tranche 08:03 May 16, 2011
My purely empirical observation is that a 'côte' is inevitably of a certain thickness, as it is cut bewteen the bones, whereas a 'tranche' may not be — cf. le 'tranche de gigot' I ate yesterday, where the long central bone of course means it can be cut any thickness you like. OK, the 'échine' is not quite the same in terms of bones, but I think the same idea holds good (more or less!)
Certainly, the bone in a 'côte d'échine' is much less 'tidy' (!) than the rather satisfactory bone in a good old pork chop! | 
peer agreement (net): +2
