Brahman

Brahman is the zebu side of cattle — Bos indicus, the humped, big-eared animal of South Asia — bred up on the Texas Gulf Coast into an American breed that now underwrites beef across the hot half of the world: Brazil, the US Gulf states, northern Australia. Culinarily it is a different animal from a taurine steer. Its muscle carries more calpastatin, the brake on the enzymes that tenderise meat after slaughter, so the carcass softens slowly; the meat is firmer, coarser-grained and leaner, with less marbling and a cleaner, less fatty flavour. It wants either long ageing or long moist cooking, which is why churrasco and tropical braises are built the way they are.