Steak
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Steak trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Steak looks simple: a slice of beef and a hot pan. Behind it sits a surprising amount of history, science and argument, from medieval word origins to royal legends, national rivalries over who invented what, and kitchen rules that turn out to be myths. This quiz covers the cuts and where on the animal they come from, the names they go by in Britain, France, Australia and the Americas, and the dishes built on them, including Diane, au poivre, Salisbury, Wellington and Chateaubriand. It also tests doneness, grading, browning, sauces, and the steakhouse chains and old dining clubs that turned a piece of grilled meat into an occasion. It suits a trivia night, a barbecue crowd or anyone who has stared at a butcher's counter wondering what the labels mean. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still leaves you knowing more the next time you order.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A long-told but false legend claims that an English king once knighted which cut of steak?
Sirloin
Sirloin really comes from the Old French surlonge, meaning above the loin. The knighting pun was in print by 1630, and versions of the tale credit at least three different kings.
Q 02A raw steak is red not because of blood but because of which protein found in the animal's muscles?
Myoglobin
Myoglobin, not blood, gives raw meat its colour. Heat changes the protein as a steak cooks, which is why the meat turns from red to pink to brown.
Q 03Outback Steakhouse, the Australian-themed casual dining chain, was founded not in Australia but in which US state?
Florida
Florida is where Outback Steakhouse began, with a first restaurant in Tampa in 1988. Behind the Australian theme, the menu is American cuisine.
Q 04Which dish of finely chopped raw beef, usually topped with a raw egg yolk, was originally named for its sauce?
Tartare
Steak tartare was first called steak à la tartare, meaning served with tartar sauce. By 1938 Larousse Gastronomique described it with a raw egg yolk and no mention of the sauce.
Q 05Pat and Harry Olivieri are credited with inventing which sandwich at their 1930s hot dog stand near the Italian Market?
Cheesesteak
Cheesesteak lore says the first version had no cheese at all, just chopped beef and grilled onions on a roll. By the family's account, the cheese arrived about two decades later.
Q 06Which word, literally meaning 'Japanese cattle', covers four beef breeds including the heavily marbled Japanese Black?
Wagyu
Wagyu is not one breed but a label for four, and the Japanese Black makes up more than 90% of them. Regional names such as Matsusaka and Ōmi are brands, not extra breeds.
Q 07Which is the highest of the eight USDA quality grades for beef, given to carcasses with the most fat marbling?
Prime
Prime sits at the top of the USDA scale, above Choice and Select. Graders judge two things: how much fat is marbled through the meat and how young the animal was.
Q 08Which steak, called fillet steak in Britain, is cut from the tenderloin's thin end and means pork on French menus?
Filet mignon
Filet mignon translates roughly as delicate or dainty fillet. In France the same words usually point to pork or veal tenderloin, while the beef cut goes by filet de bœuf.
Q 09Texas Roadhouse, despite the name over the door, opened its very first steakhouse in which US state?
Indiana
Indiana, not Texas, is where the chain began, at a mall in the town of Clarksville in 1993. Louisville, Kentucky, lies just across the Ohio River.
Q 10Which false claim about searing meat did the chemist Justus von Liebig put forward around 1850?
It seals in the juices
The idea that it seals in the juices is a myth: seared meat loses more moisture than unseared meat cooked to the same temperature. The browned crust is still worth having for its flavour.
Q 11By USDA specification, which steak needs a tenderloin at least 1.25 inches wide, more than double a T-bone's minimum?
Porterhouse
Porterhouse steaks come from the rear of the short loin, where the tenderloin is at its widest. A T-bone is the same idea cut closer to the front, so its tender side is smaller.
Q 12Which boneless steak, known as Scotch fillet in Australia and New Zealand, is the official state steak of Oklahoma?
Ribeye
Ribeye is a boneless steak from the rib section, and butchers call its main muscle the eye. A second muscle along the edge, the spinalis, is nicknamed the cap.
Q 13The strip steak is most often named in America after which city, where Delmonico's restaurant opened in 1827?
New York
Q 21Steak Diane shares its name with Diana, the Roman goddess of what?
The hunt
The hunt was Diana's domain, and Escoffier gave the name Diane to a peppery cream sauce for venison. How the name reached a pan-fried beef steak is still argued over.
Q 22Steak au poivre is a French dish in which the meat is coated before cooking with which coarsely cracked spice?
Peppercorns
Peppercorns form a crust on the steak as it cooks and give a pungent contrast to the beef. The pan is often finished with cognac and cream to make a sauce.
Q 23Salisbury steak is named after James Salisbury, an American who pushed a meat-heavy fad diet while working as what?
Physician
New York lent its name to the strip steak because Delmonico's made a short loin cut one of its signature dishes. The same steak is also sold as a Kansas City steak or an ambassador steak.
Q 14Which steak earned the nickname butcher's steak because butchers often kept it for themselves rather than sell it?
Hanger
Hanger steak was once rarely put out for sale, which is how the nickname stuck. Anatomically it is the crura, or legs, of the diaphragm, and it also goes by the French name onglet.
Q 15Tex-Mex fajitas take their name from the little strips of which beef cut that originally filled them?
Skirt
Skirt steak was the original fajita: the name is a diminutive of faja, Spanish for strip or belt. Chicken, shrimp and vegetable fillings all came later.
Q 16Santa Maria-style barbecue in California centres on which beef cut, the local meat of choice since the 1950s?
Tri-tip
Tri-tip became the meat of choice for Santa Maria cooks once it appeared in the 1950s, grilled slowly over red oak coals. Before then they used large chunks of a different cut.
Q 17Which fat-capped beef cut, called rump cap in Britain and coulotte in America, first became popular in Brazil?
Picanha
Picanha is the triangular end of a rump muscle, sold together with its thick cap of fat. After Brazil, the cut caught on in Portugal.
Q 18Which rib steak is sold with at least five inches of cleaned rib bone still attached?
Tomahawk
Tomahawk steaks are rib steaks whose bone has been french-trimmed, meaning stripped clean, and left long. The name comes from the Native American axe the finished cut resembles.
Q 19Chateaubriand steak is named after François-René de Chateaubriand, a French nobleman who made his name in which field?
Literature
Literature made the vicomte de Chateaubriand famous, though he also worked as a politician and diplomat. His chef, Montmireil, is often credited with creating the dish for him.
Q 20Which shoulder steak, called butlers' steak in Britain, grew out of a 1998 American beef industry drive to cut waste?
Flat iron
Flat iron steak is cut with the grain from the chuck, and researchers developed it when beef was selling at a steep discount. British butchers also call it feather steak.
Physician and chemist James Salisbury argued that a diet centred on meat, with few vegetables, promoted health. His name has been attached to the ground beef patty since 1897.
Q 24Beef Wellington wraps a fillet of beef and mushroom duxelles in which casing before it goes into the oven?
Puff pastry
Puff pastry is the standard wrapping, though some cooks swap in shortcrust. The link to the Duke of Wellington is only presumed, because nobody has shown how the dish got its name.
Q 25Which Italian city gives its name to a thick T-bone, traditionally from Chianina cattle, that is grilled until rare?
Florence
Florence is honoured in the dish's Italian name, bistecca alla fiorentina, one of the most famous plates in Tuscan cooking. The loin steak is cooked on the bone and served rare.
Q 26Steak frites is a brasserie staple in France, but which neighbouring country claims to be the dish's birthplace?
Belgium
Belgium claims steak frites as its own, and some consider it the country's national dish. The plate is exactly what the name says: a steak with a pile of fried potatoes.
Q 27A carpetbag steak, once a luxury dish in Australia, has a pocket cut into it and stuffed with which shellfish?
Oysters
Oysters go into the pocket, which is then closed with toothpicks or thread before grilling. Where the dish began is disputed, with claims for both South Wales and the United States.
Q 28The steakhouse main course surf and turf, also called reef and beef, most classically pairs steak with which seafood?
Lobster
Lobster with a tender fillet is the standard pairing, though prawns or scallops often stand in. The phrase surf and turf is first known in print from 1961, in the Los Angeles Times.
Q 29Which Italian opera composer gives his name to a tournedos dish topped with foie gras and slices of black truffle?
Gioachino Rossini
Gioachino Rossini lends his name to a small round steak that is sautéed in butter and served on a crouton. The plate is finished with a sauce based on Madeira wine.
Q 30The browned crust on a seared steak comes from which process between amino acids and sugars, first described in 1912?
Maillard reaction
The Maillard reaction is named after French chemist Louis Camille Maillard, who was trying to reproduce protein synthesis when he described it. It gets going quickly from about 140 °C.