I've noticed recently in various venues here in the Houston area, that we're starting to see a lot of American Wagyu beef. I'm seeing it in specialty shops, at the butcher and even whole sections of the meat counter at the grocery store. As it becomes mainstream, I think you're going to start seeing it as an everyday, upscale offering like that of Prime and Choice cuts of beef.
One thing that obviously jumps out at you is the price. It's a cut above Prime in moist cases as you would expect it to be. But is it really that much better than Prime? I'm beginning to buy some of these cuts to satisfy my own curiosity. It's easy to read a review in a forum and listen to the superlatives, but how much of that is subjective hype?
Let's begin by defining what American Wagyu is. I'm not going to go into a long explanation, most of us either know or have heard of it by now. American beef growers started importing Japanese Wagyu bulls as far back as 1976 to cross-breed with Angus and other domestic breeds of cattle. Since then there have been a number of different strains that have come out of close to 45 years of breeding. So truly defining what exactly American Wagyu is and what the standards are seems confusing at best. If interested here's an article that sums up the breed.
American Wagyu
So back to my quest, I decided to begin to seek out some of the various ranches here in Texas an try their meat. Some have seen the reviews on the A Bar N products that are being sold. Others, like Imperial, have some interesting looking offerings. For this review I've chosen a smaller ranch outside of San Antonio to showcase a really good looking tri-tip I bought from a specialty store here in my area. The name of the ranch is Peeler Farms out of Floresville, Texas. Here's the packaged product, you can see the price I paid for what should be a superior cut of meat.
After the obligatory salt brining overnight, I decided to bag my prize and SVQ it. Tri-tips, due to their shape, can be a little tricky to cook medium rare all the way through. SVQ gives you the best shot at accomplishing that. Here it is pre-bath looking good.....
So into the bath at 130* for about 3.5 hours. I gave it a 30 minute cool down in some ice water and place it into the refrigerator to sear it off later on that day. When the time came I got out my Jumbo Joe (aka "Joey") and loaded him up with about 3/4 of a chimney of white hot coals. Cooked the roast indirect until it got up to about 105* IT then gave it a nice reverse sear. After resting for about 20 minutes we carved it and ate.
Now for the verdict and the money shots. First of all when carving (and some of you know what I mean here) I hit a tough membrane that occurred between the bottom of the meat and the fat cap. It was tough, I mean shoe leather tough. I knew immediately that portion of the steak was going to be a problem. As yes in about half the roast there was this sinewy, tough membrane that chewed like bubble gum when encountered. It got to where I just had to cut away the bottom portion of each slice to avoid it.
The meat itself was very tender other than that. Was it superior to Prime? No way. In fact the Prime tri-tips we usually get from Costco are superior at half the price. So given that a portion of the roast (maybe 12-14%) was inedible and the rest was just good but not great, I give this offering a low grade. Especially given the outrageous price I paid.
If I had bought this directly from Peeler Farms I would probably give them a call. I think; however, that I'll move on to other offerings. This was a one and done for me. Next up is an A Bar N American Wagyu brisket I have wet aging in my fridge. At the very least enjoy the money shots, overall it was a very good piece of meat despite the obvious hidden flaws, just not worth the price I paid.
One thing that obviously jumps out at you is the price. It's a cut above Prime in moist cases as you would expect it to be. But is it really that much better than Prime? I'm beginning to buy some of these cuts to satisfy my own curiosity. It's easy to read a review in a forum and listen to the superlatives, but how much of that is subjective hype?
Let's begin by defining what American Wagyu is. I'm not going to go into a long explanation, most of us either know or have heard of it by now. American beef growers started importing Japanese Wagyu bulls as far back as 1976 to cross-breed with Angus and other domestic breeds of cattle. Since then there have been a number of different strains that have come out of close to 45 years of breeding. So truly defining what exactly American Wagyu is and what the standards are seems confusing at best. If interested here's an article that sums up the breed.
American Wagyu
So back to my quest, I decided to begin to seek out some of the various ranches here in Texas an try their meat. Some have seen the reviews on the A Bar N products that are being sold. Others, like Imperial, have some interesting looking offerings. For this review I've chosen a smaller ranch outside of San Antonio to showcase a really good looking tri-tip I bought from a specialty store here in my area. The name of the ranch is Peeler Farms out of Floresville, Texas. Here's the packaged product, you can see the price I paid for what should be a superior cut of meat.
After the obligatory salt brining overnight, I decided to bag my prize and SVQ it. Tri-tips, due to their shape, can be a little tricky to cook medium rare all the way through. SVQ gives you the best shot at accomplishing that. Here it is pre-bath looking good.....
So into the bath at 130* for about 3.5 hours. I gave it a 30 minute cool down in some ice water and place it into the refrigerator to sear it off later on that day. When the time came I got out my Jumbo Joe (aka "Joey") and loaded him up with about 3/4 of a chimney of white hot coals. Cooked the roast indirect until it got up to about 105* IT then gave it a nice reverse sear. After resting for about 20 minutes we carved it and ate.
Now for the verdict and the money shots. First of all when carving (and some of you know what I mean here) I hit a tough membrane that occurred between the bottom of the meat and the fat cap. It was tough, I mean shoe leather tough. I knew immediately that portion of the steak was going to be a problem. As yes in about half the roast there was this sinewy, tough membrane that chewed like bubble gum when encountered. It got to where I just had to cut away the bottom portion of each slice to avoid it.
The meat itself was very tender other than that. Was it superior to Prime? No way. In fact the Prime tri-tips we usually get from Costco are superior at half the price. So given that a portion of the roast (maybe 12-14%) was inedible and the rest was just good but not great, I give this offering a low grade. Especially given the outrageous price I paid.
If I had bought this directly from Peeler Farms I would probably give them a call. I think; however, that I'll move on to other offerings. This was a one and done for me. Next up is an A Bar N American Wagyu brisket I have wet aging in my fridge. At the very least enjoy the money shots, overall it was a very good piece of meat despite the obvious hidden flaws, just not worth the price I paid.
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