Irish grass-fed beef is structurally different from grain-finished beef — slower growth means more developed muscle, denser fibre, and a deeper flavour. It also means cuts respond differently to heat. The guide below covers every significant cut, with practical notes on cooking method, value, and what you're actually buying when you order from an Irish butcher.
Cuts are organised by primal — the large sections of the carcass from which individual cuts are broken down. Irish butchers often use different names from British or American guides, so where the name varies we've noted both.
Forequarter cuts
The front section of the carcass — shoulder, neck, and chest. Working muscles that are harder in texture but rich in collagen and flavour. Best value cuts on the animal.
Chuck (shoulder)
Chuck is the workhorse of the forequarter — a large muscle group running from the neck to the fifth rib. In an Irish grass-fed animal, chuck is marbled with connective tissue that, when cooked low and slow for 3–4 hours, converts entirely to gelatin and produces beef of extraordinary depth. It's the cut used in a proper Irish stew, in a beef daube, or in a slow-cooked ragu that coats pasta the way a slow-cooked sauce should.
Chuck is often sold diced for stewing or braising. Ask your butcher for a whole chuck roast if you want to cook it as a single piece — it's ideal for a low-and-slow Sunday roast where you're after pull-apart texture rather than a carve.
Flat iron (feather blade · oyster blade)
The flat iron is the best-value secret in a grass-fed butcher's counter. It comes from the shoulder blade — specifically the infraspinatus muscle — and when the central line of gristle is removed, you're left with a flat, uniformly thick steak that grills beautifully. It's tender, well-marbled for a forequarter cut, and has a distinctive mineral richness that pairs particularly well with chimichurri or a herb butter.
Not every butcher bothers to break down the feather blade this way — it takes skill and extra knife work. If it's on the counter, buy it. It punches above its price point every time.
Brisket
Brisket sits across the chest of the animal — the pectoral muscles that support the weight of the beast. In a grass-fed Irish animal, brisket is a harder-working muscle than in a grain-fed one, which means it needs longer cooking to break down fully. The reward is exceptional: slow-cooked brisket at 8–12 hours is one of the richest, most gelatinous cuts you can produce.
Irish brisket is most traditionally used in a boiled dinner (spiced beef at Christmas is usually brisket). It's also ideal for low-temperature smoking, braised in Guinness, or done as an American-style barbecue brisket over oak for 12–16 hours. Ask your butcher for the point cut rather than the flat if you want more fat and more flavour.
Short ribs (Jacob's ladder)
Short ribs — sold as "Jacob's ladder" when left in a full rack — are the bone-in section cut from the forequarter ribs. They've become restaurant-menu staples in the past decade because braised short ribs have an impressive appearance and deliver flavour that's hard to match: the fat, connective tissue, and bone marrow all melt into the braising liquid, producing something close to the essence of beef.
Grass-fed short ribs are leaner than the feedlot versions you see in American barbecue, which means the braise matters more. Red wine, stock, aromatics, 3–4 hours at 160°C, and the result is a centrepiece worth the time. Gilligan's Farm in Roscommon produces short rib platters as part of their BBQ range.
→ Gilligan's Farm, Co. RoscommonRib cuts
The rib section sits between the forequarter and the loin — the upper back of the animal. Less working muscle, more natural marbling, and the source of the most celebrated grilling cuts.
Ribeye (Scotch fillet)
The ribeye is the most marbled steak on a grass-fed animal — the spinalis muscle (the "cap") that runs around the outside is particularly tender and rich. From a dry-aged Irish grass-fed animal, a ribeye is one of the finest steaks in the world. The combination of slow growth, open pasture, and dry-aging produces a depth of flavour that grain-fed beef, however well-marbled, doesn't match.
Higgins Family Butchers in Dublin are known for their 28-day bone-aged ribeye — dry-aged on the bone in-house for maximum flavour concentration. The Village Butcher in Ranelagh ages their ribeye for 30–50 days and sources from specific named Irish farms, with Belted Galloway and Dexter cattle featuring alongside Angus.
→ Higgins Family Butchers, Dublin → The Village Butcher, RanelaghTomahawk & côte de boeuf
A tomahawk is simply a bone-in ribeye with a long rib bone left intact — typically 30–45cm of bone, making it one of the most visually striking cuts a butcher can produce. A côte de boeuf is the same concept with a shorter bone. Both are prized for the extra flavour the bone imparts during cooking and the theatrical presentation.
Because of the thickness (often 5–7cm), the tomahawk is best cooked via reverse sear: oven at 100–120°C until the internal temperature hits 50°C, then a very high-heat sear in a cast iron pan or over coals to build the crust. Rest for 15 minutes before carving.
Loin cuts
The loin runs along the upper back behind the rib — the least-used muscle group on the animal, and correspondingly the most tender. This is where the premium quick-cook steaks come from.
Sirloin (strip loin · New York strip)
The sirloin is the standard premium steak in Irish butcher shops — cut from the striploin, it has less intramuscular fat than a ribeye but more flavour than a fillet. From a grass-fed Irish animal it's leaner than a grain-fed sirloin, which means technique matters more: a lower target temperature (medium-rare, 54–56°C maximum), a proper rest, and slicing against the grain are all non-negotiable.
A well-sourced Irish grass-fed sirloin — from open pasture, well-aged — is a different product from the vacuum-packed equivalent in a supermarket. James Whelan Butchers in Tipperary, one of the first Irish butchers to sell online, ship sirloin and other premium cuts across Ireland and the UK.
→ James Whelan Butchers, Co. TipperaryFillet (tenderloin)
The fillet is the most tender cut on the animal — the psoas muscle, which runs along the inside of the spine and does almost no work at all. It's the most expensive cut per kilo and the most popular for special occasions. From a grass-fed animal, the fillet is notably leaner than a grain-fed equivalent — it has almost no intramuscular fat, which means flavour comes entirely from the provenance of the animal and the quality of the aging.
Whole fillet (often called fillet of beef or beef tenderloin) is the basis for Beef Wellington — and the McGeoughs in Connemara produce a Beef Wellington as part of their premium catering range, built on Connemara grass-fed beef. Individual fillet steaks are best pan-seared in butter with thyme, cooked to rare or medium-rare, and rested well.
→ McGeough's Connemara Fine Foods, Co. GalwayT-bone & porterhouse
The T-bone is a cross-section cut that includes both the sirloin and the fillet, separated by the T-shaped vertebra. A porterhouse is the same thing, but cut from the rear of the loin where the fillet is larger. Both are generous cuts — usually 500–700g — that deliver two textures and flavour profiles in one steak.
The challenge with a T-bone is even cooking: the fillet side cooks faster than the sirloin side. The solution is to angle the steak so the fillet is further from the main heat source, or to use a reverse sear so the whole steak comes up to temperature evenly before the final high-heat finish.
Hindquarter cuts
The rear of the animal — rump, round (topside/silverside), and flank. A mix of working muscles and tender sections. Some of the best value and most underrated cuts come from here.
Rump
The rump is the hindquarter equivalent of the chuck — a group of muscles that do more work than the loin but reward the cook with more flavour. A properly aged rump steak from a grass-fed Irish animal is, for many people, more satisfying than a sirloin: chewier, more mineral, and cheaper. The trick is longer resting after cooking and slicing thin against the grain.
Rump roasts — cooked low and slow to medium — are excellent and consistently underpriced relative to sirloin. If your butcher has a well-aged rump roast and you're feeding four or more, it's one of the better-value choices on the counter.
Topside & silverside
Topside and silverside are the large, lean muscles of the rear leg — both are economical roasting joints that respond best to low-temperature roasting with plenty of liquid. Topside is slightly more tender than silverside; silverside is the traditional cut for corned beef (spiced beef in Ireland), where it's cured in a salt and spice brine for several days before being simmered slowly.
Both cuts can be roasted medium to medium-rare if the beef is well-aged and of high quality — though they're less forgiving than rib or loin cuts at higher temperatures. Grass-fed topside at medium produces a reliable Sunday roast. At well-done, it's dry.
Flank & skirt
Flank and skirt are from the belly and diaphragm respectively — loose, open-grained muscles with pronounced beefy flavour and almost no fat. Both are best marinated overnight (acid, oil, garlic, herbs) and grilled hard over high heat to medium-rare, then sliced very thin against the grain. They're the cuts used in Mexican carne asada and Brazilian churrasco for a reason: they take a marinade well and deliver extraordinary flavour per kilo of cost.
Not every Irish butcher counter carries skirt consistently — it's sometimes used in mince or sausages rather than cut as steak. Worth asking for specifically if you want it.
Slow-cook cuts
Cuts where the goal isn't tenderness through marbling but through time — collagen-rich muscles that transform over hours into something extraordinary.
Shin (osso buco · beef leg)
Shin is the lower leg of the animal — pure working muscle wrapped in collagen, with a marrow bone running through the centre when cut across. It is, for slow cooking, the best cut on a grass-fed animal. The collagen converts to gelatin over 4–6 hours, producing a braising liquid of extraordinary richness. The marrow adds another layer.
Cut across the bone (osso buco style) and braised in a Milanese gremolata, or diced and slow-cooked into a winter stew — shin produces results that no expensive cut can match for the cooking style. It's also extremely well priced. Ask your butcher specifically for shin rather than a generic "stewing beef", and ask for it on the bone if they'll cut it that way.
Oxtail
Oxtail — the actual tail of the animal, jointed and sold in sections — produces one of the richest and most gelatinous braises in the butcher's repertoire. It's the basis for Irish oxtail soup, for Jamaican oxtail stew, and for the kind of deep beef stock that commercial stock cubes will never approximate. The large amount of bone, fat, and connective tissue relative to meat means flavour is disproportionate to the price.
It needs 4–6 hours of braising and benefits enormously from being cooked the day before — reheated braises are almost always better than fresh ones, and oxtail in particular improves after an overnight rest in the fridge.
Mince & burgers
Don't underestimate what a good butcher does with mince. The provenance, the fat percentage, and the cut composition make an enormous difference.
Minced beef (ground beef)
The best mince from an Irish butcher is made from named cuts — typically a blend of chuck (for flavour and fat) and a leaner secondary cut. Ask what goes into your butcher's mince before buying: chuck mince is richer than round mince, and the fat percentage makes a significant practical difference. For a burger, 20% fat is the floor. For a Bolognese that coats pasta, 15–18% works well. For a lean mince for a stir-through sauce, lean round mince is fine.
iDevour, a nationwide Irish DTC butcher with a subscription range, produce award-winning burgers from Irish grass-fed beef. They won medals at the World Steak Challenge in 2024 and 2025, and their patties are made from single-breed grass-fed cattle.
→ iDevour, nationwide deliveryBurgers
A hand-formed patty from a proper Irish butcher is a different product from a pre-formed supermarket burger. Irish butchers typically blend cuts to hit the right fat percentage, season minimally (salt, sometimes a touch of onion or pepper), and form the patties loosely so they have an open texture that chars well at the edges. Don't press a grass-fed burger on the grill — you'll push out the juice the cut doesn't have much of to begin with.
Gilligan's Farm in Roscommon sell their award-winning burgers as part of their online range. They use their own Roscommon Angus cattle, pasture-raised on open lowland grazing.
→ Gilligan's Farm, Co. RoscommonAir-dried & cured beef
A distinct category — grass-fed beef preserved through drying, smoking, or curing rather than fresh. A speciality of Connemara.
Air-dried beef (bresaola-style)
Air-dried beef is cured with salt and spices, then hung in a cool environment to dry slowly over weeks. The result is a dense, intensely flavoured meat product — similar to Italian bresaola or Swiss Bündnerfleisch — that's sliced very thin and served as a starter, on a charcuterie board, or used to wrap other ingredients.
In Ireland, McGeough's Connemara Fine Foods are the preeminent producers of air-dried and smoked beef. Justin McGeough's range — developed over three generations using Connemara grass-fed beef and traditional curing methods — has won awards at Irish and international food competitions and is stocked by Michelin-recommended restaurants. Their products are available through their online shop for delivery nationwide.
→ McGeough's Connemara Fine Foods, Co. GalwayFinding an Irish grass-fed butcher
The best way to access these cuts is through a butcher who knows where the animal came from.
Many of the cuts above — flat iron, short ribs, oxtail, skirt — aren't routinely stocked in supermarkets. An independent Irish butcher who sources from named grass-fed herds will either carry them or cut them to order. They'll also tell you the fat percentage in the mince, whether the beef has been dry-aged and for how long, and which farm it came from.
The 8 butchers listed on Grassfed.ie all source from Irish grass-fed herds, most with direct relationships with named farms. Depending on where you're based:
- Dublin: Higgins Family Butchers (Sutton, 28-day dry-aged, nationwide delivery) or The Village Butcher (Ranelagh, named farms, 30–50 day aging, heritage breeds)
- Co. Clare: Burren Premium Beef (100% organic, GEOfood certified, 35-day aged) or Lúnasa Farm (certified organic, holistic grazing, Saturday farm shop)
- Co. Galway: McGeough's Connemara Fine Foods (Oughterard, award-winning air-dried range, Connemara lamb)
- Co. Roscommon: Gilligan's Farm (Four Mile House, European Angus champion, Great Taste awards)
- Co. Tipperary: James Whelan Butchers (Golden Vale beef, Ireland's first online butcher, delivers Ireland + UK)
- Nationwide: iDevour (subscription and one-off, World Steak Challenge medals, DTC from grass-fed herds)