What part of the beef does Cupim come from?

Cupim comes from the Chuck section of the beef.

Cupim

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The neck-shoulder hump muscle of zebu cattle (Bos indicus), uniquely Brazilian — European/American cattle (Bos taurus) don't have this prominent hump. A signature Brazilian churrasco cut: dense, fat-marbled connective tissue that requires long, slow cooking (8 to 12 hours over low heat) to break down, after which it slices into ribbons of meltingly tender meat. Often wrapped in foil and slow-roasted over wood coals at large churrascarias, sometimes salt-baked. Has no real equivalent in any other tradition because the muscle simply doesn't exist on cattle outside zebu-breed regions.

Names by country

Country	Name	Notes
🇵🇹Portugal	Cupim	Loanword used in Portuguese churrascarias; not a Portuguese-breed cut.
🇧🇷Brazil	Cupimprimary	The zebu hump; Bos indicus cattle only — doesn't exist on European/American breeds.

Free Cupim reference card

Diagram, cooking notes, and 8 names on one printable page.

Free. One-page reference.

Similar cuts

Boston buttapproximate

Loosely analogous in cooking treatment — both are heavily-worked shoulder-area cuts that need long, slow cooking to break down. Anatomically distinct: cupim is the zebu-specific hump muscle, Boston butt is the upper shoulder.

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