How To Choose Wagyu Beef And Cook It To Perfection

Wagyu beef is quite expensive and is considered one of the world’s finest delicacies. It ranks high up there with foie gras and caviar. It is something that everybody should try at least once in their lives no matter what their economic status. 

How To Choose Wagyu Beef And Cook It To Perfection
[image: pexels by pixabay]

Eating perfectly marbled meat of A5 wagyu beef or its cousin Motobu gyo is a pure revelation. However, it is only good when it is in the right hands. It can be cooked in the wrong method and not able to be enjoyed to its fullest. It takes careful and thoughtful preparation to get the most out of it. 

Wagyu is a breed of cow from Japan that is raised in such a way that it develops an incredible amount of fat. This fat makes it taste exquisite and gives it a particular texture when cooked. To avoid any mistakes, this article will help you learn how to cook it. 

How to choose the beef

Just like any other type of beef, there are a lot of different cuts. And each cut is going to need to be cooked accordingly. For instance, brisket is a piece that comes from the front-rear forequarter and is an extremely touch piece of meat unless it is braised or cooked at a very low temperature. A ribeye is a steak that needs to be cooked dry and quickly.

Wagyu is the same in that you need to know what each piece is and how to treat it. There are a few things to look for regardless of the cut, however. The marbling is the most important aspect of the meat and is what makes it a luxury product. It should have freckles of meat speckled throughout the fat layer. The meat should be red and firm and the fat should be white and predominant throughout the cut.

Wagyu is graded according to how much it is marbled. The top-grade is A5 and has marbling that is most consistent. In fact, it looks like a cut is marbled with meat rather than marbled with fat.

Steaks

It is very important to understand that wagyu beef is not meant to be eaten in large quantities. Many people expect to eat a steak like a porterhouse just as they would a piece of black Angus. The amount of fat would make it an unpleasant experience to eat it in a big quantity. Although it costs upward of $300 per pound for a ribeye, that pound of meat should be eaten by at least four people. The idea is that each person should have no more than five bites of meat.

The steak should be thinner than what would normally be chosen for a traditional beef steak. Cooking should be fast and at a high temperature leaving the center of the steak medium-rare. 

Shabu Shabu

This style of cooking the meat is preferred depending on the cut that is chosen. It only lightly cooks the meat so the flavor of the fat is still pronounced. Then it is dipped into a variety of sauces that complement the flavor of the beef.

Sirloin is perhaps the ideal cut of beef for this preparation as it usually has the best proportion of fat to meat. It has a rich and full bodied flavor with every bite and handles the sauces well without getting overpowered. 

Tough cuts

There are certain cuts of beef that usually need long cooking times to be able to eat. They are tough and have a lot of connective tissue. Wagyu beef has the same cuts but thanks to the fat content they don’t need to be cooked for as long. 

Brisket is a tricky one to cook as braising it will reduce the fat to nothing and not offer as much of the experience from eating it as a result. However, using it for a burger will lead to a juicy and full-flavored one. 

Skirt steak is also usually fairly tough but full-flavored so great for things like tacos or as an ingredient for churrasco. The wagyu version is far more tender thanks to the fat content and can be cooked quickly over charcoal and served with a bold barbecue sauce. 

Sukiyaki

This cooking method is similar to shabu shabu in that it is cooked in a hot pot. The difference is that ingredients are added to the pot and then enjoyed in the broth rather than taking them out to eat separately. 

Tough cuts are often good for this method if they are shaved extremely thinly. The short rib or brisket cut will give a lot of flavor and handle the quick-cooking method.