Wagyu steak is a prime offering. When getting started with cooking it, STEVE BAIN’s advice is to keep it simple.
We have covered many strategies with meat over the dozen or so years that we have been butchering and cooking for Small Farms magazine. Typically, the meat ‘hero’ of the recipe is something you could have reared, caught, or hunted for yourself.
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This edition’s meat focus is a little different.
Let’s say you wandered into your favourite butcher shop and decided to purchase some wagyu. Then you get it to the cooking station at home and a question pops into your head: do you cook wagyu any differently than ‘normal’ beef?
The answer is yes and no.
Just keep it simple, cook it for a little less time and keep in mind that there are more don’ts than do’s.
The don’ts are all about ‘keeping it simple’. That is, don’t do too much fancy stuff.
Let me explain.
Wagyu, because of its greater intramuscular fat content than ‘normal’ beef, will cook quicker (hence the oft repeated concern about keeping a close eye in so as to not overcook such a prime offering). For this reason, it is not a good idea to reverse sear a wagyu steak if it is the first time you are cooking one. Reverse searing starts in an oven and then finishes by searing both sides of the steak in a hot pan. It just happens that as a by-product of using two cooking methods, you run the risk of overcooking the wagyu. The idea is to be able to watch the wagyu during cooking, and the best place to do this is in a pan on a stove top. So the philosophy is to not make the cooking too complicated — keep is simple.
Incidentally, the marbling in wagyu (it is a genetic trait of wagyu cattle) apparently has a lower melting point than that in regular meat, hence the buttery effect.
Another keep-it-simple strategy is to avoid any seasonings other than salt. Don’t marinate, don’t grind away with the pepper mill ... not for your first attempts, anyway. Why attempt to make the wagyu taste like your ‘normal’ steak? Wagyu has a rich, beefy butteriness to its flavour profile — it can even be a little sweet. It is this butteriness that sets wagyu apart.
To ensure that the buttery experience is enhanced, it is good idea to melt more intramuscular fat by cooking the steak to a little more doneness than your typical red meat preference. This slightly longer cooking time on each side (given the same thickness of steak) results in a little more of the intramuscular juices and flavours rendering among the wagyu’s red meat. Logically the result is greater buttery texture and taste on your palate, while the wagyu beef’s richness boldly impresses upon your tastebuds.
Like a good wine, the unique wagyu flavour lingers in your mouth for quite some time afterwards. For this reason, wagyu should be eaten slowly with a break between each morsel. The richness also leads to another consideration and that is to serve slightly smaller wagyu steaks than you might for regular beef. One way to do this, and also achieve the desired shorter cooking time while accommodating a slightly higher degree of doneness (say medium instead of medium-rare) is to cut the wagyu steaks thinner than your regular thick-cut scotch-fillet or porterhouse. If you normally cut a porterhouse to a thickness of, say, 40mm to 50mm, then give wagyu a try about 20mm to 25mm.
Porterhouse is often a recommended choice cut with wagyu as the porterhouse wagyu offers a balance of rich beef flavour, tenderness and butteriness. Arguably it is the blend of richness and butteriness that sets wagyu apart from regular beef.
It is a different taste: cook it fast, simple, watching closely to achieve slightly more doneness (but don’t overcook it). Then eat it slow, eat slightly less and take time to savour the flavours.
The final don’t is don’t be surprised if the richness and butteriness ‘maxes’ you out. Like any other rich food, there is a limit and moderation makes sense while it is all new to you, hence the suggestion to eat a slightly smaller amount than normal and take your time with it.
I mentioned above that wagyu imparts richness yet sweetness to the palate. Accordingly, accompanying a properly portioned and nicely cooked wagyu steak with a side savouriness of pickled vegetables is, in my opinion, ideal.
Step 1: To orientate a little background around the porterhouse cut of meat, here is a whole porterhouse. This one weighs about 4kg. The porterhouse comes from the back of a beef carcase, between the ribs and the rump.
Step 2: The knife tip points to the porterhouse steak in a T-bone.
Step 3: For illustrative purposes, this porterhouse steak has been trimmed away from the T-bone.
Step 4: A whole Porterhouse and a normal steak from it ... compare it to the wagyu porterhouse steak in the next photo. Note the marbling in the wagyu meat (marbling is the white fat among the red meat).
Step 5: A close-up study of the wagyu porterhouse, from above. Again, note the intramuscular fat/marbling in among the red beef meat in the wagyu.
Step 6: Note the thinness of the wagyu. This piece, about 20mm to 25mm thick, is approximately 200 grams. A wagyu steak is trimmed a little thinner than regular steak. This increases the doneness for the same amount of cooking time, which can reduce the cooking time and also means that you eat a smaller amount, which reduces the risk of feeling like you have overindulged in something that is richer than your normal fare. Like a fine wine, you consume less and taste more for longer.
Step 7: Another image to show the differences between different types/grades of porterhouse. At the top is an economy cut (cut quite thin). This is a typical cheaper/economy price-point product from a supermarket butcher. In the middle is a premium grade thick cut porterhouse and at the bottom is the wagyu, which is the focus of this article. Just for the curious, the porterhouses increase in cost from top to bottom.
Step 8: Preheat your pan with dripping (i.e. fat). Trim the fat from some of the wagyu and use this trimmed fat in the pan as the cooking oil/dripping. You can top it up with ghee (clarified butter) or even just butter if that is all you have. Start the pan at a low heat to slowly melt the fat offcuts. As the fat renders, smear the fat around the frying pan to coat the pan’s base.
Step 9: Ensure that the steak has lost its fridge coldness and is dry on the surface. You may pat it dry if needed. Then just before cooking, grind a little salt on it.
Step 10: Now, before starting to cook the wagyu steak, remove any unmelted fat from the hot pan and crank the heat up a little to get ready for a good sear on the wagyu’s surface. Cook the wagyu steak on one side in the preheated hot pan (you want it hot enough that you hear the sizzle as soon as the steak kisses the pan) on your stovetop. Cook until the steak’s surface is seared. Then cook it on the other side (keep it simple). Once cooked — to medium is recommended — the amount of intramuscular fat will ensure the steak doesn’t become too dry for your preferences. Then set the steak aside to rest while you prepare the side dish on the serving plate(s).
Step 11: Serve alongside a plate of pickled vegetables.
Medium-done wagyu: A medium doneness is pink, rather than red, in the middle and with a nice seared char on the outside. A good sear will give a little ‘crunch’ to the bite. Just a tip, slightly tongue-in-cheek: if you haven’t set off the smoke alarm when searing indoors, then possibly you haven’t tried hard enough (hence why there’s a barbecue outside at those serviced-accommodation suites). More seriously, crank that extraction fan up when searing.
Steve Bain