Done Up Like a Kipper!
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:17 am
Fools and their money. Isn't that what they say? Well here's a tale and you can judge for yourself.
I've long wanted to try the much famed wagu steak that is produced in Japan and involves feeding the bullock on a mixture of high protein grain and beer, and regular massaging of the animal's muscles in order to produce an exceptionally tender and flavoursome product.
To purchase a wagu steak in a restaurant will set you back big bucks - think two hundred plus dollars a plate - and though I'm not afraid to spring for a meal I truly want to experience, that price is a bit rich even for me. A meal at this level is not going to give you much change out of a thousand bucks, and is simply beyond my means.
Now I'm a pretty decent cook, and coming from the west country of England am not unfamiliar with the preparation of a decent steak. On this basis I decided that, if a decent supplier of the product could be found in my country, I'd give the thing a go myself. Accordingly, I set about doing a search and fetched up on a company that seemed to know its onions and could provide a certified A5 grade Japanese wagu fillet steak at a cost of around eighty dollars including carriage.
The steak arrived frozen, in good order and on time, but on unwrapping the product my first doubts began to materialize. It was not the pale pink colour I'd been expecting, but in fairness I said to myself, it's been frozen and that will nearly always cause a steak to darken in colour. More worryingly, the fat marbling of the steak, while high and evenly distributed around the piece, was not of the thickness or appearance that I'd come to expect via the extensive YouTube videos I'd watched on the meat and how to prepare it. I'm no novice when it comes to fillet steak and I'd seen marbling such as this on a thousand pieces that I'd bought over the years, UK produced and of the highest quality.
Nevertheless, in the hope that I was being over critical I defrosted the steak and began my preparation according to the accepted method of lightly seasoning the meat and then placing it into a hot dry pan. In all video's I'd watched, this was the recommended method by virtue of the high fat content being quite capable of producing it's own cooking oils. In fact the release of these oils was a ubiquitous feature of every video I watched and was a demonstration of the exceptionally high fat content that is a characteristic of high grade wagu beef.
As I'd expected however, no fat pool was seen to gather around the steak. On the contrary, the steak began to caramelise faster than in the video presentations, and it was only by virtue of my experience in the cooking of fillet steaks that I was able to understand what was happening and adjust my cooking method to accommodate for this (actually not a problem - a good steak requires very little fat in the cooking pan anyway, the main skills being in knowing how long to leave the steak before turning it).
Anyway, I cooked the thing and served up a dish that would have sat well in any Michelin starred restaurant - thin slices of medium-rare beef with a soy sauce, wasabi and sea-salt condiment arrangement. Beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. But not wagu steak!
This was a high grade fillet steak that could have been purchased for ten quid from any half decent butcher in my town. I know at least two butcher's who's meat is of superior quality to this, even good as it was, every week without fail. They produce their own meat and know how to do it beyond anything you will find in the regular supermarket range.
So there you have it. What did I expect. I come from the best meat producing region of the best meat producing country in the world. What I purchased was what, to anyone of lesser experience, would have been the best piece of meat they had ever eaten. They simply would not have known that what they were getting was not what it said on the tin. This is how companies like this are able to survive and continue trading - on the basis of the lack of understanding of the bulk of people who buy from them.
Me - I haven't got the heart to go complaining and demanding my money back; rather, I'll just chalk it up to experience.
And meanwhile, my search for a genuine piece of wagu steak, will, once my burned fingers have healed, continue as before.
I've long wanted to try the much famed wagu steak that is produced in Japan and involves feeding the bullock on a mixture of high protein grain and beer, and regular massaging of the animal's muscles in order to produce an exceptionally tender and flavoursome product.
To purchase a wagu steak in a restaurant will set you back big bucks - think two hundred plus dollars a plate - and though I'm not afraid to spring for a meal I truly want to experience, that price is a bit rich even for me. A meal at this level is not going to give you much change out of a thousand bucks, and is simply beyond my means.
Now I'm a pretty decent cook, and coming from the west country of England am not unfamiliar with the preparation of a decent steak. On this basis I decided that, if a decent supplier of the product could be found in my country, I'd give the thing a go myself. Accordingly, I set about doing a search and fetched up on a company that seemed to know its onions and could provide a certified A5 grade Japanese wagu fillet steak at a cost of around eighty dollars including carriage.
The steak arrived frozen, in good order and on time, but on unwrapping the product my first doubts began to materialize. It was not the pale pink colour I'd been expecting, but in fairness I said to myself, it's been frozen and that will nearly always cause a steak to darken in colour. More worryingly, the fat marbling of the steak, while high and evenly distributed around the piece, was not of the thickness or appearance that I'd come to expect via the extensive YouTube videos I'd watched on the meat and how to prepare it. I'm no novice when it comes to fillet steak and I'd seen marbling such as this on a thousand pieces that I'd bought over the years, UK produced and of the highest quality.
Nevertheless, in the hope that I was being over critical I defrosted the steak and began my preparation according to the accepted method of lightly seasoning the meat and then placing it into a hot dry pan. In all video's I'd watched, this was the recommended method by virtue of the high fat content being quite capable of producing it's own cooking oils. In fact the release of these oils was a ubiquitous feature of every video I watched and was a demonstration of the exceptionally high fat content that is a characteristic of high grade wagu beef.
As I'd expected however, no fat pool was seen to gather around the steak. On the contrary, the steak began to caramelise faster than in the video presentations, and it was only by virtue of my experience in the cooking of fillet steaks that I was able to understand what was happening and adjust my cooking method to accommodate for this (actually not a problem - a good steak requires very little fat in the cooking pan anyway, the main skills being in knowing how long to leave the steak before turning it).
Anyway, I cooked the thing and served up a dish that would have sat well in any Michelin starred restaurant - thin slices of medium-rare beef with a soy sauce, wasabi and sea-salt condiment arrangement. Beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. But not wagu steak!
This was a high grade fillet steak that could have been purchased for ten quid from any half decent butcher in my town. I know at least two butcher's who's meat is of superior quality to this, even good as it was, every week without fail. They produce their own meat and know how to do it beyond anything you will find in the regular supermarket range.
So there you have it. What did I expect. I come from the best meat producing region of the best meat producing country in the world. What I purchased was what, to anyone of lesser experience, would have been the best piece of meat they had ever eaten. They simply would not have known that what they were getting was not what it said on the tin. This is how companies like this are able to survive and continue trading - on the basis of the lack of understanding of the bulk of people who buy from them.
Me - I haven't got the heart to go complaining and demanding my money back; rather, I'll just chalk it up to experience.
And meanwhile, my search for a genuine piece of wagu steak, will, once my burned fingers have healed, continue as before.