Kobe/Wagyu Beef

Gents,

I wish I was able to post a picture and tell of my experience here...but sadly I have none!

Has anyone else had this type of beef? How was it cooked? What were your thoughts, and do you have some pictures to share?

Thanks!

Vr

Matt

Gosh, I wish I had. I lived in Japan for over three years and never tried it. Just waaay too expensive for my tastes (word play there).

I've had it when visiting Japan. Its most notable feature is how marbled it is.
Typically the Japanese sliced it very thinly and sautée it very briefly.
Another very popular way is shabu-shabu: the very thin slices are poached in a hot-pot with vegetables and mushrooms and other good things.

Ron...that makes me sad...reminds me of my pal that lived in South Africa for three years and never got to see the flying great whites...when he went to see them...they had disappeared/vacated seal island!

Ugghhhh!  Grrrrrr!

(03-01-2019, 10:50 AM)Rory1262 Wrote: I've had it when visiting Japan. Its most notable feature is how marbled it is.
Typically the Japanese sliced it very thinly and sautée it very briefly.
Another very popular way is shabu-shabu: the very thin slices are poached in a hot-pot with vegetables and mushrooms and other good things.

Rory...that sounds delicious!  My mouth is watering...so it wouldn’t be a cut of beef one buys and throws on the grill?

Vr

Matt

(03-01-2019, 11:44 AM)Ols67 Wrote:

(03-01-2019, 10:50 AM)Rory1262 Wrote: I've had it when visiting Japan. Its most notable feature is how marbled it is.
Typically the Japanese sliced it very thinly and sautée it very briefly.
Another very popular way is shabu-shabu: the very thin slices are poached in a hot-pot with vegetables and mushrooms and other good things.

Rory...that sounds delicious!  My mouth is watering...so it wouldn’t be a cut of beef one buys and throws on the grill?

Vr

Matt

24 oz. $300.00 on Amazon, right now. I think it fluctuates with the price of gold...

Definitely no grilling! It exists for the marbling and needs to be cooked to retain it; at least the one I have seen and heard about, never having had it myself. It's similar to pig backfat from what I gathered. A thin slice of backfat is just warmed to turn it translucent and then consumed on breadstuff. Part of a heart healthy diet it is not, but the taste is excellent.

I am going to have to research this further on the best way to make it!  I am not a savage afterall...disregard my thoughts of grilling it!

Vr

Matt

Had Kobe in Japan.  Delicious and rare.  What we get in USA is wagyu which is the same but not raised in Japan.  A bunch of it is raised on a ranch an hour north of me.  It's delicious too.

I've had both Kobe and Wagyu beef.  When I cooked for a living I cooked Wagyu burgers (regularly) and steaks (rarely) either grilled or on a flat top.  If you overcook Wagyu or don't manage your grill temperature the meat becomes greasy, and it's not a pleasant mouth feel.  I have found Wagyu tough to grill because as the fat renders you are going to get a lot of flare ups and you need to constantly move the meat around so it doesn't char.
I was fortunate enough to eat at The French Laundry last summer.  This is 100 day dry aged American Wagyu.  I'm not sure why the picture is upside down, the original is right side up.

The steak was amazing.



 

(03-02-2019, 04:24 AM)Sully Wrote: I've had both Kobe and Wagyu beef.  When I cooked for a living I cooked Wagyu burgers (regularly) and steaks (rarely) either grilled or on a flat top.  If you overcook Wagyu or don't manage your grill temperature the meat becomes greasy, and it's not a pleasant mouth feel.  I have found Wagyu tough to grill because as the fat renders you are going to get a lot of flare ups and you need to constantly move the meat around so it doesn't char.
I was fortunate enough to eat at The French Laundry last summer.  This is 100 day dry aged American Wagyu.  I'm not sure why the picture is upside down, the original is right side up.

The steak was amazing.



 

Whoa! The French Laundry you say...I am putting that on the list of my restaurants to eat at...that steak looks like the Mona Lisa of meats!

Vr

Matt

Aaah... that’s better   (and mouth-watering!)

(03-01-2019, 03:20 PM)Lipripper60 Wrote: Had Kobe in Japan.  Delicious and rare.  What we get in USA is wagyu which is the same but not raised in Japan.  A bunch of it is raised on a ranch an hour north of me.  It's delicious too.

O.k., let’s straighten this out a little.  The Japanese word for cattle is gyu (ぎゅ); the Japanese prefix for Japanese style is wa (わ).  Wagyu simply means beef of the Japanese style.  Kobe beef is a subset of the more general wagyu.

Kobe beef got an early buzz and fame because of the way the cattle were treated.  They were force-fed beer (that’s right), and constantly massaged to distribute the fat among the sinews.  For most of their existence, life is very good for Japanese kine; however, each one of them does have one very bad day.  

Today, the most prestigious type of beef in Japan is Matsuzaka beef; it is another well-marbled tender beef that hails from the east side of the Kii Peninsula near Shingu (the Ise Grand Shrine).  

Kobe beef, wagyu, Matsuzaka beef:  they're all good.  

But then, so is kinmetai (golden-eyed red bream, or splendid alfonsino).  

I have one local store that sells a lot of exotic proteins and they had american wagyu strips for $20/pound one time I was there so I jumped on some. It was a pretty quick cook but I thought the meat was awesome... definitely richer than your regular cut of beef.
An online retailer that I've been hearing a lot about is Holy Grail Steak (https://holygrailsteak.com/), its definitely very pricey but supposedly the quality is unbelievable. I've been fighting myself not to splurge on an order from there or Flannery.

(03-08-2019, 11:32 AM)jesseix Wrote: I have one local store that sells a lot of exotic proteins and they had american wagyu strips for $20/pound one time I was there so I jumped on some. It was a pretty quick cook but I thought the meat was awesome... definitely richer than your regular cut of beef.
An online retailer that I've been hearing a lot about is Holy Grail Steak (https://holygrailsteak.com/), its definitely very pricey but supposedly the quality is unbelievable. I've been fighting myself not to splurge on an order from there or Flannery.

Yeah! That looks amazing, and thanks for the website! I will def get something from there for next big special occasion!

Vr

Matt

I hear good thinks of Joseph Decuis Wagyi Farm in Indiana. Never have the time to check It in person. But it’s in my list.

On a related note, yesterday we bought some wasabi to go with some sashimi we'd bought.
I noticed that on the wasabi box, the pictured serving suggestion was on steak.
That had never struck me before, and it hadn't occurred to me to try it before getting that prompt.

We had a porterhouse, and a little wasabi with it is indeed a nice accent.

(Yesterday, 09:05 AM)Rory1262 Wrote: On a related note, yesterday we bought some wasabi to go with some sashimi we'd bought.
I noticed that on the wasabi box, the pictured serving suggestion was on steak.
That had never struck me before, and it hadn't occurred to me to try it before getting that prompt.

We had a porterhouse, and a little wasabi with it is indeed a nice accent.

Porterhouse...HUGE YES...it just doesn’t get any better!

Wasabi...I am too much of a wimp!!! Glad you found it to your liking though...I have been using Montreal seasoning as of late...pretty good if you haven’t tried!

Vr

Matt

(Yesterday, 09:05 AM)Rory1262 Wrote: . . .  yesterday we bought some wasabi to go with some sashimi we'd bought.
I noticed that on the wasabi box, the pictured serving suggestion was on steak.

We had a porterhouse, and a little wasabi with it is indeed a nice accent.

I hope that the moderators will recognize that the following link has nothing to do with shaving, and does not promote a competitor to a site sponsor; in fact it does not promote any brand that a member of this forum is likely to find in a store.  Rather, it is about culture:  the culture of wasabi, and its relation to the land.