Cuts · UK butchery
Rump cap
The cap muscle off the top of the rump, with its fat layer. AHDB separates it along the natural seam and names it picanha in the specification — so a UK butcher can supply it, and the thing to get right is the fat.
Known as
The same muscle carries different names in different butchery systems, and some of those names mean different cuts elsewhere. Where a name is ambiguous, BBQHQ says so rather than picking one.
- United Kingdom
- Rump cap
- Picanha
AHDB's own cutting specification uses this word for the cut.
What to ask a butcher for
- United Kingdom: The cap off the top of the rump, with the fat left on and untrimmed. AHDB's own specification uses the word picanha, so the term should be understood.
Where it comes from on the animal
Biceps femoris cap and fat layer
Hindquarter, rump · moderate use · connective tissue: moderate
The cap muscle over the rump with its fat layer. AHDB's specification separates it along the natural seam between it and the main rump muscle — so the separation is standard British practice, and what differs between systems is how much fat is left on it.
Muscles: Biceps femoris (cap)
Asking a butcher for it
Named the way uk butchery names it. If the counter does not recognise the name, the anatomy is the fallback: ask for the cut by where it comes from.
- What to say
- Rump cap, or Picanha (GB) depending where you are.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for hindquarter, rump — the muscle is Biceps femoris (cap).
- What to specify
- Typical weight is 1.0–1.5 kg.
What it is suited to
Derived from how hard the muscle works and how much connective tissue it carries, which is the pairing that decides whether a cut wants a fire under it or beside it. BBQHQ does not rank cuts and does not name a best one.
- Moderate connective tissue: it will take either approach, and the two give genuinely different results rather than one being a compromise.
What to use instead
A substitute is not the same as an equivalent. These are graded, because “yes, use that instead” is the answer that ruins dinners: most real substitutions work only once something about the cook changes.
Workable, once you change the cook
The same muscle, and AHDB's specification uses the Brazilian name for it. What differs is the fat: AHDB caps the rump cap at 15 mm of fat, and a picanha is cooked on a thicker cap than that. Ask for the cap off the rump with the fat left untrimmed.
- AHDB specification Rump V003 caps fat thickness at 15 mm; a picanha depends on a thicker cap.
- AHDB's B005 specification cuts the cap into steaks across the grain; a picanha is often cooked whole or in thick C-shaped pieces.
- BBQHQ holds no Brazilian specification, so the Brazilian side of this mapping rests on the British document that adopted the term.
Workable, once you change the cook
The same muscle, separated the same way, in both national specifications: AHDB takes the cap off the rump along the natural seam, and IMPS item 184D takes the M. biceps femoris off the top sirloin butt through the natural seams — and calls it the Coulotte in the specification text. Promoted from 'approximate' when the US specification was finally read.
- US butchery assigns it to the top sirloin butt; UK butchery treats it as part of the rump. The muscle is the same; the primal it is booked to is not.
- AHDB caps rump cap fat at 15 mm. IMPS 184D states no fat limit, leaving it to the purchase specification — so a US coulotte may arrive with more or less fat than a British rump cap.
- Not identical anatomy: the fat cap is what a picanha is cooked by, and two specifications that differ on fat are not interchangeable for barbecue.
Asking for it in another country
Brazilian butchery: Overlapping cut
The same muscle, and AHDB's specification uses the Brazilian name for it. What differs is the fat: AHDB caps the rump cap at 15 mm of fat, and a picanha is cooked on a thicker cap than that. Ask for the cap off the rump with the fat left untrimmed.
What differs
- AHDB specification Rump V003 caps fat thickness at 15 mm; a picanha depends on a thicker cap.
- AHDB's B005 specification cuts the cap into steaks across the grain; a picanha is often cooked whole or in thick C-shaped pieces.
- BBQHQ holds no Brazilian specification, so the Brazilian side of this mapping rests on the British document that adopted the term.
US butchery: Overlapping cut
The same muscle, separated the same way, in both national specifications: AHDB takes the cap off the rump along the natural seam, and IMPS item 184D takes the M. biceps femoris off the top sirloin butt through the natural seams — and calls it the Coulotte in the specification text. Promoted from 'approximate' when the US specification was finally read.
What differs
- US butchery assigns it to the top sirloin butt; UK butchery treats it as part of the rump. The muscle is the same; the primal it is booked to is not.
- AHDB caps rump cap fat at 15 mm. IMPS 184D states no fat limit, leaving it to the purchase specification — so a US coulotte may arrive with more or less fat than a British rump cap.
- Not identical anatomy: the fat cap is what a picanha is cooked by, and two specifications that differ on fat are not interchangeable for barbecue.
The UK side of these mappings rests on AHDB’s published cutting specifications, which BBQHQ has read. The US side does not: USDA’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and the Beef Checkoff cut pages both refuse automated access, so no mapping here reaches “same cut” across two butchery systems. See the open question.
Typical size
1.0–1.5 kg