I’ve been thinking about this one for almost a week. It’s a hard one to write, and when I’m done you might know why, or you might be just as puzzled as I am.
These are the Wagyu steaks I got from Allen Brothers. There were circumstances that allowed me this luxury, and these are the "snow beef", I could look up the province and all that but who cares. I saved them to have as appetizers for our Christmas rib roast, but there were only five of us, so I only prepared one of them, the upper one. They are 10 oz each.
Yeah, just like you read about, when they thaw they are almost oily, the fat gets like jelly. I let it get to room temperature; you don’t just cook a $150 steak without doing a lot of reading and watching a lot of videos, and that seemed to be the right thing to do. Most suggestions say to cook to medium; not medium rare, not scorched on the outside and raw on the inside. All I did was salt it, no pepper.
This was pretty easy to do, using a cast iron skillet. I didn’t time anything, I didn’t temp it, I just cooked it until it looked medium. Flip, flip, flip, flip, every few seconds, until it looked medium.
It should be pretty clear by now, after all these years here, that I’m pretty basic, not a fancy pants guy. I took a sharp knife and cut the steak into strips, cut those strips in half, and got out my finest Chinet, along with a couple dozen toothpicks.
This last photo ticks me off, I usually take a decent shot. This was supposed to show the doneness. Trust me, it’s medium; pink center, no red.
Was it good? Hell yes. Was it everything that all the buzz and all the talk and all the anticipation led me to believe? HELL NO.
It’s beef. Really, really good beef. Excellent beef. It feels different. But it tastes like beef. Everyone loved it. But no one was rolling their eyes back into their head. You know how you read, "Oh, you can’t eat a whole steak, it’s too rich, you feel full after just a few ounces!" Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s bull**. I could eat a whole one of those easy. And you could, too. And then eat the prime rib. Everyone ate a couple ounces of Wagyu, and then had salad, baked potato, broccoli, and a huge honkin’ slice of USDA prime rib roast. And then chocolate cream pie, fer chrissakes.
Who knows. Maybe I did it wrong? Maybe I should have charred it more, started it cold and have it redder in the middle? I don’t think so. The texture was there, the sort of sponginess that you can’t tell from a photo. It certainly wasn’t dried out, you can see in the last photo how fatty it still was. Maybe thicker steaks? Maybe. I have the other one, I can try it the next time we can have folks over, and I have three more that I picked up at Wegman’s that are equally marbled.
I don’t have any idea how to sum this up. It was great, but it wasn’t anywhere near as different and as spectacular as I had expected. Given a flat out preference, price independent, I’d still take a good prime steak without blinking; and price dependent, I would tell anyone that they should eat it if it’s free, because, hey: free Wagyu! But they aren’t missing anything if they decide to keep their $100+ in their pocket.
I’ll try this for the tl/dr version: great steak, but disappointing.
See what I mean? Even that isn’t really exactly right.
Let me try again: tl/dr: great steak, not worth it.
That’s not really right either. It certainly is rare enough.
Last try: If you have the opportunity, try it, but it’s still just meat.
Blend all those together, I guess.
These are the Wagyu steaks I got from Allen Brothers. There were circumstances that allowed me this luxury, and these are the "snow beef", I could look up the province and all that but who cares. I saved them to have as appetizers for our Christmas rib roast, but there were only five of us, so I only prepared one of them, the upper one. They are 10 oz each.
Yeah, just like you read about, when they thaw they are almost oily, the fat gets like jelly. I let it get to room temperature; you don’t just cook a $150 steak without doing a lot of reading and watching a lot of videos, and that seemed to be the right thing to do. Most suggestions say to cook to medium; not medium rare, not scorched on the outside and raw on the inside. All I did was salt it, no pepper.
This was pretty easy to do, using a cast iron skillet. I didn’t time anything, I didn’t temp it, I just cooked it until it looked medium. Flip, flip, flip, flip, every few seconds, until it looked medium.
It should be pretty clear by now, after all these years here, that I’m pretty basic, not a fancy pants guy. I took a sharp knife and cut the steak into strips, cut those strips in half, and got out my finest Chinet, along with a couple dozen toothpicks.
This last photo ticks me off, I usually take a decent shot. This was supposed to show the doneness. Trust me, it’s medium; pink center, no red.
Was it good? Hell yes. Was it everything that all the buzz and all the talk and all the anticipation led me to believe? HELL NO.
It’s beef. Really, really good beef. Excellent beef. It feels different. But it tastes like beef. Everyone loved it. But no one was rolling their eyes back into their head. You know how you read, "Oh, you can’t eat a whole steak, it’s too rich, you feel full after just a few ounces!" Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s bull**. I could eat a whole one of those easy. And you could, too. And then eat the prime rib. Everyone ate a couple ounces of Wagyu, and then had salad, baked potato, broccoli, and a huge honkin’ slice of USDA prime rib roast. And then chocolate cream pie, fer chrissakes.
Who knows. Maybe I did it wrong? Maybe I should have charred it more, started it cold and have it redder in the middle? I don’t think so. The texture was there, the sort of sponginess that you can’t tell from a photo. It certainly wasn’t dried out, you can see in the last photo how fatty it still was. Maybe thicker steaks? Maybe. I have the other one, I can try it the next time we can have folks over, and I have three more that I picked up at Wegman’s that are equally marbled.
I don’t have any idea how to sum this up. It was great, but it wasn’t anywhere near as different and as spectacular as I had expected. Given a flat out preference, price independent, I’d still take a good prime steak without blinking; and price dependent, I would tell anyone that they should eat it if it’s free, because, hey: free Wagyu! But they aren’t missing anything if they decide to keep their $100+ in their pocket.
I’ll try this for the tl/dr version: great steak, but disappointing.
See what I mean? Even that isn’t really exactly right.
Let me try again: tl/dr: great steak, not worth it.
That’s not really right either. It certainly is rare enough.
Last try: If you have the opportunity, try it, but it’s still just meat.
Blend all those together, I guess.
) 
Comment