David Quidnunc on 16 Dec 2003  •  Link

“CHINE (of beef)”

“a cut of meat containing part of the backbone.”

To “chine,” is “to cut along or across the backbone of (a carcass of meat).”

—Webster’s New World Dictionary

Hic Retearius on 6 Mar 2004  •  Link

“Chine” to a sailorman

Because nautical terms are of importance, it would be appropriate to note here another and very common meaning for chine. Many fundamental nautical terms in English seem to be of great antiquity so Pepys might eventually use this one in a way that has nothing to do with meat.

The point at which the side and bottom of a vessel with a “flat” bottom meet is referred to as the chine. Such a vessel is said to have a “hard chine”. In a hull with finer lines, the same area would be referred to as “the turn of the bilge”. Rather than enquire of an owner if his vessel is round bottomed, the question will often be: “Does she have a hard chine?”

Flat bottomed vessels, that is to say those with a hard chine, are not well regarded for their sea keeping abilities. Many factors compete in the design of a hull, seaworthiness is only one of them. Flat bottoms bring internal volume and the ability to operate in rivers and over the sand bars at their entrance where round bottomed vessels would be impractical.

In small vessels, the hard chine can be a source of nuisance because of damage and leaks and the area must be made especially strong internally. The builder may add a rubbing strake along the chine.

Pauline on 26 Dec 2005  •  Link

Large Glossary of L&M Companion
Rib (beef), saddle (mutton).

Shawn on 1 May 2006  •  Link

The so called "chine bone" of a cow, as understood by a modern butcher, is the backbone in general, or the large half-round section of bone at the edge of a T-bone steak. Even more specifically "chine bone" is used to refer to excess backbone, which can be rather large and is usually trimmed from a loin.

If a chine of beef is a cut of meat containing part of the backbone, as above, then it is a very good cut for a roast, containing at least part of the short-loin, and possibly part of the tenderloin.

Shawn on 1 May 2006  •  Link

Oh, it may, as Pauline points out, also be a rib roast, a standing rib roast, or possibly even a saddle of rib (which would be a very large roast indeed). Again, these are all very good cuts.

in Aqua Scripto on 1 May 2006  •  Link

Chiner [F] it not be but No 3. be a good choice for the readers : chine - 2 versions of verb and 3 nouns from ye olde English Dictionary:{OED}
Alfred King dothe use the word in 888: to decipher the written word "lyle cynan", one dothe need an ear for sound and a nose for smelling burnt offerings.
1. An open fissure or crack in a surface; a cleft, crack, chink, leak. Obs.
b. spec. A fissure or crack in the skin; a chap.
c. A cut, an incision. Obs.
A fissure in the surface of the earth; a crevice, chasm. Obs.
1. The spine, backbone, or vertebral column; more loosely ‘the part of the back in which the spine is found’ (J.). arch. and techn.
2. The back. Obs.
1611 COTGR., Eschinon, the chyne, or vpper part of the backe betweene the shoulders
3. Cookery. A ‘joint’ consisting of the whole or part of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining flesh. The application varies much according to the animal; in mutton it is the ‘saddle’; in beef any part of the back (ribs or sirloin).
1592 Nobody & Someb. (1878) 289 Yeomen..Whose long backs bend with weightie chynes of biefe.
b. spec. The backbone and immediately adjoining flesh of a bacon-pig, which remains when the sides are cut off for bacon-curing.
The ship building connection appears to be from 1850 even tho a ship be ribbed; the sternam or keel be the connection;
then there be a French connection Fr., pa. pple. of chiner, f. Chine China.] [Modern French -chiner, rag,kid]
A. adj. Of silk: dyed or woven with a mottled or indistinct pattern after an actual or supposed Chinese fashion. B. n. Chiné fabric. and then le blanc de Chine, white porcelin from China.

Verb:
1. trans. To cut along or across the chine or backbone; to cut the chine-piece.
b. spec. To cut up (a salmon or other fish).
1653 WALTON Angler iii, Chine or slit him through the middle, as a salt fish is usually cut
2. To break the chine or back of. (? Also, To cleave to the chine.)
1677 OTWAY Cheats Scapin II. i. 79 By all the Honour of my ancestors I'll chine the villain [Fr. je le veux échiner].
. Broken-backed. Obs. rare.
1611 COTGR., Eschiné..chyned, broken-

Xjy on 14 Oct 2006  •  Link

Also worth noting is the etymology of "chine".

ENTRY: skei-
DEFINITION: To cut, split. Extension of sek-.
Derivatives include science, nice, shit, schism, sheath, ski, and esquire.

eg. at http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/…

Bill on 28 Jul 2013  •  Link

CHINE. [eschine, Fr.]
1. The part of the back, in which the backbone is found. Sidney.
2. A piece of the back of an animal. Shakespeare.

To CHINE. To cut into chines. Dryden.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

San Diego Sarah on 11 Sep 2023  •  Link

chine -- OED:

3. Cookery.
A "joint" consisting of the whole or part of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining flesh. The application varies much according to the animal; in mutton it is the "saddle"; in beef any part of the back (ribs or sirloin).

c1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt.
1354 Syen sunder ay e sydez swyft fro e chyne [of a deer].
1556 in W. H. Turner Sel. Rec. Oxford 260 Item, payed for a chyne of freshe salmon.
1592 Nobody & Someb. (1878) 289 Yeomen...Whose long backs bend with weightie chynes of biefe.
a1764 in Dodsley Coll. Poems VI. 257 Chickens and a chine of lamb.
1796 H. GLASSE Cookery ii. 7 In a sheep...the two loins together is called a chine or saddle of mutton.
1823 F. COOPER Pioneers ix, A prodigious chine of roasted bear’s meat.