Oklahoma State University has “discovered” a new cut of beef that used to be minced for use in burgers, which they are calling the Vegas Strip Steak. The university won't reveal where exactly this steak can be found, because it's trying to patent it.

A combined team at the university's Food and Agricultural Products Centre (FAPC), the Technology Development Centre and university restaurant The Ranchers Club have worked to brand and market the cut of beef.

Meat researcher Tony Mata, said of the mysterious meat: "Initially, the cut was labelled as undervalued. This muscle produces a steak that is on par with, or better than, today's most popular steaks."

Jacob Nelson, a meat processing specialist at FAPC, said, "The department of animal science provided some preliminary objective evaluation of beef steak tenderness attributes." According to the team's analysis (to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt and pepper), their steak is more tender than a butlers' or club steak and doesn't require a long time to age.

Once they had discovered a muscle that could produce a steak, the next step was to try to protect the carcass. This is where the Technology Development Centre stepped in to provide patent guidance. The Ranchers Club subsequently hosted a series of tastings.

The Vegas Strip Steak then had its moment in the spotlight at the illustrious-sounding "Protein Innovation Summit" in Chicago in April.

Steve Price, the associate vice president for technology development at Oklahoma State University, told NPR's Jacob Goldstein: "It's an un-obvious chunk of meat that has just been sititng there—a little diamond surrounded by a bunch of coal. The patent actually claims the kind of knife strokes that you make in order to create this cut of meat. You take this muscle, you make cuts here, here, and here, and you end up with this Vegas Strip Steak."

Traditionally recipes or fashion haven't been patented. That's why companies like Coca-Cola and KFC have opted to make their recipes a "trade secret." The advantage of this route is that trade secrets don't expire, but the downside is that they can be stolen. The OSU team has decided to go the patent route because the cutting technique and location of the "steak" would have to be taught to any manufacturing plant that wanted to sell the steak—meaning that it would be hard to keep it as a trade secret. Instead, they want to get meat plants to acquire a license to produce and sell the steak.