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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)?

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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.

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  • I don't know that I would accept calling it a 'marketing gimmick'. When I have seen a 'butterfly cut' demonstrated it was about maintaining consistent size and thickness. When I purchase a whole pork tenderloin I will start cutting them an inch thick, when the loin tapers I will begin to butterfly them so that when I pack two together they are very near the same size". Like you, I have never heard of 'double cut' but given what a butterfly cut is, it would make sense that they are the same thing.
    – Cos Callis
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 20:19
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    @CosCallis: I didn't say that butterflying was a marketing gimmick, I said that it would be a marketing gimmick to advertise a "double" cut if they're only giving you half of it (which makes it a... single).
    – Aaronut
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 21:39
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Double cut means it has TWO ribs attached, not that it's been cut twice!

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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.

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    We try to focus on answering the question at hand here - I don't think the OP is likely to be too interested in details about the restaurant chain, just what a double cut pork chop actually is.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Jun 22, 2014 at 22:58
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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.

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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. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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  • Welcome to Seasoned Advice! If you have a NEW question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button. If you have sufficient reputation, you may upvote the question. Alternatively, "star" it as a favorite and you will be notified of any new answers.
    – Glorfindel
    Commented Oct 25, 2021 at 20:16
  • I'm going to leave this here because it does seem like you're speculating about a possible meaning of the term, rather than asking a question, but for what it's worth you might want to have a look at the other answers, which seem to go a little past speculation.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 20:12
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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.

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  • Welcome to SA! You've answered an old question that already has an accepted answer, so you're unlikely to get much response to your answer. Try answering questions that are recent and/or unanswered.
    – FuzzyChef
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 22:04

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