Two steaks from our The Best range have been awarded gold medals in the 2019 World Steak Challenge, beating top quality steaks from farms in Argentina and Australia. The award-winning steaks in question are our Morrisons The Best British 21 Day Matured Shorthorn Ribeye Steak and Fillet Steak, produced in Scotland. 

The Challenge saw over 250 entries from 23 countries. Steaks were judged on their appearance, marbling, aroma and colour, followed by a blind taste test that took into consideration their tenderness, flavour and succulence. Judging was conducted by a panel of the world’s most prominent experts, including chefs and butchers, without telling them the weight or origin on the meat. 

Our Head of Meat, Joe Mannion tells us more about our gold medal-winning steaks: "This steak comes from the Shorthorn breed which is renowned for its texture and flavour.  Morrisons has helped to revive this British breed over recent years working with farmers to produce these award-winning steaks. As the only UK supermarket to work directly with livestock farmers, we can select the very best cattle. We then age the beef for 21 days to make it even more tender and full of flavour."

The Shorthorn breed develops a marbled texture that gives it more flavour and tenderness than other varieties. This marbling develops thanks to it being a slower growing breed, having evolved in the British climate to keep warm. 

Both of Morrisons ribeye and fillet steaks are a grain fed Shorthorn Cross, and are produced at Morrisons site in Aberdeenshire. 

You can find out more information about the World Steak Challenge here, and to round off our celebration, see how clued up you are on all things steaks with these top facts:

Did you know?

  • The word steak is derived from the 15th century Scandinavian word ‘steik’, which literally means ‘meat on a stick’
  • There are officially six levels of ‘doneness’ for steak: very well done, well done, medium, medium rare, rare and blue
  • You would need to eat three times as much chicken or fish to get the same amount of iron from one serving of steak
  • A T-Bone steak is a steak cut through the bone with a fillet steak on one side and sirloin on the other
  • A recent study revealed the average intake of fat was 7.9g for 200g of steak, compared to 7.9g for a 246g of chicken breast