"Bob (this one)" > wrote ...
> Opinicus wrote:
>
>> What's the logic behind this cut? The tenderloin side is overdone before
>> the striploin side is edible.
>>
>> Who invented this?
>
> Sir Thomas Bones. It was 1678 in the Northern part of the southwest
> midlands. He and his faithful retainer, Pispartout, were getting close to
> the end of their provisions, not having seen another human in weeks. They
> came upon a particularly stupid herd of the famous Midlands Dopey cows and
> decided to eat. Luckily, Pispartout remembered to bring the bandsaw, so
> they promptly
> (continued on page 94)
>
Not bad a'tall, Bob.....

The "bone-in" cuts of beefsteak seem to have been a largely "American"
thing, and I suspect that although the Porterhouse, the "best of the TBones"
could come closer to being equally cooked on both sides, the TBone emerged
to popularity as (a) cosmetic and visual appealing (It looked like a really
big steak!) and (b) only with the advent of power saws which made cutting
all the associated bone structure quick, easy and CHEAP, a great deal
cheaper than the labor required to hand bone loins of beef.

A couple of caveats.....Until the modern era, even as late as 1950 or so,
beefsteak (except for a few favored folk with access to prime beef) was cut
much thinner than is common today. As for TBones, they were popular as a
"family" steak among middle class Americans back in the 40s and 50s. In a
family with three children, 2 TBones provided dinner, Mom getting the
largest tender, dad, the biggest strip, the eldest daughter the other,
smaller tender, the favored son most of the second strip, and the mewling
infant a bone to gnaw (although sharp-edged TBones are not good infant
gnawing material).

In my family household, the men liked rare, the women medium, and women (and
female children) always were favored with the tenderest cuts. Those were
USAian shibboleths not to be ignored. Even chicken was subject to
hierarchic distribution.

TMO