Steak

A steak is a slice of meat cut across the muscle fibres, sometimes with a bone left in, and usually grilled or fried, though it may also be diced, cooked in a sauce or, as in steak tartare, eaten raw. Most steaks come from cattle, where they are called beefsteak, but the same word covers cuts from bison, buffalo, goat, horse, kangaroo, sheep, ostrich, pig, turkey and deer, and thick cross-cut slices of large fish such as salmon, swordfish and tuna. Some thinner cuts, such as skirt and flank, are called steaks because they are grilled rather than because of how they are cut. The word comes into English from a Scandinavian term related to Old Norse steikja, to roast on a stake. Beefsteak is graded for quality in several countries, and the doneness of a cooked steak runs from very rare to well done.