A meat chop is a cut of meat cut perpendicular to the Vertebral column, and usually containing a rib or riblets part of a vertebra and served as an individual portion. The most common kinds of meat chops are pork and lamb. A thin boneless chop, or one with only the rib bone, may be called a cutlet, though the difference is not always clear. The term "chop" is not usually used for beef, but a T-bone steak is essentially a loin chop, a rib steak and a rib cutlet.
In United States markets, pork chops are classified as "center-cut" or "shoulder". Lamb chops are classified as shoulder, blade, rib, loin or kidney, and leg or sirloin chops. The rib chops are narrower and , while the loin chops are broader and leaner. Lamb chops are sometimes cut with an attached piece of kidney.
Chops may either be cut by separating the ribs using a knife and then cutting the spine with a hacksaw or cleaver, or by perpendicularly to the spine using a band saw, which cuts across some ribs diagonally. Chops are sometimes beaten with the side of a cleaver or with a meat mallet to make them thinner and more tender.
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