Why Porterhouse Steak Makes A Great Alternative To T-Bone

Life often presents itself in the form of culinary questions. And one of the more important ones may be, "What kind of steak should I make for dinner?" Perhaps a New York strip steak is in the cards, or maybe you're going fancy with a filet mignon. But with a T-bone steak, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. Yes, you read that right. A T-bone steak is a 2-in-1 showstopper that features a distinct T-bone that runs right through the middle, per Omaha Steaks.

But where does it come from? Well, there's this section of the cow called the loin primal, which is right underneath the backbone, according to Beef. It's What's For Dinner. Now if we look towards the front area of the loin primal, we'll see a section called the short loin subprimal, which is home to the loin steak tail, bone-in strip loin, and the T-bone steak. The T-bone can either be separated into its parts, the New York strip and the filet mignon, or left intact for those who like large cuts of steak.

But what happens when the grocery store is fresh out of T-bone steaks? One may contemplate turning dinner into a takeout of festivity, and though such an idea is tempting, we have a better solution: Porterhouse steaks. Here's why they're such a great alternative to T-bone steaks.

T-bone and porterhouse steaks are like identical twins that are difficult to tell apart, and that's because they're both cut from the short loin, according to Beef. It's What's For Dinner. Omaha Steaks further explains that a T-bone steak comes from the "middle to end of the subprimal, "where there isn't much filet mignon meat whereas a porterhouse is cut from the anterior of the short loin," which offers meatier tenderloin and strip sides. In short, a porterhouse steak is noticeably larger and the filet mignon side is longer, almost reaching the length of the strip side, per Rube's Steaks.

Both steaks also benefit from broiling, grilling, and stovetop skillet methods and have similar nutritional content. A separate Beef. It's What's For Dinner source claims that porterhouse steak can easily feed two people due to its larger size, as it typically weighs 24 ounces compared to a T-bone's 12-18 ounce weight, via Steak University and Crowd Cow.

So if you ever need a substitute for a T-bone steak, try a porterhouse instead. It's larger, meatier, and almost identical to its T-bone sibling.