Wagyu beef originates from Japan and is considered by many the best beef on the planet. With the name meaning “Japanese Cow” (wa = Japanese, gyu = cow), it can be found in four different types of Japanese cattle.
High-end steakhouses only serve USDA Prime and/or Choice. Above PRIME, the USDA is kind of abitrary. A USDA Prime steak will present 'Abundant' marbling. There are no official grades above 'Abundant' in the USDA specifications.
It may sound a little pretentious, but yes, Wagyu is the gourmet meat among meats.
The eight grades of beef are prime, choice, select, standard, commercial, utility, cutter, and canner. Although there are eight grades, only the first three are considered noteworthy. Although all meat must be inspected by the USDA for safety, not all are scored for their quality.
Australian beef is highly regarded for its exceptional quality and is one of the largest beef exporters globally. From world-class steaks to Aussie beef jerky, the farming culture, practices and exceptional land and air quality help to produce some of the best beef in the world.
The Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines are some of the best in the world, considering factors like pain relief, mental health, and the cow's environment. Such protocol is applied to all red-meat producers in the nation, states Good Meat.
Australia is one of the biggest producers of Wagyu beef in the world, and uses its own grading scale, the AUS-MEAT marbling system. This scale goes from 0 (no marbling) to 9+ (extraordinary amounts of marbling), the latter one being the highest grade.
In Australia, the traditional beef grading system is the AUS-MEAT grading system. This has a rating scale in increments between 0 and 9, with 0 indicating no intramuscular fat, and 9 indicating extreme amounts of intramuscular fat. The more recent grading system, Meat Standards Australia (MSA), is more commonly used.
MSA calculates and differentiates on three levels of eating quality for each cut – MSA three star (MSA graded), four star (premium quality) and five star (supreme quality) in conjunction with recommended cooking techniques.
Quality: A5 wagyu is produced using strict standards that ensure the health and well-being of the animals. These standards, combined with the natural genetics of the animals, result in a high-quality product that is consistently tender and flavorful.
Japanese Kobe Beef
But, before you sprint off to your local Whole Foods clamoring over the incredibly marbled cuts of Kobe beef, just know the meat you're seeing likely isn't the authentic thing. Sorry everyone, but real Kobe beef is incredibly rare and likely not what's presented in those display cases.
Dubbed the rarest steak in the world, Olive Wagyu is the luscious steak you need to know about. According to Bon Appétit, wagyu (which translates to "Japanese cow") often refers to four Japanese breeds: black, brown, polled, and shorthorn, all of which boast the genetic advantage of extreme marbling.
Marbling. While all wagyu beef is known for its beautiful marbling, Kobe beef is truly the top of the line when it comes to fat marbling in a steak. In terms of Kobe vs. wagyu, Kobe beef will contain slightly more marbling throughout the beef that results in an overall richer flavor.
The highest yield grade and meat quality grade for Wagyu beef is A5, where A represents the yield grade, and 5 represents the meat quality grade. A5 Wagyu beef denotes meat with ideal firmness and texture, coloring, yield, and beef marbling score.
There are eight different USDA beef grades: prime, choice, select, standard, commercial, utility, cutter and canner. Prime being the highest beef quality and canner being the lowest.
Australia is the largest producer of Grass-Fed beef on the planet and produces some of the world's best Grass-Fed and Grass-Finished beef, including flavor-packed Australian Grass-Fed Wagyu beef.
While most of the beef we eat in Australia is yearling (12 to 18 months), there's a worldwide trend towards eating cattle up to 20 years oldas ethical butchers and sustainable farmers turn what was once almost a waste product into highly valued and incredibly delicious beef.
Wagyu is famed for its high levels of marbling. Even though Australian Wagyu beef has large amounts of this intramuscular fat, it is not to the same extent as Japanese Wagyu's marbling. “Japanese Wagyu is more marbled than Australian Wagyu,” Kimio says.
NAB economist Phin Ziebell said there were several factors behind the price drop, including an oversupply of cattle in Australia. "What's happened is, we had the drought, we had the herd rebuild, the herd rebuild is done," Mr Ziebell said. "We've had these really great three years, three wet years.
In order to be rated A5 or A9 the marbling must score between 8-12 on the BMS scale. An A5 or A9 rating is extremely difficult to achieve. While the Japanese have perfected the grading standards for Wagyu over many centuries, the American Wagyu standards have been largely attempting to follow their lead.
Australian cattle are mostly grass fed. This leads to healthier cattle, but also leaner meat. With less marbling on the steak, although healthier, it lacks in tenderness and flavour. That's not to say it doesn't have its own unique properties.
In Australia, around 97% of cattle is grass fed thanks to our plentiful grazing pastures. Many steak aficionados prefer the taste of grass-fed beef as it tends to be more flavoursome and has a classic “meaty” profile.
Ultimately, whether you prefer the sweet and buttery flavour of US grain-fed beef, the more varied and interesting flavours of Australian grass-fed beef or the flavour profile of Australian grain-fed beef will come down to your own personal taste.