Origins of the name "Sirloin"

I had a chat with an old gentleman yesterday, and he brought up an interesting story....which he spouted as absolute truth.

The story was this, that King Henry was so impressed by a cut of meat that he finished eating, that he asked the kitchen what the cut of meat was, and he was told what it was.
He then in his excitement knighted the piece of meat as "Sir Loin" which then is the piece of meat we now eat and consume regularly.

Is this true? I had to check.

So firstly lets check what the Silroin is as we know it currently.

It is a tasty piece of meat that is found in this area of the cow.

The American cut of the same area is called Rump, but for the British, Australian and South African market we know it as Sirloin.

So how did this cut of meat get to be known as Sirloin? The Etymology is as follows:

In an entry in NOTES AND QUERIES (an old journal) dated 10 July 1880 made the following reference on the knighting of the piece of meat. "King Henry VIII, dining with the Abbot of Redding, and feeding heartily on a Loyn of Beef, as it was then called, the Abbot told the King he would give a thousand marks for such a Stomack, which the King procured for him by keeping him shut in the Tower, got his thousand marks, and knighted the Beef for its good behaviour.”

Here we see a direct reference to this idea.

A second reference by Jonathan Swift in 1738 mentioned a similar thing in his essay A Treatise on Polite Conversation where the following was written "[O]ur King James First, who loved good eating, being invited to Dinner by one of his Nobles, and seeing a large Loyn of Beef at his Table, he drew out his Sword, and in a frolic knighted it."

Then again a little later in a book in 1822 called The Cooks Oracle by William Kitchiner there was another reference to this idea with slightly different input. "This joint is said to owe its name to King Charles the Second, who dining upon a Loin of Beef, said for its merit it should be knighted, and henceforth called Sir-Loin."

As funny as this is, I found this even funnier. This story had so developed over time that a hymn was written about it in 1907 by Haven Shauffler:
The Second Charles of England
Rode forth one Christmas tide,
To hunt a gallant stag of ten,
Of Chingford woods the pride.

The winds blew keen, the snow fell fast,
And made for earth a pall,
As tired steeds and wearied men
Returned to Friday Hall.

The blazing logs, piled on the dogs,
Were pleasant to behold!
And grateful was the steaming feast
To hungry men and cold.

With right good-will all took their fill,
And soon each found relief;
Whilst Charles his royal trencher piled
From one huge loin of beef.

Quoth Charles, "Odd's fish! a noble dish!
Ay, noble made by me!
By kingly right, I dub thee knight—
Sir Loin henceforward be!"

And never was a royal jest
Received with such acclaim:
And never knight than good Sir Loin
More worthy of the name

---

The truth

As fun it is to think of this as being a possibility, the truth is that the words was first written as "surloyn" or "surloine" which reflects the true origin of the name.
Those words come from the middle French word surlonge ("sur la longe"). Sur meaning "over" and longe meaning "loin".

Hence sirloin is the cut of beef from above the loin!

Later the spelling would change it in English to the spelling we have today. And it is this spelling that people are using to perpetuate these stories, even though it is a good laugh to think about a king knighting a piece of meat!

History is an interesting thing! And if you still believe everything you read, then there is a problem :)

[Image and info credit cartoonstock.com, snopes.com, hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com]