I should have known better but I was bored with my cooking and took a shot. $175 for two good sized steaks. I only cooked one. Simply seared with nothing but some sea salt. It has been awhile since I have been so disappointed. It is a slab of beef fat. It is like eating fresh tallow. I hated it. Fortunately I didn’t open anything grand but finished an open bottle of De Negoce #17 which had the acid to break through. Not my thing at all. I feel like I disrespected the animal. Ashamed that I participated. I makes me look at my food intake.
I bought two packages. First, the price was $130/lb so 2 steaks for that price. Second, the fat content on my steaks was no more than usual Waygu A5. Third, you have to know how to cook this. I cook it frozen. Sear on a red hot cast iron skillet for a minute each side. Comes out beautifully rare. Serve with a fresh made yakiniku sauce.
I purchased an Kobe A5 strip steak 3 weeks ago. Never had tasted before. While it was fun and insightful, I will probably never do it again. Just too rich for my taste. My $147 experiment.
This beef isn’t a toss a steak on the plate and dig in thing. It’s best consumed in small quantities, sliced fairly thin, like as an appetizer/finger food. A little goes a real long way.
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I like making a5 with reverse sear. You have to be careful to avoid flaring it though.
I cut it into strips or cubes and then cook to crispy edges, and 1 steak is served in pieces on a plate with other sides similar to an Asian family style dinner (rice, various vegetables, sauces etc), shared on the table, or raw on a plate and do Yakiniku. Grilling and ripping into A5 ribeye or NY solo would curb me.
I am certain of cooking it properly. There was barely enough muscle to call it meat. I just never expected to hate it. I will try and use leftover for a fried rice dish but boy. Not my thing at all. Folks complain that foie gras is animal abuse but i never hear anything but how theses cows are lovingly tended. Yet looking at my steaks, i have to wonder. Is this honorable husbandry? Nothing i have ever eaten has so made me consider going vegetarian.
I prefer Kobe/Japanese Wagyu cooked Yakiniku or something similar ala Côte in NYC. Rather than an entire meal of ribeye, I like a series of different cuts and textures: heart, tongue, skirt, throat, short rib, ribeye, sirloin, etc. A little ribeye goes a long way.
Not being judgmental, but why? Sounds like a lot of finagling just to make it worthwhile. In a similar vein, I stopped ordering octopus at restaurants a long time ago after learning more about them.
I’ve stopped buying those larger slabs of high-grade Japanese wagyu simply because the fat content is overwhelming for me and my family. In the last few instances, I cut them up into and sear-cook small pieces (a la Côte NYC as Mark noted above) just to limit the cloying fattiness, but found the fat still overwhelming.
We’ve been more content with the American washugyu from our local Japanese butcher-store or so-called wagyu cuts from Snake River farms that have a lot marbled fat but still have the beefiness to help balance it.
Absolutely. Diced and skewered is also a nice way to go. Beef is just one (albeit an important) part of a great izakaya night out. Some of my favorite experiences at Raku in Vegas may have involved no more than 6-9oz for the table. It is probably some of the best beef I’ve had ever.
IMO one of the best cuts of A5 is lifter (rib cap). It’s inexpensive and spectacularly good, and has less innate fat than ribeye or strip, so it has a fantastic texture.
My fav A5 cut is the filet since it’s naturally less fatty.
As far as portion size, I cut my 1lb into 4 steaks and my wife and I share each one. So that’s about 2 ounce servings which is perfect. Also reduces the cost to about $17/pp.
the blade/lifter is different from the rib cap - it’s on top of the rib cap
Agree with most who say that the cooking method really matters. A5 Wagyu is an amazing product, but if you take a 1.5" thick ribeye, toss it on the grill, wait until it gets to medium rare and eat, it’s gonna be terrible. My method. I take out of the fridge 1 hour ahead of time. A5 fat starts to liquify just over room temp so it will already be getting that ‘greasy’ look before cooking. I cut into strips, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and no more than 1" wide. Take a cast iron skillet, set the flame on high and wait until blazing hot. I cook 1 strip per person, only about 1 minute to 1.5 minutes per side, aiming for medium rare. And that’s it. Amazingly delicious product, not ‘fat’ exactly, at least not fat like a regular steak, just full of delicious flavor. For those who prefer filet mignon vs ribeye, A5 Wagyu is not for you I think. Oh, I also agree that I like NY strips more than I like ribeyes, as ribeyes have too much fat even for me.
CostCo has a sale, might have one now, you can buy a striploin for $1,000 delivered. Usually comes in at 12 pounds, so you get it for about $80 per lb. I split this with 2 other friends, we all get a good deal. Freezes great as the fat content is so high.
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Yeah it’s a different cut but people call it rib cap as well. I think ribeye cap is a better description to the steak ppl are talking about that’s spiral cut from the top of the ribeye. Anyways the lifter is a superb cut for wagyu, IMO. It’s typically thin sliced for shabu shabu but I like to grill it as a whole and slice thin. Ribeye cap wagyu would be way fatty most likely.
They are very smart creatures, who know they are about to perish. You should see them try to escape from restaurant holding tanks, as they watch nearby fish getting grabbed for slaughter.
I too have stopped eating octopus, and really all other seafood.
Go full-bore decadent. Grind each steak into hamburger, and grill it down to one mini-slider, and serve with ketchup.
yeah i’ve been buying it at wholesale for the last 2 years, surprised it took this long to really penetrate into the market. Super SUPER cheap at wholesale.
+1000
Cooking an A5 waygu like a regular steak is like taking a stick of butter, scooping a spoonful into your mouth and wondering why butter is terrible.
it’s not, it’s just not intended to be consumed that way…