What Is Teres Major Steak? The “Shoulder Tender” That’s as Tender as Filet at Half the Price

Teres major is a small, tender muscle from the chuck primal (shoulder), nearly as tender as filet mignon at a fraction of the price. Each steer yields only two of them, about 12 to 16 ounces each. University of Nebraska tenderness rankings place teres major as the second-most-tender muscle in the entire beef carcass, behind only the tenderloin (filet mignon). Most cattle never see it sold whole because it sits behind the shoulder blade and is hard to extract without damage. Skilled butchers who pull it out clean sell it as “shoulder tender” or “petite tender” for roughly half the price per pound of filet.

That is the honest version. Below is everything the steakhouse menus and grocery cases leave out: the muscle anatomy, the peer-reviewed tenderness data, how to source one that has not been butchered into oblivion, and how to cook it so the price advantage actually translates to dinner.

What Teres Major Actually Is (M. teres major, Chuck Primal)

The teres major is a single small muscle that sits on the underside of the shoulder blade, against the humerus bone. Its anatomical name is m. teres major, Latin for “the larger round muscle,” because it is a thicker companion to the smaller teres minor that sits next to it. In live cattle, it is a stabilizer muscle that helps rotate the shoulder. Because it does very little load-bearing work compared to the rest of the chuck (which is doing the heavy lifting of moving 1,400 pounds of animal around), it stays tender.

It comes from the chuck primal, which is the front shoulder section of the carcass. This is the same primal that produces chuck roasts, flat iron steaks, chuck-eye steaks, and the various braising cuts that most home cooks know. The teres major is the outlier in that group. While most chuck muscles need low-and-slow cooking to break down connective tissue, the teres major can be grilled or pan-seared rare to medium-rare like a filet.

In the USDA Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, the whole muscle is classified as IMPS/NAMP 1114F: Beef Chuck, Shoulder Tender. The “F” suffix is the trim spec for a fully cleaned, denuded muscle ready for portion cutting. The North American Meat Institute’s Meat Buyer’s Guide is the canonical reference butchers and food-service buyers use to spec it.

The muscle is long and tapered, roughly the shape and size of a pork tenderloin: about 8 to 10 inches long, 2 to 3 inches in diameter at the thick end, and tapering to a point. When trimmed, a single teres major weighs between 12 and 16 ounces. That is the entire steak. You do not cut steaks across it the way you cut a ribeye or a strip. The whole muscle is the portion, served whole or sliced after cooking.

[QUOTE PLACEHOLDER: Insert quote from Circle 7 head butcher on how many teres majors they pull per processing week and how often the muscle is destroyed during shoulder breakdown at conventional packing plants.]

Why It’s Called “Shoulder Tender”

“Shoulder tender” is the common American butcher name for the teres major. It is descriptive and accurate: it is the most tender muscle in the shoulder. The name distinguishes it from the tenderloin, which is what filet mignon is cut from. The tenderloin sits inside the spine, not in the shoulder, and is a completely different muscle.

You will see four names for this cut in the wild, all the same muscle:

• Teres major (anatomical/butcher term, most precise)
• Shoulder tender (American retail/butcher name)
• Petite tender (used by some retailers and chain restaurants to make it sound premium)
• Mock tender (older term, falling out of use because it gets confused with the true mock tender, IMPS 1116D, which is a different and much tougher chuck muscle)

The “mock tender” overlap is the source of most confusion. The cut sometimes labeled “mock tender steak” at grocery stores is usually the chuck tender (m. supraspinatus, NAMP 1114B), which is a different muscle entirely and is not tender. If you order “mock tender” expecting filet-like texture and get the supraspinatus, you will be disappointed. Always confirm it is the teres major by NAMP 1114F before paying premium prices.

For the actual filet mignon comparison cut, see our guide to how to cook filet mignon or the Wagyu cross filet mignon we sell direct.

Tenderness Comparison to Filet Mignon (Research-Backed)

This is the part that matters and where most blog posts wave their hands. The actual science is clean.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Animal Science, working with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Beef Innovations Group, ran the definitive muscle profiling study in the early 2000s. They tested 39 individual beef muscles for tenderness using Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), the standard meat-science measurement for how much force (in kilograms) it takes to cut through a cooked muscle sample.

Lower numbers mean more tender. The published results from Calkins and Sullivan (2007) and subsequent peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Animal Science ranked the top end of the carcass roughly as follows:

Rank	Muscle	Common Name	Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (kg)
1	Psoas major	Tenderloin / filet mignon	2.5 to 3.0
2	Teres major	Shoulder tender	2.7 to 3.2
3	Infraspinatus	Flat iron / top blade	3.3 to 3.8
4	Longissimus dorsi	Ribeye / strip	3.5 to 4.0
5	Gluteus medius	Top sirloin / center	4.5 to 5.5

The teres major lands within roughly 5 to 10 percent of the tenderloin on shear force, and ahead of every other muscle except the psoas. The American Meat Science Association protocol considers any WBSF reading under 3.9 kg “very tender.” Both filet and teres major sit comfortably below that threshold.

What the numbers do not capture is flavor. The tenderloin is famously bland because it does no work. The teres major, sitting in the working shoulder, has slightly more myoglobin and intramuscular connective tissue, which gives it a beefier flavor profile while keeping nearly the same tenderness. This is the cut’s real advantage: filet texture, ribeye-adjacent flavor, chuck-primal price.

For how marbling interacts with the tenderness equation, see our beef marbling score guide.

[QUOTE PLACEHOLDER: Insert quote from Circle 7 founder on the first time they tasted a properly trimmed teres major against a Wagyu cross filet and what convinced them to start carrying it as a standard cut.]

How Many Per Animal (Two, ~12-16oz Each)

Every steer or heifer produces exactly two teres major muscles, one per side. Total yield per carcass is between 1.5 and 2 pounds of finished, trimmed steak.

For context, a 1,400-pound steer (typical finished weight) yields:

• About 880 pounds hot carcass weight (roughly 62 percent dressing percentage)
• About 570 pounds saleable trimmed beef
• About 8 to 12 pounds of tenderloin (filet)
• About 1.5 to 2 pounds of teres major
• Hundreds of pounds of chuck, rib, loin, round, brisket, plate, flank, and shank

That ratio is the single most important fact about this cut. A whole carcass yields 6 to 8 times more filet by weight than teres major. The reason filet is more expensive at retail is not just tenderness, it is also the per-carcass yield. The teres major is rarer per animal, but because almost nobody asks for it by name, the demand has stayed low and the price has stayed reasonable.

If you are buying a half or whole cow share, the two teres majors will land in your packout if you specifically request them. Most packers will throw them into the ground beef trim by default because pulling them clean takes 5 to 8 minutes of skilled knife work per side. Always specify “save the teres majors as whole muscle” on your cut sheet, or check our Black Angus half share and F1 Wagyu cross half share which include them as standard.

Why It’s Underused (Small, Hard to Remove)

The teres major has been on every steer that ever walked since the species existed. So why is it just now showing up on menus and in butcher cases?

Three structural reasons:

1. It is anatomically hidden. The teres major sits behind the scapula (shoulder blade) and against the humerus. To get to it without damaging it, a butcher has to break down the entire chuck primal carefully, separate the shoulder clod, and then dissect the muscle out of the connective tissue that holds it to the scapula. In an industrial packing plant moving 5,000 cattle per shift on an automated line, nobody is doing precision dissection on a 14-ounce muscle. It gets cubed into stew meat, ground for hamburger, or trimmed into the chuck roll.

2. It is small. A 14-ounce portion does not fit the steakhouse model of selling 12-ounce and 16-ounce filets and 16-ounce ribeyes. It is too small to be a “big” steak and too big to be an appetizer. Until small-format whole-muscle cookery became fashionable (sous vide, modernist plating, chef-driven menus around 2010-2015), the cut had no obvious commercial home.

3. The chuck primal is “low value” by USDA pricing logic. The packing industry prices primals on average market value. Chuck has historically been the cheapest primal because it is mostly used for grinding and braising. There was no economic incentive to slow down the chuck breakdown to rescue a small premium muscle when the rest of the primal was destined for hamburger anyway. The Beef Checkoff’s Beef Innovations Group muscle profiling work was specifically designed to change that incentive by identifying the high-value muscles hiding in low-value primals.

The teres major and the flat iron (both chuck muscles) came out of that program. The flat iron became a steakhouse staple within five years of its commercial introduction in 2002. The teres major has taken longer to catch on, mostly because the extraction is harder than the flat iron’s (which sits on top of the scapula and is easier to access).

Flavor and Texture

The teres major eats like a hybrid of filet mignon and the cap of a ribeye:

• Texture: Fine-grained, very tender, no chew. Closer to filet than any other cut.
• Marbling: Moderate. More intramuscular fat than tenderloin (which is famously lean), less than ribeye. Visible flecks of fat throughout, not heavy seams.
• Flavor: Beefier than filet. The shoulder is a working primal, and the teres major picks up a little of that flavor depth without picking up any of the toughness. Tasters consistently rate it higher in flavor than tenderloin in blind comparisons.
• Color: Slightly darker than filet, comparable to a sirloin or strip steak. The deeper color comes from a higher myoglobin content typical of working muscles. The American Meat Science Association color guidelines classify this as a 4 to 5 on the standard beef color scale.

If you have ever wished filet mignon tasted more like beef and less like expensive water, the teres major is the cut.

[QUOTE PLACEHOLDER: Insert quote from a Circle 7 customer or chef partner on the side-by-side filet vs. teres major comparison and which one they would buy again.]

Best Cooking Methods

The teres major’s small size and uniform shape make it one of the most forgiving high-end steaks to cook. Three methods work cleanly:

Method 1: Reverse Sear (Best for Beginners)

Reverse searing gives you the most margin for error and the most even doneness, edge to edge.

1. Pat the whole muscle dry. Salt aggressively with kosher salt 40 minutes before cooking (or 24 hours ahead for dry-brine).
2. Set the oven to 250 F. Place the steak on a wire rack on a sheet pan.
3. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part. Cook to internal temperature of 115 F for rare, 120 F for medium-rare.
4. Pull the steak. Heat a cast iron pan over high heat with neutral oil until smoking.
5. Sear the steak hard, 60 to 90 seconds per side, including the ends. Add a tablespoon of butter and a sprig of thyme in the last 30 seconds, baste once.
6. Rest 5 minutes. Slice against the grain (perpendicular to the long axis of the muscle) into half-inch medallions.

Final internal temperature after sear and rest should be 130 to 135 F for medium-rare. The teres major is most forgiving in this window; past 140 F it starts to dry out fast because of its low intramuscular fat.

Method 2: Sous Vide and Sear (Most Foolproof)

1. Salt the whole muscle. Vacuum-seal with a tablespoon of neutral oil and optional aromatics (thyme, garlic, a pat of butter).
2. Sous vide at 130 F for 2 hours for medium-rare. Up to 4 hours is fine without texture change. Longer than 6 hours starts to mush the proteins.
3. Pat dry. Sear in a screaming cast iron pan, 45 seconds per side.
4. Rest 3 minutes. Slice against the grain.

This is the method we recommend for anyone who has the equipment. It locks in the tenderness advantage with no risk of overcooking. Same approach we recommend in our how to cook beef tenderloin guide.

Method 3: Hot Grill (Steakhouse Sear)

1. Salt and oil. Bring to room temperature, 30 minutes out of the fridge.
2. Grill over direct high heat (550 to 650 F), 3 minutes per side for medium-rare on a 14-ounce muscle. Move to indirect heat if the exterior is darkening too fast.
3. Pull at 125 F internal. Rest 5 minutes. Slice against the grain.

Whatever method, slice against the grain. The teres major’s grain runs lengthwise along the muscle. Cutting medallions perpendicular to that grain is what unlocks the filet-like bite. Slice with the grain and you sacrifice half the tenderness advantage.

How to Source It

Sourcing is where most of the price advantage lives or dies. Three rules:

1. Buy whole, not portioned. A whole teres major arrives as a single 14-ounce muscle, oblong, tapered, looking like a pork tenderloin. If you are sold “teres major steaks” pre-cut into medallions, you are paying for the cutting labor and you cannot verify the muscle was extracted cleanly. Whole muscle, every time.

2. Confirm it is NAMP 1114F. This is the trim spec for a fully denuded shoulder tender. If the silverskin (the thin white membrane on the surface) has not been removed, you will have to do it yourself, and a tough piece of silverskin left on the muscle will pull and toughen during cooking. Most direct-to-consumer farms and quality butchers sell it denuded. Grocery store labels rarely confirm the spec.

3. Buy from a source that knows what it is. If the butcher does not recognize the name “teres major” or “shoulder tender,” they are not extracting it carefully. Walk away. Direct-from-farm beef programs (like ours) and dedicated whole-animal butcher shops are the two reliable channels. Standard grocery chains almost never carry it because the breakdown labor exceeds the per-pound margin on chuck.

If you are sourcing through a whole or half share, request the teres majors specifically on your cut sheet. See buying a half or whole cow for the full cut-sheet walkthrough. Our Black Angus and F1 Wagyu cross half shares include them by default, and our steakhouse starter bundle carries individual portions when supply allows.

For shipping logistics, see how it ships. Teres major freezes and thaws extremely well because of its uniform muscle structure (no large fat seams to separate).

Why Butchers Are Just Now Selling It Whole

The teres major has had three commercial inflection points:

2001-2002. The Beef Innovations Group muscle profiling study identifies it as a top-tier tenderness muscle. The flat iron (also a chuck cut) is commercialized first because it is easier to extract.

2008-2012. Modernist and chef-driven restaurants start featuring it on menus. Chefs love it because it is small-format, plate-ready, and has filet texture at a quarter of the wholesale cost. It shows up on tasting menus before it ever appears in retail.

2018-present. Direct-to-consumer farms and craft butchers start selling it to home cooks. The marketing rebrand from “mock tender” to “petite tender” and “shoulder tender” gets it past the grocery-shopper instinct to associate it with cheap chuck. Whole-animal sourcing programs (which need to find a home for every muscle on the carcass) drive the supply.

The cut has been around for as long as cattle have existed. The change is on the butchery and marketing side, not the meat itself. Operations that are willing to slow down the chuck breakdown, extract the muscle cleanly, and educate the customer are the ones now selling it whole. Most of the supply chain still grinds it.

For our Wagyu cross flat iron, the chuck primal’s other premium muscle, see the product page. The flat iron sits on the outside of the same shoulder blade the teres major sits behind. Together those two muscles are the chuck’s hidden premium duo.

Teres Major vs. The Other Tender Cuts (Quick Reference)

Cut	Primal	Per-Animal Yield	Tenderness Rank	Flavor	Approx. Price/lb
Filet mignon (tenderloin)	Short loin	8 to 12 lbs	#1	Mild	$30 to $50
Teres major (shoulder tender)	Chuck	1.5 to 2 lbs	#2	Moderate-strong	$15 to $25
Flat iron	Chuck	4 to 6 lbs	#3	Strong	$14 to $22
Ribeye	Rib	12 to 18 lbs	#4	Strong	$25 to $40
NY strip	Short loin	10 to 14 lbs	#5	Strong	$22 to $35

For more context on the Angus vs. Wagyu side of pricing, see Wagyu vs. Angus beef.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is teres major as tender as filet mignon?

Almost. Warner-Bratzler shear force testing from the University of Nebraska ranks the teres major as the second-most-tender muscle in the entire beef carcass, with shear force values within 5 to 10 percent of the tenderloin (filet mignon). Most diners cannot distinguish them in blind tests once both are cooked to medium-rare.

Why is teres major cheaper than filet?

The teres major comes from the chuck primal, which the meat industry prices as a “low value” primal because most of it is destined for ground beef and braising cuts. The teres major rides that pricing down even though the muscle itself is premium quality. Filet comes from the short loin, which is priced as a “high value” primal. Same animal, different primal pricing logic.

What is the difference between teres major and mock tender?

The teres major is sometimes called “mock tender,” but the term is confusing because there is a different chuck muscle called the “chuck tender” (m. supraspinatus, NAMP 1114B) that is also sometimes labeled “mock tender” at grocery stores. The chuck tender is not tender and is best for braising. The teres major (NAMP 1114F) is the truly tender shoulder muscle. Always confirm by NAMP number or by the names “teres major,” “shoulder tender,” or “petite tender.”

How big is a teres major steak?

A whole teres major weighs 12 to 16 ounces when trimmed. It is roughly the size and shape of a pork tenderloin: 8 to 10 inches long, tapered from about 3 inches diameter at the thick end to a point. One whole muscle serves one to two people.

Can you grill a teres major?

Yes. Hot direct grilling at 550 to 650 F for about 3 minutes per side hits medium-rare on a 14-ounce muscle. Pull at 125 F internal, rest 5 minutes, slice against the grain. Reverse searing and sous vide also work and give more even doneness edge to edge.

Why do most grocery stores not sell teres major?

Extracting the teres major cleanly takes 5 to 8 minutes of skilled knife work per side. Industrial packing plants moving thousands of cattle per shift do not slow the chuck breakdown for a 14-ounce muscle. It usually gets cubed into stew meat or ground into hamburger. Direct-from-farm sellers, whole-animal butchers, and chef-driven restaurants are the main channels.

How do you cook teres major medium-rare?

Salt the whole muscle, sear hard in a cast iron pan or grill, then finish to 130 to 135 F internal. For the most even results, reverse sear (250 F oven to 115 F internal, then hard sear) or sous vide at 130 F for 2 hours, then sear. Always rest 5 minutes and slice against the grain.

Is teres major the same as petite tender?

Yes. “Petite tender” is a retail name for the same muscle (m. teres major, NAMP 1114F). Some restaurants and retailers prefer the term because it sounds more upscale than “shoulder tender” and avoids the “mock tender” confusion. All three names refer to the same cut.

The Bottom Line

The teres major is the rarest premium muscle most people have never eaten. Two per animal, 14 ounces each, second-most-tender muscle in the carcass after the tenderloin, with more flavor than filet and roughly half the price per pound. It does not show up in conventional grocery cases because the extraction is hard and the per-muscle volume is too low for industrial breakdown logic to bother with.

If you can source one from a butcher who knows what it is, cook it once. Reverse sear or sous vide, salt aggressively, slice against the grain, eat it next to a filet for comparison. Most home cooks who try this once stop ordering filet for home cooking. The price-to-tenderness ratio is the best in beef, and the flavor advantage over the tenderloin is the bonus.

Browse our beef catalog for current availability, or grab a half share and request the teres majors on your cut sheet.

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Image Specifications

1. Hero image (/images/blog/teres-major-hero.jpg): A whole trimmed teres major on a butcher block beside a filet mignon for size and color comparison. Natural light, top-down at 45 degrees. Alt: “Whole teres major steak on a butcher block beside a filet mignon for tenderness comparison.”

2. Anatomical diagram (/images/blog/teres-major-anatomy.jpg): A labeled illustration of the chuck primal showing the location of the teres major behind the scapula, with the surrounding muscles (infraspinatus / flat iron, supraspinatus / chuck tender) labeled for context. Alt: “Beef chuck primal anatomy diagram showing teres major location behind the shoulder blade.”

3. Tenderness ranking chart (/images/blog/teres-major-tenderness-chart.jpg): A clean bar chart of Warner-Bratzler shear force values for the top 5 beef muscles (tenderloin, teres major, flat iron, ribeye, top sirloin). Branded Circle 7 colors. Alt: “Warner-Bratzler shear force tenderness ranking of teres major against filet, flat iron, ribeye, and sirloin.”

4. Whole-muscle reference shot (/images/blog/teres-major-whole.jpg): A single trimmed teres major on parchment with a ruler showing scale. Demonstrates the 8 to 10 inch length and tapered shape. Alt: “Single whole-muscle teres major shoulder tender with scale showing 14-ounce portion size.”

5. Reverse-sear in progress (/images/blog/teres-major-reverse-sear.jpg): Action shot of a teres major being seared in cast iron after the low-oven phase, with butter baste and thyme. Alt: “Teres major steak being reverse-seared in cast iron pan with butter and thyme.”

6. Sliced medallions plated (/images/blog/teres-major-sliced.jpg): Finished teres major sliced against the grain into half-inch medallions, plated with the cross-section pink center clearly visible. Alt: “Cooked teres major steak sliced against the grain into medallions showing medium-rare pink center.”