Beef Experts Discover New Cut of Steak

courtesy vegasstripsteak.com

The Vegas Strip Steak

If there were a Nobel Prize for meat, the team of researchers at Oklahoma State University's Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center (FAPC) probably would be a shoe-in this year. The group has discovered an entirely new cut of beef it has named the Vegas Strip Steak, which is being hailed as the first new style of steak in years.

The Vegas Strip, an eye-rolling play on the New York Strip steak, is the brainchild of Dr. Tony Mata, head honcho of the beef industry group Mata & Associates, who approached the FAPC for help developing the cut. "Initially, the cut was labeled as undervalued," Mata told the Drovers Cattle Network. "Whenever we can take a muscle and turn it into a steak rather than grinding it or selling it as a roast, we are adding value to the carcass." (One man's hamburger is another man's steak.)

The steak's website -- yes, this new piece of meat apparently has its own PR website -- describes the cut as 100% muscle, rivaling other cuts like the Flat Iron and New York Strip in terms of tenderness, flavor and amount of dry-aging required. The steak weights in around 14 ounces, but can be portioned down to as little as 4.

If you're thinking about heading into your local meat section and asking the butcher for a Vegas Strip, no dice (yet) -- the steak has been patented as intellectual property, complete with its own licensing arrangements and exclusive distribution rights. Beef is big money here in America.

The only place it's been served to the public so far was at (of course) Vegas' Trump Tower during a special VIP dinner. Guest chef Rick Gresh of David Burke's Primehouse in Chicago cooked steaks for a group of what we would imagine were cattle-industry high-rollers. Apparently it received rave reviews among the guests.

Here's the kicker: Mata and Gresh have yet to reveal where exactly the cut comes from, although they've already lined up national suppliers to start selling soon. We just hope it's not from cows genetically engineered to have an extra muscle in their rumps.