The hardest part about making the world’s most insanely rich, ridiculously indulgent Wagyu steak at home? Paying for it.
What makes Wagyu so expensive and desired at our plates?
This gourmet meat features intense marbling, rich flavours, and health benefits that are magnitudes beyond other selections of beef. Wagyu beef is uniquely healthy. The ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat in this meat is higher than in other varieties, so it’s better for you while offering a better flavour. Wagyu beef offers high concentrations of essential fatty acids and has a higher percentage of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol when compared to other types of beef.
Ok, I got the meat. Now what?
Japanese Wagyu, like foie gras and and white truffles, is an immodestly luxurious ingredient with a tenderness of texture and purity of taste that makes dry-aged steak look cheap. At about £200/kg, it’s also laughably expensive. Technically, because the meat is so rich, 1 kg feeds 6 people.
After you’ve made the decision to purchase Wagyu, then naturally you want to cook it the ideal way. Everything about a Wagyu steak-the brain-like marbling, the quasi-religious care with which it is butchered, the imposing Japanese heritage of the stuff—demands more than mere respect. It demands competence. Competence in cooking a kind of meat that is clearly very different than the average steak.
Image by: Vegan Liftz
Most restaurants are charging you by the grams or ounces. And those grams add up, to easily double or triple what you’d pay at the butcher.
Despite all the fuss, cooking process for Wagyu is embarrassingly easy. Basically sear, season, and serve.
Heat a cast-iron pan. We like to go pretty hot. While the pan is heating, take the Wagyu out of the fridge and out of its package. Then, trim some of fat off the edge. Run that fat around the skillet to grease the pan.
It should create a slippery surface of rendered beef fat. Now, watch and be amazed.
If you like to cook your steak black and blue, cook it just a minute or so on each side, then let it rest and add some finishing salt.
You may be surprised at how short of a cooking time Wagyu needs, but it isn’t bound by the rules of mere steak. Its insane marbling means that its flesh cooks far faster.
If you cooked it to a typical medium-rare, it could shrivel into a tiny, golden-brown nub with an even higher price per ounce than it started out with.
Best Wagyu professional cooks normally pour the pan juices over the top after it’s sliced. You don’t want to lose that delicious goodness. Just serve it with some soy sauce and wasabi on the side since wasabi balances the richness of beef.
At the end sprinkle some flaky sea salt over one slice, add a dab of the wasabi and taste the goodness.
The perfect texture
If cooked properly, the texture should be very rich and buttery. The texture is completely different from other steaks. A lot of people look at it and think, it’s too much fat. But considering all the health goodness coming with Wagyu quality, we will still eat it. Wagyu is not an everyday thing. It’s a special occasion food. It should be celebrated for what it is.
So who’s got a special occasion coming up?
