When choosing beef for dinner it can be of any breed right? But if that person is a gourmet then going for Wagyu Beef is perhaps the best option, for this beef is well known for its richest and juiciest flavor, and the chefs just love its color and texture. It has also been awarded a title “Caviar of Beef” for two things, firstly its superiority in taste and secondly for its price; a normal Wagyu carcass costs $20,000 and it’s per pound price touches $150/pound. If it’s a proper dish format then its price reaches as high as $300 per plate in a good Japanese Restaurant, but a single cut let will cost $50, the reason is that it is of original quality and can be compared with a normal local beef.

Although it is pricy because there are not many breeders of this type of meat, but due to high demand breeders are thinking of extending their stock elsewhere.

So what exactly is Wagyu beef?

In word meaning, Wagyu is combination of two short words in which “Wa” represents Japanese and “Gyu” represents cattle, thus it forms Japanese Cattle in English. Wagyu beef is not only tender to touch and tasty but it also has it distinction due to its pretty marbled/streaked design. The other name for Wagyu Beef is “White Beef” because of the white streaks in the meat.

Its origination comes from Kobe, Japan but more distinctively from the Wagyu Cattle itself. The Japanese were forbidden to eat this meat from 1635 until 1838 but they were still bred with special care and methods to make the cattle adapt to the changing environments, like giving sake for better digestion and massages to prevent any cramps.

Now, Wagyu cattle breeding have reached Australia and New Zealand, and these cattle breed; a duo of Tottori-Black and a pair of Kumamoto-Red breeds, arrived in USA in 1976 from Japan and their numbers increased in 1993 and 1994.

What makes it so Tasty

Marbling is the hint to a meats quality  ” how fat and lean meat goes together with each other, and this is the reason for the Wagyu Beef winning over American Prime Beef. On the marbling scale of 1-12, American Prime Beef ranks 6th while Wagyu Beef is the 12th rank which shows how much the Premium Quality Wagyu Beef holds.

Wagyu Beef goes best with the Pan searing and techniques which is mostly involving quick cooking, and if the beef is cooked correctly, it not only brings out its delicious taste but the texture, all juicy and soft, come along with it. Fat content per cut of this meat must be handled with care or else the meat will get ruined from over cooking.

People who are on a diet with low cholesterol food and yet are a gourmet of beef delicacies, Wagyu Beef is their best option because with its marbling that brings out the extra juicy taste, it also contains high constituent of monounsaturated fats in the fat which makes it healthier to eat.  Even though Wagyu Beef contains some high amount of fat, the bad fat as compared to the total amount is less in percentage, so it is a better option for people who are on a diet, and actually it can help people who have lower cholesterol level.