OT: A5 Wagyu beef

[msugrad2003]

Out of my league 364 days a year, but considering buying a few A5 steaks for Christmas dinner.
Any recommendations of where to get these in the Jackson area (thinking Flora butcher)?
also, I’m pretty good on the BG Egg, but I’m afraid I’ll screw it up so any cooking rec’s would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[aTotal360]

Order them online. https://grandwesternsteaks.com/

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

So let's start with this. I went deep down the rabbit hole on all of this a few years ago. I wanted to become the steak guy with all of my friends. We had brisket guys and rib guys and crawfish boil guys. So I went all in on steak.

When we say A5. The A is irrelevant to us, it's just the yield of beef compared to the weight of the carcass. The 5 is what matters. It is the marbling score the scale of marbling is 1-12. Anything with 5-7 marbling gets a "4" and 8-12 gets a "5". So within "A5" wagyu, there's a pretty big range.

Next, what matters more than anything is the species/region of the cattle. I probably bought wagyu from a half dozen or more butchers in the Dallas area. There was always a big range of quality, but I do remember most of the wagyu coming from South Texas and I got one steak from a Colorado ranch at my butcher and it was noticeably better.

Fast forward to today. Mountain/Northern cattle are amazing compared to the crackhead cattle I saw all around TX. These 17ers are huge up here. Cool summers let them fatten up for cold winters I guess.

So with all that said, the best wagyu you will buy is Snake River Farms gold grade. It's American wagyu (which everything else you get your hands on will likely be) which is better. The founder of SRF basically started wagyu in the US and brought over a dozen or so bulls before Japan banned the export if the bulls.

SRF bred the Japanese cattle with Angus and has mastered it. Wolfgang Puck says it's better than Japanese wagyu because you get the Japanese marbling and the string beef flavor from the Angus.

The gold grade has a marbling score minimum of 9. So it's going to be as good or possibly higher than "A5." And after having it all the time now, there is no going back.

With that said, I am lucky in that it's available in the grocery store here. I will post some photos later of some of these bad boys I have cooked.

So my suggestion is find what you want from SRF's website and use that as your starting point. If you're butcher can get you A5 significantly cheaper from CO, WY, MT, ID, and WA... Go go for it. But if you are dead set on the best, SRF is it.

For cooking, I have a Kamado Joe and don't use it for steak. I either go cast iron skillet to sear and finish in oven or use my inferno steak cooker.

https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/home.

Cool video CBS did on SRF. Good info on wagyu.

https://youtu.be/hIA6btQ5cG4


Here's a less than $10 per lbs SRF wagyu petite steak I picked up a few months back... Delicious.

View attachment 23016

This is what I cook my steak on now, an Inferno overfired broiler. 1500+° 1.5-1.75 minutes per side for a 1.25" steak.

View attachment 23017

View attachment 23018

 

[Dawgbite]

The Butcher Shop in Pensacola Florida, they ship. Ribeye was $39.99 per pound a couple of weeks ago when I was in there. Picked up a Wagyu brisket flat in the discounted for quick sale cooler, it may be Christmas.

 

[msugrad2003]

Thanks for the education

 

[msudawg12]

Snake River Farms and be happy

Although flora butcher is awesome if you want to go local and look

 

[Crazy Cotton]

My COSTCO Christmas flier I got yesterday has wagu available. It is not cheap. Never tried it from there, maybe others can comment.

 

[Mobile Bay]

Is it normal for your marbling to completely disappear at room temperature? The ones I buy do. The fat melts at that low a temperature.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

All marbling virtually disappears at r room temp and completely between room temp and 125°. Refrigerator temp vs frozen is a big deal too. Those badass "A5 Kobe" pics are all frozen.

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

So let's start with this. I went deep down the rabbit hole on all of this a few years ago. I wanted to become the steak guy with all of my friends. We had brisket guys and rib guys and crawfish boil guys. So I went all in on steak.

When we say A5. The A is irrelevant to us, it's just the yield of beef compared to the weight of the carcass. The 5 is what matters. It is the marbling score the scale of marbling is 1-12. Anything with 5-7 marbling gets a "4" and 8-12 gets a "5". So within "A5" wagyu, there's a pretty big range.

Next, what matters more than anything is the species/region of the cattle. I probably bought wagyu from a half dozen or more butchers in the Dallas area. There was always a big range of quality, but I do remember most of the wagyu coming from South Texas and I got one steak from a Colorado ranch at my butcher and it was noticeably better.

Fast forward to today. Mountain/Northern cattle are amazing compared to the crackhead cattle I saw all around TX. These 17ers are huge up here. Cool summers let them fatten up for cold winters I guess.

So with all that said, the best wagyu you will buy is Snake River Farms gold grade. It's American wagyu (which everything else you get your hands on will likely be) which is better. The founder of SRF basically started wagyu in the US and brought over a dozen or so bulls before Japan banned the export if the bulls.

SRF bred the Japanese cattle with Angus and has mastered it. Wolfgang Puck says it's better than Japanese wagyu because you get the Japanese marbling and the string beef flavor from the Angus.

The gold grade has a marbling score minimum of 9. So it's going to be as good or possibly higher than "A5." And after having it all the time now, there is no going back.

With that said, I am lucky in that it's available in the grocery store here. I will post some photos later of some of these bad boys I have cooked.

So my suggestion is find what you want from SRF's website and use that as your starting point. If you're butcher can get you A5 significantly cheaper from CO, WY, MT, ID, and WA... Go go for it. But if you are dead set on the best, SRF is it.

For cooking, I have a Kamado Joe and don't use it for steak. I either go cast iron skillet to sear and finish in oven or use my inferno steak cooker.

https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/home.

Cool video CBS did on SRF. Good info on wagyu.

https://youtu.be/hIA6btQ5cG4


Here's a less than $10 per lbs SRF wagyu petite steak I picked up a few months back... Delicious.

View attachment 23016

This is what I cook my steak on now, an Inferno overfired broiler. 1500+° 1.5-1.75 minutes per side for a 1.25" steak.

View attachment 23017

View attachment 23018

I can see next week’s magazine already: “Engie explains to JoeLeesSocks how to cook Waygu.”

 

[oxfordrebel22]

Follow the advice on here about Snake River Farms. The gold grade Wagyu is absolutely incredible. I don’t do it very often either, because it just seems wasteful to me. But once you bite into it you won’t care, I promise. I keep a few (3-4) in the freezer just in case a special occasion pops up on me and I don’t have time to get some ordered. Like if a great friend and his wife are coming over or something, birthday dinner for wife, etc. I can’t honestly say that SRF is that much better than other options because I stumbled upon SRF on the front end. A friend grilled some for me and the Mrs. and his wife, and we ordered some the next day. We were hooked. It’s hard to describe how good it really is. If you like steak, you’ll love it. Guaranteed.

A warning though - it will make you like “regular” steak less. I don’t mean it’s not enjoyable, it is. But you know it’s not SRF gold grade. It’s kinda like your dad giving you a brand new F-250 King Ranch for your first vehicle. You aren’t going to like other trucks nearly as much from then on. Or killing a 210 class whitetail. That decent 6-point isn’t as fun anymore. And of course it’s very expensive. If you catch a sale or something you can get filets for around $60 a piece I think (going off memory). But it’s a great experience and something to look forward to once or twice a year. Let us know when you cook them!

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

While we are on the subject. If any of you are looking for something to ask your wife to get you for Christmas and you love steak, I encourage you to explore the world of overfired broilers. In my research, I found the best steakhouses in America use Montague Legend overfired (heat from top down) broilers to cook steaks.

So about 3 years ago I got a home version. There were only about 3 brands at the time. Otto Wilde out of Germany ($1500.) Beefer out of Germany ($700.) And Northfire Inferno out of Canada ($450.) Mrs Socks got me the Inferno for Father's Day in 2018. They all work about the same, with the German ones you may get better craftsmanship, but the Inferno has been flawless to date.

Here's an episode of How to BBW right with Malcolm Reed and the Beefer guy showing you how it's done.



After you start cooking steak this way, there is no going back. I'm talking Peter Luger perfection at home. The crust is unbelievable. Use this exact method in the video. I had a pretty tough learning curve as the Inferno broiler works great, but they had **** chef/grilling instructions and methods.

As OxfordReb stated, once you level up with steak, it's hard to go back. I can make a well marbled choice taste better on the Inferno better than the best wagyu on a Weber gas or my Kamado. You just can't beat that crust from the super high temperature.

So if you're interested, there are a whole lot of new players in the game now vs when I bought mine. But I can speak to the quality of the Inferno, it works great and is apparently on clearance for under $300 right now. Not sure if they are going out of business or what, but if you have a good grill and smoker, but want Santa to bring you another toy. I promise you won't regret it.

https://www.northfire.com/


ETA. Get the full sized, not the go. You get extra trays, better heat, and all the racks slide out in the full size for easy cleaning.

 

[maroonmadman]

Hey JoeLee, let me get this straight; Do you sear first in a cast iron skillet and then broil or do you use this broiler exclusively?

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Broiler exclusive. Over 1500°, I guess only a torch can compete.

Watch the embedded 6:00 video of the Beefer with Malcolm Reed. It explains it all better than me. You actually season after. Anything but salt will turn to ash. The salt gets funky too. Better to just salt after and make a pan sauce out of compound butter and drippings.

 

[oxfordrebel22]

While we are on the subject. If any of you are looking for something to ask your wife to get you for Christmas and you love steak, I encourage you to explore the world of overfired broilers. In my research, I found the best steakhouses in America use Montague Legend overfired (heat from top down) broilers to cook steaks.

So about 3 years ago I got a home version. There were only about 3 brands at the time. Otto Wilde out of Germany ($1500.) Beefer out of Germany ($700.) And Northfire Inferno out of Canada ($450.) Mrs Socks got me the Inferno for Father's Day in 2018. They all work about the same, with the German ones you may get better craftsmanship, but the Inferno has been flawless to date.

Here's an episode of How to BBW right with Malcolm Reed and the Beefer guy showing you how it's done.



After you start cooking steak this way, there is no going back. I'm talking Peter Luger perfection at home. The crust is unbelievable. Use this exact method in the video. I had a pretty tough learning curve as the Inferno broiler works great, but they had **** chef/grilling instructions and methods.

As OxfordReb stated, once you level up with steak, it's hard to go back. I can make a well marbled choice taste better on the Inferno better than the best wagyu on a Weber gas or my Kamado. You just can't beat that crust from the super high temperature.

So if you're interested, there are a whole lot of new players in the game now vs when I bought mine. But I can speak to the quality of the Inferno, it works great and is apparently on clearance for under $300 right now. Not sure if they are going out of business or what, but if you have a good grill and smoker, but want Santa to bring you another toy. I promise you won't regret it.

https://www.northfire.com/


ETA. Get the full sized, not the go. You get extra trays, better heat, and all the racks slide out in the full size for easy cleaning.

I do have family begging me for gift ideas… I’m intrigued.

A question for you, though - obviously this type of cooker is ideal for high grade steaks. Have you cooked just regular, run of the mill grocery store filets and ribeyes on it? And if so is it still better than a Green Egg or comparable charcoal grill? Reason I ask is it just seems to me like the lower quality steaks might benefit from the seasoning/marinade and charcoal flavor. As a fellow SRF Gold Grade lover, I 100% understand how that likely makes it even better. But that meat doesn’t need extra help.

We grill steaks 1-2 night a week, and obviously I can’t (and wouldn’t if I could) go A5 Wagyu that often. We typically go USDA Choice, and sometimes just whatever I grab at local grocery store, if they look decent. Appreciate you!

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

I have cooked all kinds of steaks on the Inferno. The quality of sear helps lock in any flavors. Up until moving to SRF nirvana I cooked choice steaks half the time and would splurge on dry aged, prime, or Wagyu the other half of the time. All are better than I could do on my Kamado by a long shot. The second best place to cook a steak is in a cast iron skillet, but the Inferno is just better.

To add flavors since you don't want to nuke a run with that high heat, make a compound butter for the dripping pan. My go to is a blue cheese compound butter. Throw it in the bottom and let it melt with the dripping and put on the plate Onder the steak or drizzle over top... Or both.

The drawback is it's a pretty limited tool. You can throw some salmon in and a few other things, but it is pretty much a one trick pony... But it's a damn good trick. Also you don't want to cook more than a few steaks at a time since it's one at a time. After 2-3 you feel like the line cook at waffle house. Also, it has size limits. You're not shoving a 2 foot tomahawk in there. About 20-22 0z ribeyes are the biggest I go. And I like to keep my thickness between 1-1.5"... But that applies to any type of cooking method unless you sous vide It guess. All said, If you cook steak weekly, it's a no brainer.

I have a big boneless SRF wagyu ribeye going in in a couple of hours. Check our grilling and drinking thread and I will try to post several photos.