Highland beef
Bos taurus · Meat
Top 10 pairings
Highland beef is the meat of the Scottish Highland (Bos taurus), the small, horned, long-haired hill breed of the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It is insulated by a double coat rather than by a thick jacket of back fat, and it is finished slowly on rough grazing, so the meat comes out darker and markedly leaner than commodity beef — clean and mineral rather than fatty-sweet, with fine marbling through the lean instead of the heavy webbing of a grain-finished steer.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly cut, cherry-red, firmOff: tacky, slimy, smelling wrong
Counter freshEveryday bestSear, roast or braise, but mince needs 160°F (71°C). Pregnant? Cook all meat through.
ColourRed, a brownish cast under lights
Touch the surfaceMoist and clean, still not sticky
SmellMild, clean, faintly meaty
These cues are Beef's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.