beef Short Loin is located on the top of the cow between the Rib and the Sirloin area. It contains the last rib in the cow, the 13th rib. T-shaped bones in this area form the cow’s backbone, which you see in steaks such as Porterhouse and T-Bone. Along these bones runs a muscle which in the Rib Area was called the Rib Eye, and in this area changes name to the Loin Eye.The Short Loin is prized because the most tender cuts of beef come from this area, especially from a sub-area within it called the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin is so valuable that it is often one of the first cuts removed from the cow. Sometimes, though, the Short Loin is cut off from the Sirloin first, and when that happens, part of the Tenderloin ends up in some Sirloin cuts.
The sequence of steaks that can be cut from the Short Loin are, from front to back and excluding Tenderloin cuts, Strip Loin steaks, T-Bone and then Porterhouse.