Can the Texas Authorities Change the Title of the New York Strip Steak?

Overlook about egg shortages and the soon-to-be-exorbitant price of espresso. Apparently, a way more critical subject is dealing with our meals trade immediately: whether or not or not we should always rename the New York strip steak.

Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick ruffled feathers — or err, riled up the herd — when he introduced on Friday, February 28, that he plans to rename the favored lower of beef, normally referred to as a New York strip, as a Texas strip. “Simply because a New York restaurant named Texas beef a New York Strip within the nineteenth century doesn’t imply we have to maintain doing that,” the Republican official stated in a submit to social media platform X. “The Texas Senate will file a concurrent decision to formally change the identify of the New York Strip to the ‘Texas Strip’ within the Lone Star State.” 

If it’s not instantly obvious, specializing in altering the identify of a steak is a trivial obsession — one which may appear much more absurd if there weren’t so many different pressing points to deal with. Nonetheless, this can be a deliberate distraction — one which’s conveniently timed: Patrick’s campaign to rebrand the strip steak comes at a time when the Texas authorities is confronting a extreme measles outbreak that has now reached at the least 159 instances, ensuing within the first measles-related demise in america in a decade. 

Amid his prolonged tweet, the Baltimore-born Lieutenant Governor claims that “Liberal New York shouldn’t get the credit score for our hard-working ranchers,” referring to Texas’ standing because the state with essentially the most cattle manufacturing within the nation.

As a liberal Texan and New Yorker who lived within the Lone Star State for the primary 18 years of my life, I think about myself uniquely certified to answer this assertion: Dan Patrick, there isn’t any confusion right here about what a New York strip steak is. I’ve but to fulfill somebody who assumes this title signifies that it’s from a cow raised in New York. 

I respect and love Texas beef, and I recognize the logic of sticking to the universally acknowledged identify given to this lower of meat. For anybody involved concerning the potential for confusion when steakhouse menus down south, I’m happy to tell you that this social media submit is unlikely to have any form of vital influence.

What’s a New York strip steak?

This premium lower of meat comes from the quick loin of a cow, a muscle situated close to the animal’s backbone and in the midst of its again. As a result of this muscle isn’t used a lot, the steak is understood for its tenderness. In the event you’ve ever had a T-bone steak, it truly features a New York strip — on one aspect of the T-shaped bone that offers this lower its identify is the New York strip, and on the opposite, smaller aspect is a portion of the tenderloin.

“New York strip” is the commonest identify for this lower of meat, nevertheless it’s not the one one on the market. It’s typically referred to as the ambassador steak, Kansas Metropolis strip, or a membership steak when it nonetheless has a bone connected.

As The New York Occasions notes, it’s tough to pinpoint precisely who named the New York strip. Many on-line tales attribute the steak’s popularization to the New York Metropolis steakhouse, Delmonico’s, which claims it provided the steak on its menu within the late nineteenth century. Whether or not or not Delmonico’s was the primary to serve a lower referred to as the “New York strip,” the steak turned beloved in its metropolis throughout this time, resulting in the identify that many people now acknowledge.

Can the Lieutenant Governor truly make individuals name this a Texas strip steak?

I’ve good news: No, he can’t.

Even when Dan Patrick’s proposed decision is handed, it is not going to be an enforceable legislation. In his tweet, the Lieutenant Governor notes that “The Texas Senate will file a concurrent decision to formally change the identify of the New York Strip to the ‘Texas Strip’ within the Lone Star State.” 

Concurrent resolutions are a kind of bicameral laws, which means they’re handed by the Home of Representatives and the Senate. In accordance with the U.S. Senate web site, “concurrent resolutions are usually used to make or amend guidelines that apply to each homes. They’re additionally used to specific the emotions of each homes.” Most significantly, a concurrent decision doesn’t carry the power of legislation behind it. It merely serves to specific the views or emotions of each homes. Even when this decision is handed, Texas eating places can’t be coerced to vary the identify of this steak on their menus.

Is that this one thing Texans truly care about?

Patrick ostensibly proposed this decision in an try to advertise the cattle trade in Texas. The state is the biggest producer of beef within the nation, with a staggering 4.3 million cows as of 2025. It’s unclear why the Lieutenant Governor believes that giving the steak a brand new title would encourage individuals to buy extra Texas beef than they at present do, contemplating that its New York identify refers to the place the lower was popularized, fairly than the place the meat was from. “New York strip” has caught with the steak for over a century not as a result of persons are enthusiastic about New York beef, however as an alternative just because they want a usually acknowledged identify to establish a well-recognized lower.

Regardless of being born and raised in Texas, the place I resided for 18 years and visited a number of instances yearly, and in mild of getting almost my whole household residing there, I’ve, inexplicably, by no means encountered anybody expressing a need for the New York strip steak to be known as a Texas strip.

In the event you’re a Texan who has all the time been pining for a steak named after the Lone Star State, please let me know — and you may nonetheless name this lower of meat no matter you want in your individual house or restaurant. However be warned, I’ve a sense that should you put “Texas strip steak” in your menu, you’ll find yourself with lots of people asking what that’s. And the best reply is to say that it’s a New York strip.