In Brazil, we love our beef. The entire concept of churrasco was made so we could enjoy beef flavors with as little getting in the way as possible. Forget the sauces, leave off the rubs; all we need is some salt, some fire, and some delicious meat.
One interesting element of Brazilian beef is the way we cut and serve the cow. Americans will find some cuts of meat familiar, like the ever-popular filet mignon, but others are rarer or quite different. Some you can’t get outside of Brazil, while others are very similar to American cuts under a different name.
Let’s untangle some of the Brazilian meats you might encounter, what they are, and what makes them special.
Table of Contents
Cupim
Cupim is an interesting cut that you can’t find much of anywhere outside of Brazil. The word cupim in Portuguese actually means “termite,” but fortunately, that doesn’t have much to do with the meat itself. With beef, the cut we call cupim is a gorgeous red, boneless, and marbled with rich fat. It’s usually roasted or otherwise slow-cooked to help the fat render out beautifully and leave you with tender, fall-apart meat, almost like what you get with pulled pork in America. Of course, sometimes you can also find it in churrasco, though it’s not common.
What’s really interesting is that cupim isn’t just a cut you can’t find in the States; it’s a cut that doesn’t exist in the States. That’s because the cut comes from the hump of the cow.
“But cows don’t have humps!” we hear you say. That’s true! American beef cattle, the kind raised almost everywhere around the world, don’t have humps. But one of the species of cattle raised in Brazil, the Zebu, does.
That’s right; cupim is a cut of beef from a species of cattle you may not have even known existed. Though, interestingly, because Brazil exports beef to America, it’s entirely possible you’ve eaten Zebu before and never known. It tastes basically the same, after all.
Fraldinha
If you ask Brazilians what their favorite cut of beef is, you’ll probably get a lot of different answers, but two cuts will come out on top more often than not. One of them is picanha, which will appear later on our list. The other is fraldinha.
Fraldinha is a specific cut from the loin area of the cow. The overall beef loin is cut into the top sirloin and bottom sirloin. The bottom sirloin is generally cut into the ball top, the tri-tip, and the flap steak.
Fraldinha – a Portuguese word meaning “little diaper,” is a piece of the flap steak. It’s usually relatively thin, has a bit of a fat cap on it, and is extremely tender. When cooked properly, it can literally melt in your mouth.
Unlike cupim, fraldinha is fairly common throughout the rest of the world. It’s extremely popular in other areas of South America, and it’s common in Mexico as the main ingredient in carne asada. France calls it the bavette, and the USA just calls it the flap steak. We’re a little more precise about it here in Brazil, but the concept is the same across borders. It’s deliciously tender and flavorful, which is why it’s so prized.
Maminha
Often considered one of the most “noble” cuts of beef, the maminha cut corresponds to something like the tri-tip cut in American beef, but it’s not quite that simple. In fact, the maminha is a sort of cross-over cut. In American cuts of beef, the sirloin and the flank are divided. The maminha is, instead, a combination of part of the flank and part of the bottom sirloin.
Maminha is a popular cut because it’s very versatile. It can be skewered and roasted over fire in a perfect churrasco. It can be roasted whole as a pot roast. It can be cubed up and stewed as part of feijoada or in a stand-alone stew. It can be cut into steak-like strips and pan-fried in a more traditional steakhouse experience. All of these are exceptional uses for the same cut.
Though maminha has a nickname and reputation as the “filet mignon of the grill,” it’s also surprisingly easy to get wrong. When cut improperly, it can end up tough and chewy. You really need to make sure it’s cut against the grain for maximally tender meat.
Costela
Costela is another cut of beef that more or less corresponds to an American cut, but isn’t quite the same, so you have a bit of a different experience in Brazil.
In this case, costela is ribs. In America, ribs are generally separated into different types. You have the back ribs and the plate ribs, you have the spare ribs and the short ribs, and the amount of meat in between them across different cuts can vary.
Costela is generally a longer cut of ribs that includes both the back rib and the plate rib. It’s longer and has more meat on each individual rib, so there’s more to enjoy.
Costela is also cooked in different ways. When you think of American ribs, you probably think of a basket of ribs with a sauce slathered on or even a variety of sauces to try. Brazilian ribs can be cooked churrasco-style with nothing but salt, or they can be braised into stews or soups, but you don’t often find them covered in sauce.
Alcatra
If you’ve guessed that alcatra is a similar but not quite identical cut to something you commonly see in the United States, you’re starting to get the hang of Brazilian cuts of beef.
Alcatra is very similar to top sirloin. Top sirloin can be a fairly large cut in America, but in Brazil, we cut it even longer. A large, thick cut of sirloin, skewered and cooked, is a prized cut in Brazil. Alcatra is a very lean cut, so it doesn’t have much fat to flavor it; beef lovers prize it for the earthiness of the flavor profile and the relatively healthy option from a beef menu it represents.
In Portugal, alcatra is almost always a slow-roasted dish, sort of like an English pot roast. In Brazil, though, we’ve gone our own way, and we almost always cook alcatra on a skewer in the traditional churrasco style.
Much like maminha, alcatra can be cut incorrectly if you’re not careful. Cutting it against the grain is necessary; otherwise, you risk a tough and dry piece of meat. Don’t worry, though; when we bring alcatra back on our seasonal menus at Texas de Brazil, you can rest assured that our gauchos know exactly how to cut and serve each slice for maximum flavor.
Paleta
Paleta is an interesting cut. It’s available in America, as part of the overall chuck, or beef shoulder. In English, it’s given the relatively unappetizing name of “shoulder clod.” Usually it’s parted out, cut into the shoulder center, the shoulder tender, and the top blade, but in Brazil we often keep the whole area as one larger cut.
The reason it’s often parted out is because it’s a relatively tough, irregularly marbled, and tricky to cook cut of beef. If you mishandle it, you end up with something that has tough bits, soft bits, a wide range of doneness, and it all kind of ends up an unappetizing mess.
When done right, though, the paleta is an incredible cut. There are two main options you have. The first is the more Mexican-style option, which involves cutting it into long, thin strips for fajitas. The other option is to use the whole thing in a low-and-slow braise, cooked as a roast or stew. The main goal is to break down the connective tissues that run through it, which can’t be done with hotter, faster cooking.
Peito
Peito is analogous to the brisket in American cuts, though again, it’s not quite the same thing. Most of the cuts are the same, so it’s easy enough to refer to them in the same ways, however. Since it’s one of the most heavily worked muscles on the cattle it comes from, it tends to be large, tough, and full of connective tissues. That means slow cooking methods are needed to make it into something delicious.
Often, you won’t find peito at a churrascaria; instead, it’s used in a stew or roast. Alternatively, it’s one of the more commonly used cuts when smoking meats, and the resulting smoked meat can be used in preparations like feijoada. If you do see it in churrasco, it’s either in a side dish like a stew, or it’s pre-smoked and just lightly roasted over the flame to bring it to serving temperature. Brazilians also use peito to make pastrami and other kinds of cured meats.
Lagarto
The word “lagarto” translates to “lizard” in Portuguese, but the meat itself isn’t made of any lizard. Lagarto can be beef, but it’s also found in pork as well, though truthfully, most of the cuts we’ve listed are also pork cuts. The name lagarto is actually a reference to the longer, thinner appearance of the finished cut of beef.
In American terms, lagarto is the eye of round. It comes from the hind leg and loin of the animal, stretching up through the ribs. The long, thin, tapering appearance, almost like a legless lizard or snake, gives it the name.
As another lean cut full of connective tissues, this is also a cut you commonly find as slow-cooked meat, braised or roasted to render down the collagen and leave tender meat behind. It can sometimes be found in churrasco, but when you find it, it’s usually marinated to help break it down and tenderize it first. It’s one of the few cuts that gets preparation ahead of time for that reason.
Contrafile
The word “contrafile” means “against the grain” and is actually both a specific cut of meat and a technique described by the name. With several of the cuts above, we’ve mentioned cutting them against the grain to make sure they’re tender when they’re cooked; that means you have to cut them contrafile to prepare them properly.
The actual cut known as contrafile is a specific piece of the strip loin and ribeye. It’s named what it is because, in order to prepare it in the first place, you basically have to cut it contrafile to get it to work at all. When you do, though, it’s astounding.
Contrafile is a well-marbled, richly red, and extremely tender cut of meat that is one of the juiciest cuts in Brazilian menus. The fat marbling renders beautifully when it’s cooked churrasco-style, and the end result is one of the most delicious cuts you’ll ever find.
Picanha
Picanha is one we mentioned in passing above; it’s Brazil’s absolute favorite cut of beef. As a cut from the top of the rump of the cow, it’s a bit of muscle with a fat cap. Technically, it’s part of the overall alcatra cut, but the picanha is often cut and prepared separately.
Because of the unique composition of the meat, you have a lean strip and a fat cap that renders out into the lean meat, giving it a rich and fatty flavor without all of the actual fat in place. It’s delicious, it’s easy to prepare, and it’s one of the all-stars of the Texas de Brazil menu.
Since we’re a steakhouse that operates in both the American and Brazilian style, we serve picanha of several different types, including a spicy picanha with a more American-style rub. We also serve several other cuts of beef, though they tend to be the more broadly-available American cuts, like flank steak and beef ribs, rather than their Brazilian equivalents. That said, we make sure to cook everything in our signature churrasco style, which you’re sure to love when you visit.
Want to give these unique Brazilian cuts a try? Find your nearest Texas de Brazil and stop on by! We can’t wait to offer you a taste of home!
