Genius or Mad Scientist? Aging Japanese A5 Wagyu

This topic has 9 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by bill.

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March 13, 2013 at 8:03 am #1567

bill
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Thought i’d share this with everyone on this forum. Not my first time aging beef here and just needed to try Aged Japanese Wagyu since even the most upscale steak houses dont even offer such an item on their menu but even if they did it would burn a hole into anyones pocket. The pictures are of a 10 lb ribeye piece of Japanese Wagyu Beef grade A5 with a bms of 8. Its been in the bag for about 5 days in that photo, and i’m only planning to age it for 15 days. We will see in another week and half to have the results.

March 13, 2013 at 7:41 pm #6827

Ron Pratt
Member

Welcome to our forum, Bill! I do believe you are the first in nearly 3 years to age a Wagyu. I knew Wagyu was highly marbled, but I didn’t realize it gave the meat almost a ghostly cast. Ron

March 14, 2013 at 8:40 am #6828

Alan
Member

Wow – I’d give my left you know what to be able to find a cut of meat like that. I have a hard time finding prime cuts as it is.

March 14, 2013 at 8:59 am #6829

bill
Member

Well if your interested in buying this is the supplier where I got it from. Its not going to cost you an arm and a leg to pick up only maybe just only an arm(not your dominate arm if I might add). Though I have to warn you there is a min order typically of lowest I’ve seen is 20lbs.

http://teamtrex.com/index2.html

Is your money green? They will sell to you.

March 14, 2013 at 9:04 pm #6830

Alan
Member

Thanks, but I’m in Canada. Not sure they would ship up here. I’ll give em a call though.

March 15, 2013 at 7:26 am #6831

bill
Member

What color is Canada’s money anyways i’m guessing its not green.

I know on this forum people talk about Aging 45 days 60 days but I am choosing to age this piece for 15 days. The different days of aging i have tried are… 14-21-28-45. I don’t know if this is a personal preference or not but i find the 45 day a bit too dry or another description would be less juicy then aging it for fewer days but the meat has a more musky taste for longer aging. I know that the longer you age the more tender it becomes but since this piece of meat is already so tender my objective is more to have it develop a more enhanced beefy flavor. In all the different things I have read about aging all you need is roughly 14 days to get the flavor the rest of it is tenderness. Putting a 10lb rib eye into a bag to have it age for 45 days I think for me is overkill…because of this photo

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/22/nyregion/20081222-rooms-pano.html?_r=0

Not sure how many of you are familar with Peter Lugers in NYC but hands down one of the best steak places I’ve ever been to. Their chunks of meat is like 1/3 of the whole cow which I think may justify them aging it for more than 45 days or more. My sweet spot of aging is in the 14-21 day range for USDA Prime but thats just my opinion.

Ohh yeah and the last reason for not aging Wagyu 45 days is because the trimming of the beef alone would probably cost me 50$ or more worth of dried out beef.

March 15, 2013 at 8:00 am #6832

Ron Pratt
Member

Bill, I’ll just speak for myself here..OK? You have already paid more for that chunk-o-cow than I probably paid for my last 4, 5 or even 6 sub-primals that I have aged. I’ll even say “bully for you” that you want to age and trim, and throw away $50 worth of that wonderful meat. IMHO 14, 28, or even 100 days doesn’t establish bragging rights when you have paid so much for that beef. I would have enjoyed it AS IS upon arrival. Again…I’m just speaking for myself…Ron

March 15, 2013 at 8:14 am #6833

bill
Member

Throw away any? *Gasp* I would not dare rind and all i’m eating it! I find the 14 day rind is much more palatable thats all. I saved non-aged Wagyu to compare the difference when time comes to see if it makes enough difference to justify the effort. I’m not the only investor in this project hehe 5 other family and friends trusted me with their money and beef for me to go ahead with this effort so I’m no bully just a 20% shareholder bully.

March 25, 2013 at 7:03 am #6857

bill
Member

Dry Age Wagyu for 15 days complete time to post some pictures!

Fresh out of the dry age bag. The meat seems to shrink more then the fat so to the touch the fat actually has a bumpy texture and the meat is stiffer but not hard to the touch.

Side by side a one piece is not aged on the right it does look noticably smaller slightly maybe 10-15% from shrinkage.

I created this piece to give to a friend to try.

This is the piece I cooked today the end piece. Placing it in a vacuum bag for a day softens the rind.

Needed to level the piece off anyways so I shaved it off and cooked it and ate it first. These pieces had the most flavor of aged beef and was super tender and feel as if the beef bursts of juicyness when chewed on. I call it squishy beef (tastes better then it sounds)

This is the other side of that piece earlier

Seared almost 2 mins each side med high. Look at all that fat on the pan! Juicy Beefy Beef Juice!

and the results are a success!

You can taste the difference between aged and non-aged Wagyu even for just 15 days makes a whole lot of difference when it comes to the flavor. Tenderness not so much, not because it doesn’t make a difference but because aged or not this beef is more than fork tender. I’d have to go as far as saying you don’t need teeth to eat this kind of beef and if you have a chance to try this it should be on everyone’s bucket list. As Ron said before just enjoying this piece alone would already have been satisfying already but having 20lbs of this stuff in two pieces aging one of them was a no brainer for me. Plus how many people can say they tried Japanese A5 Wagyu dry-aged!! With this experiment I can say at least 12 more people tried it along with me and I will say one thing that not everyone has the taste for dry-aged beef. Two people have said to me they prefer non-aged wagyu beef. Ohh well you can’t win them all this is expected. I hope others can benefit from this shared knowledge so Happy Dry Bag Aging everyone.

March 26, 2013 at 7:47 am #6858

bill
Member

Opps accidently removed the first picture this is what it was.
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