A bone-in tomahawk steak of Vacca Vecchia Padana — the prized Po Valley ex-dairy and working cow beef of northern Italy, dry-aged 40 days from Parma. This is a different category of beef from the young grain-fed luxury that dominates the premium UK market. The cattle are mature working cows from the Po Valley dairy tradition, retired from milking and finished for meat at full maturity rather than slaughtered young. The result is meat with deep colour — often a near-purple shade in the raw — intense beef flavour, dense intramuscular fat, and a structural integrity that comes from years of working life rather than weeks of feedlot finishing. It is the beef the great Italian butchers and chefs have always preferred, and the meat behind the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina tradition at its most authentic.

The dry aging is what makes the difference at the table. Forty days in a controlled-environment dry-age room concentrates the flavour as moisture evaporates through the muscle, breaks down connective tissue, and develops the deep nutty, mineral, almost cheese-like aromatic notes that no fresh beef can replicate. The hand-trimmed bark that forms during dry aging is the producer's signature work, removed before sale to leave the prime meat beneath. The tomahawk cut keeps the long rib bone attached for visual impact and structural integrity during cooking — but more importantly, the bone insulates the meat, slows cooking, and provides the basting fat that runs through the eye of the rib as it cooks.

This is a centrepiece cut and a serious eating experience. The flavour is intense without being heavy. The texture is dense, substantial, with a long mineral finish that lingers. Where Australian Black Angus is sweet, clean and buttery, Vacca Vecchia Padana is deep, complex and savoury — the proper Italian counterpoint, and the cut to reach for when the dish is built around the beef itself. Cut and blast-frozen IQF in-house by FINE & WILD to preserve the work of the dry-age room.

Producer: Vacca Vecchia Padana — Po Valley ex-dairy beef, Parma, Italy

Breed: Mature Italian dairy and working breeds, Po Valley

Aging: Dry-aged 40 days Cut: Bone-in tomahawk

Ingredients: Beef (rib, bone-in)

Storage: Store frozen at –18°C or below. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24–36 hours before cooking. Once defrosted, use within 2 days. Do not refreeze.

Allergens: None

Dry-Aged Steak Cuts

Vacca Vecchia Padana Tomahawk Steak