What are double-cut chops?

Question

I was in a restaurant recently and the menu included "double-cut pork chop". The person I was with ordered this, but it looked like an ordinary pork chop to me. (I don't eat pork so I don't have a lot of experience with this -- just what I've seen others eat.) Google led me to speculation, but nothing authoritative, that they're thicker; one site said up to 20oz, but the menu in this restaurant said 10oz. (I also searched Seasoned Advice but didn't find anything.)

Are double-cut chops cut from a different part of the animal (more toward the center, maybe?), or is it just a wider cut from wherever the butcher was cutting anyway, or is the Google speculation wrong and it means something different? And is this term specific to pork, or are there other kinds of double-cut chops (e.g. lamb)?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '12 at 18:06

The term "double" is not specific to pork - it's also used with lamb - but it means something different in each case.

A lamb double chop or loin double chop differs from a regular loin chop by including both the top loin and tenderloin, but not the flank. It hasn't actually been cut twice.
A pork butterfly chop is sometimes called a "double chop" because, as the name implies, it's been butterflied. A very thick cut is taken from the loin eye and then cut again to make the butterfly.

Of course, if you cut a butterflied pork chop in half, and served just one half, it would basically be a regular pork chop. So if you that's what you actually got, I'd call it a marketing gimmick.

I've never actually heard the term "double-cut chop" - there are some vague references to it on Google, but as far as I know, it's not a proper butchering term. Perhaps the term got relayed through several people and mutated somewhere along the way.

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 21 '13 at 23:51

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Double cut means it has TWO ribs attached, not that it's been cut twice!

answered Nov 21 '13 at 23:51

Dave

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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 22 '14 at 22:58

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I just ordered the double cut pork chop at a place called Houston's. It was about the size of a baseball and it had 3 ribs attached.

edited Jun 22 '14 at 22:58

Cascabel

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answered Jun 22 '14 at 00:33

Lee

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 24 '14 at 21:53

I've sometimes heard double-cut used to mean that one bone is included in the center, while all the meat up to the two adjacent bones is also included. That is, you cut against the right of bone 1 and the left of bone 3, leaving you with a chop with bone 2 in the middle, plus all the intercostal meat on both sides.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 25 '21 at 15:59

I just found a recipe for “ 1 bone-in double-cut pork chop about 2” thick. It’s a recipe for two. I assume it’s a bone in chop, two bones 2” thick cut into two chops that will be 1” thick. Not sure why it doesn’t just call for two bone in chops. ‍♀️‍♀️

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 12 '23 at 16:18

I thought it was the thickness of the chop. If you order pork chops they usually have 1 bone attached and about 1 inch thick. I recently ordered a double cut pork chop which had a normal size chop cut in two parts not butterflied. Just saying and from a chain restaurant.

What are double-cut chops?

6 Answers6