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I had a Wagyu steak on July 19, 2014... it was $95. I recall it being really good but no better than a $20 steak.
Wagyu just means it's from one of four Japanese cattle breeds...no more, no less.
Kobe Beef means a host of requirements:
Tajima cattle born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Farm fed in Hyōgo Prefecture, a heifer or steer, processed at slaughterhouses in Kobe, Nishinomiya, Sanda, Kakogawa, or Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture
Marbling ratio, called BMS, of level 6 and above, Meat quality score of 4 or 5, yield grade A or B, Carcass weight of 499.9 kg or less.
In the US the term isn't protected so if you're buying it, hard to say what it means.
Not sure if this qualifies for this thread but I am not a fan of grass fed beef. It just has an off taste to it. I will only buy pasture raised from WF
The best tasting red meat has got to be venison. If you like medium rare beef. Having quality venison is like eating the tender portion of the ribeye beef. Some may say venison is too gamey, it is about as close to grass fed beef. Sure it doesn't have the fat of ribeye but if you like the tender soft red meat then venison is so much cheaper than beef.
Adding this: my local market that sells certified Hereford, sells a rib eye that is aged for 5 weeks. That will show you what aging does for beef. That is one spectacular piece of beef ( and not cheap).
The really expensive steak houses are serving a very well aged steak. You know, the kind of meat you can't buy for yourself and you have to go and shell out the huge price at their restaurant in order to get one of theirs.
I have had dry aged at various premium steakhouses in NYC metro area, and I just cant taste or see why its better. And I consider myself a food connoisseur.
Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun
I also like grass fed meat, but my understanding of the price difference, is that it takes the animal much longer to gain weight & get to the right size for harvesting. Grain makes them grow much quicker. So as they harvest fewer animals, the cost is more.
Same, I cant tell difference between grass or corn fed. I used to think corned beef, was corn fed beef, but no.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea
One aspect of "best" with beef not yet mentioned is the way it is cooked and what seasonings are used. Properly cooked, many cuts that are not premium cuts can be flavorful and tender.
I went to a local restaurant with a friend from Vermont a few years back and he declared his steak the best he had ever tasted. Mine was from the same cut, and while it was a decent steak, the main difference was it had a Montreal type steak seasoning.
Montreal seasoning is how Quebec makes its very of corned beef/pastrami. I cant wait to go back up there for my fill of it. I cant believe its not more popular outside of Quebec.
Beef is most affected by processing and aging. Then the flavor is greatly affected by what the animal was eating. You are very unlikely to buy properly aged beef at the supermarket. However, there is a difference in the choice grade Angus and the select grade beef I buy. The choice grade has very obviously been aged longer. The select often smells green and it has a higher moisture content.
A local market sells Wagyu beef and it is pretty darn good. The same market also sells certified Hereford, and that is quite good. The Hereford is not graded but, visually, it looks like choice grade.
The flavor of Holstein is excellent and the texture of the meat is quite fine. It's not economical to raise as beef, so you won't be finding any certified Holstein in the market.
In my opinion, the flavor of Angus has slipped. It has become too mild. The Angus breeders have a great program where they breed for size of rib eye, low birth weights, ease of calving, amount of marbling, but they forgot to breed for flavor.
That is not true about Charolais cattle. They are a double muscled breed and the meat has a tendency to be a bit tougher. They don't put on any more or any less fat than any other cattle breed.
If you can afford it and you can find the farmer, you can buy a side from someone who is raising beef for their own table so they aren't skimping of feed quality and care. The breed doesn't matter much. It is more about what is fed and how the animal is butchered and aged.
Aging! Bing-bing-bing! The best steak I've purchased was from a really old butcher shop on Old National Pike between Frederick and Hagerstown MD. I think it was called Mains Meats. Their 'cooler' had been in operation for over 100 years, and you could purchase real aged beef- I mean grey on the outside. The enzymes in that old cooler worked their magic. They had 21 day all the way to over 100day aged meat. Their specialty cut was an aged Delmonico And me and my buddy would buy two or four thick cut steaks. It was pricey but oh....my....God- best steak I have ever had.
Given the area I'd imagine it was Angus- but after aging like that- who cares!!!?
The best tasting red meat has got to be venison. If you like medium rare beef. Having quality venison is like eating the tender portion of the ribeye beef. Some may say venison is too gamey, it is about as close to grass fed beef. Sure it doesn't have the fat of ribeye but if you like the tender soft red meat then venison is so much cheaper than beef.
We eat a lot of venison and wild game and so long as the fat is properly trimmed there really is no 'gamey' smell or taste.
By far the best cuts will be the 'back strap' or chop. If large enough you can get some nice flatiron steaks, which personally I prefer over all else. And cooking is KEY- rare to medium rare and that's IT. Anymore and the meat gets tough and loses most of the flavor.
Another thing we do on a sirloin roast is to 'lard' the roast with a larding needle. We melt down fresh lard and add finely minced garlic, pepper and salt then load the needle and inject into the roast at various places. That really helps.
I've had Wagyu, and didn't think it was worth the hype. One of the best steaks I ever had, was an 'ordinary' sirloin at a nameless diner at a two-lane crossroads somewhere in Kansas. It was tender enough to almost rival a filet mignon and had great flavor...and it wasn't particularly expensive.
I can rarely find Prime beef so I usually have to settle for Choice, and I'll take Angus over 'ordinary' if the price is right. I prefer NY Strip, don't like the rib-eye- too fatty for me, if I could afford to eat Tenderloin on a regular basis, I would. I no longer have a gallbladder so I have to be careful about my meat- the wrong stuff will have me running for the toilet inside of an hour.
I don't have a clue as to breeds or the difference between grass-fed or corn.
Venison- Red-Deer has a distinctly different flavor from beef, but I've slipped some Whitetail and moose to the wife when she wasn't aware, and she didn't know the difference except to say that those meals were some of my best- she didn't have a clue that it wasn't beef (and she would have one hell of a conniption-fit if she ever found out what I did).
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