Kobe beef, salah satu food item yang berharga mahal. Berasal dari daerah Kobe, Jepang. Daging jenis ini diambil dari Sapi Kobe yang masih keturunan dari Sapi Wagyu.
Daging sapi kobe secara keseluruhan akan terlihat seperti baru saja diambil dari timbunan salju, ini dikarenakan lapisan lemak antar serat daging yang banyak. Daging kobe bersaing ketat mengenai kelembutan dan kandungan gizinya dengan hati angsa (foei gras). Daging kobe ini biasa dihargai sekitar Rp.2,700,000,- per 500gr-nya. atau kadang lebih mahal untuk daging yang berasal langsung dari Jepang.
Dinilai dari warna daging, warna lemak, lapisan lemak dan tekstur daging, kobe beef memiliki nilai sempurna untuk semuanya. Cara memprosesnya, kobe beef sebaiknya dimasak secepatnya setelah proses pemotongan. Hal ini berguna untuk menjaga agar aroma dan rasa dagingnya. Untuk hasil terbaik, kobe beef sebaiknya dimasak 3/4 matang.
The "Wagyu beef" designation can legally be applied to the meat from any cattle of the Wagyu breed; it's a genetic thing, not a place appellation or a reference to how the cattle were raised and fed. This breed is genetically predisposed to intense marbling, and produces a higher percentage of oleaginous, unsaturated fat than any other breed of cattle known in the world.
The reason for this is that Japan has been selectively breeding for marbling grade for centuries, while cattle ranchers in America relied on external conformation until just a few decades ago. Even today, carcass evaluation is a relatively new step in show judging, and only beginning to be a factor in the professional stud books of other countries.
Okay, why is it so bloody expensive and hard to find?
In summary, Wagyu cattle are astounding in yield grade and marbling, significantly superior in this respect to any other known breed. So why aren't more farmers ranching them in America?
Simple. Not enough of a market. The massive supermarket chains (Safeway, Lucky, FoodsCo, etc) carry Select grade beef which has minimal marbling. They restructured and lowered the grading of beef itself at one point (I think in the 1940's, but I could be mistaken on this) to reflect a more conservation conscious economy, because cattle fed out to a lower ratio of marbling were a more efficient return on resources. So today's Select grade beef (which is below Prime and below Choice) is lean indeed, the equivalent of pre-war Good grade.
While Wagyu beef has healthier fat (if there is such a thing!) and less waste backfat that American breeds, lean and skinny it is not, and the market for high prime beef is very limited in America. It's fit to mass market only in Japan, so there it all goes, even if it's largely ranched elsewhere these days.
Annoyingly, when we in America want to purchase Wagyu, we have one of two options: we can buy it shipped back over from Japan at some insane cost per pound that includes two transoceanic fares, or we can try to track down an independent Wagyu rancher who will sell one carcass. This is harder than you think.
Evil Japanese Wagyu Conspiracy?
Typical dialogue between desperate Wagyu seeker and known Wagyu rancher: Me: "I understand you ranch Wagyu cattle. I'd like to buy some."
Rancher:
Me: "I did some research. Will you sell me some?"
Rancher:
Me: "Oh, so you're selling to Japan, then."
Rancher:
Me: "Sigh. That's all I needed to know."
Scenario repeated several times in several places with minimal variation. Try it yourself and see, and email me if you find anyone who will actually talk to you. Japan has a very tight monopoly on Wagyu beef, whether on purpose or simply because most large custom ranching operations do not want to sell one cow to the home consumer.
I am still not quite sure what was going on behind the scenes here, but I did get a distinctly chilly reception from basically every major Wagyu contractor I tracked down as being a large scale shipper of cattle to Japan. Interesting, no? Could be just a coincidence and I managed to catch a lot of ranchers having a bad hair day, but who knows.
Anyhow, I finally succeeded in finding a small, independent producer who was sincerely interested in marketing Wagyu beef in America, and I am purchasing one carcass (and a heck of a deep freezer). I plan to give out samples to many, many chef friends of mine, and encourage them to buy carcasses, and encourage local gourmet stores to begin carrying the stuff—at a reasonable price, which we can get if I start putting together a good large order. If this works out well, you may start to see Wagyu in stores at least in the San Francisco Bay area, because I'm going to do my darndest to put it there. If only so I don't have to buy the whole whomping cow when I want a reasonably priced Wagyu steak. :/
So, what's the big deal about this beef anyways? What does it taste like?
How does Wagyu beef taste? If it's cooked wrong, lousy. Bland. Not too flavorful. Kind of boring. If you cook it right? Awesome. Beef foie gras. Smooth, velvety, incomparably sweet with a subtle tang of savor that lingers on the palate like a rare perfume. It's a Japanese thang, I guess, and a Westerner used to eating a huge plate of aged beef (which is also something I adore) might not be able to fully appreciate the subtlety of Wagyu.
And true Kobe beef? Overrated. At ten times the price because the cow was raised on expensive land eating expensive Japanese grain and beer, the quality is not noticeably better than ordinary Wagyu beef that grades out to super-prime. About those legendary cow massages? It's in part because they don't have enough room to exercise in a normal paddock. American and Australian raised Wagyu cattle that get the oleaginous feed and a well designed exercise program grade out just fine, and I doubt even the most discerning palate could tell the difference if the grade was the same.
Anyhow, I hate to say this, but it's a waste for the average consumer to buy Wagyu beef and try to cook it at home without special instructions. If you care enough to buy the stuff in the first place, research how to cook it before you lay out the dough—it is markedly different from anything you will have handled before, and I mean markedly. Its physical structure, texture and cooking times do not resemble beef so much as foie gras, except that it doesn't poach nearly as well and responds better to searing.
