Cooking a Wagyu Steak

[Fellers Ranch]

@ Moscha Good points . . . Other than about me making a living being a chef or grill master. Most of my time with Fellers Ranch is spent on the production side of the cattle -- ranging from researching genetics, to sourcing different supplies of young calves, to working with veterinarians.

A couple of my partners know much more about grilling, smoking, etc than I do. They are the ones that really formulated the cooking recommendations we give to customers.

Actually, the reason I am here is that I wanted to learn more about this side of the beef industry. I happened to mentioned that to a competition BBQ guy that we provide briskets to (and sponsor). He suggested that I look at the Amazing Ribs Website, and consider joining this forum . . . which I am glad he did. I have learned a lot of great info!

[texastweeter]

I prefer American wagyu or prime. I like the chew. We raise a heard of grass fed grass finished angus....and sell it as no roll. We all prefer corn fed. With wagyu most people prefer medium side of medium to help render it better, I still prefer blue. Then again I dry are it for 65 days first. Dry aged beef and wagyu cook faster than regular beef due to less water content. Dry aging removes much of the water obviously. Hi scoring wagyu has less water due to the higher lipid content. Less red meat muscle which contains a high percentage of water. Long story short, they will cook faster.

[bbqLuv]

Guga Foods grills Yagyu steaks over hot coals. He has a number of wagyu steak videos.
Here is one How to grill a $200 GIANT WAGYU steak | Guga Foods - YouTube

[Mosca]

So how did this go? We’re hangin’ here!

[BillyBriskets]

Well, my friends… that was easily the best steak I’ve ever had. I’ll attach photos but I am no photographer and my lighting will do nothing any justice.

I was cooking for my dear sweet mother, step dad, wife and myself. As soon as I opened the packaging I was hit with a beautiful smell that compelled me to slice off a piece to eat raw. Wow. It just tasted so fresh and melted like butter. I knew I was in for a treat… I started with the two 1-inch thick NY strips in a cast iron medium high heat light kosher salt. I haven’t cooked a steak like this since learning reverse sear like 7 years ago. The fat immediately started rendering out and a good crust formed in less than a minute. I dialed back to medium as the crust formed so quickly. Checking temp every 30 seconds and flipping every minute it seemed like it took forever to get an internal temp to 100… but when I got to 100 it was already at 135 in less than 30 seconds. I pulled them off and on to the cutting board at the table.

I sliced the 2 steaks into strips and a couple grinds of pepper and everyone basically had half a steak. Everyone’s reaction was the same. Holy crap! So incredibly tender. Juicy. Flavor was beef perfection even with such little seasoning used.

The women were satisfied with round 1, but the men needed more. I cooked up the ribeye quick the same way just a bit hotter because it was half inch. It was equally as amazing as the my strip. I would typically go for a ribeye if I’m going all out on steak but with this wagyu, it’s all so tender and juicy, I’d say they were equal in deliciousness.

The reason for this occasion is that my wife and I welcomed our third child into our family so we were having a barbecue for my side to come visit from out of town. The wagyu steak dinner with the mom and stepdad was the night before the barbecue. Today’s barbecue I made a brisket, chicken thighs, and a butternut squash lasagna for the non-meat folks. It was all great and so wonderful and at the end of the night I cooked the last ribeye to share with the extended family. Everyone completely blown away. It was nice getting to see family I don’t get to see much anymore and share in some truly unbelievable food. I’ll remember it forever. I can’t thank you all enough for the advice. It really made both nights extra special.

[Mosca]

Beautiful! Excellent! I agree with you on the strip/ribeye. Almost every time I go for the Wagyu strips.

[DaveD]

Wow, this whole thing sounds like such a memorable experience!! So glad for you that it worked out so well. And I learned a LOT - see my post below!

[DaveD]

Hey folks, came here to Beef discussion to ask pretty much this very same question, so this thread has been very informative.

I recently built up enough CrowdCow reward points to redeem for this pair of A5 Wagyu strip segments. Each piece weighs 1/3lb/150g and is no more than 0.75in/2cm thick, and comparing with the graphics on the little info card they included with the shipment, I'd say the BMS score would be about 9 or 10.



Said card also recommends slicing up the cuts and then cooking the slices, eating immediately, but that's just not practical in our kitchen unless we stand at the stove and eat. No way I'm doing that for meat this good! So the game plan is to cook them as they are, be sure all the sides are ready, and plate them immediately.

Sounds like I should aim for using the CI skillet (I don't have a good stainless steel pan, which is what the info card recommends using) and get it to about 400F/200+C, season lightly with just salt and pepper, and monitor the ITs like a hawk. I'll take the advice to go to a little more doneness than I would with a prime steak, so for us that means up to say 135F/57C (my usual is 131F/55C). And clearly there will be no need for oil in the pan or any other added fat...

It'll be a couple of weeks before I do these - we are going to be away on family travel next week, so it'll wait until we get home. We have a redeye flight (not to be confused with a ribeye flight!) home a week from Friday, scheduled to arrive a little after 7am Saturday morning - UGH. So I might wait until the following weekend so that I can be fully compos mentis and get maximum enjoyment out of the meal. Rest assured I will document at my usual ridiculous levels of detail!

[STEbbq]

I mean, this thread has all the advice and an excellent outcome to build on Dave. I am pretty jealous you amassed enough points for this kind of glorious meal. It should be pretty epic.

[BillyBriskets]

Awesome! Now that I am a bona fide expert here the only thing I’ll reiterate from the thread is that these are more filling than your typical steak. And I need to be looking into these points you’re talking about… Enjoy!

[DaveD]

Resurrecting this thread to note that I'll be making these Wagyu strip segments I posted about above for our New Year's Eve meal. My lovely bride will contribute her excellent sauteed shrooms & onions side dish, and I'll do the Jess Pryles roasted taters and some broccoli to round it out.

Thawed out the pieces in the fridge over the past few days, and just salted them for dry brining:






Wish me luck!

[Mosca]

Good luck, but you won’t need it. Beautiful steaks!

[Fellers Ranch]

How did they turn out?

My wife and are going to a Super Bowl party, and we asked what we can bring for an appetizer. The hosts know we raise Wagyu and asked if we could bring something. Normally we'd bring jerky or beef sticks, as the fit the usual snacking food idea.

We are trying something different this time. We are bringing 4 highly marbled ribeyes. BMS 9.

Most people that will be there have never had really good Wagyu steak. We will cut them into 1-2 ounce samplers. Will be interesting to see how people like them. I will walk around with them so that everyone can try one. (If we just put them on a tray . . . the first few samplers may try to get a full meal! 🤣

[Mosca]

I’ve done that, and it works out well. I did exactly as you are thinking, but with strip steaks: cut into thin strips about 2” each, with toothpicks. They were a big hit.