Kobe beef sure does not look like I want to eat

myersfarm · #1 04/16/12, 11:14 AM

this a story I ran across but look at the picture of the beef....sure doesnot look like I want my steak to look

Food writer says all Kobe beef in the US is a tasty scam

Sonshine · #2 04/16/12, 11:51 AM

Did you read the comments in the comment section? Although it's not offical Kobe Beef from Japan, the US does have it's own version of it. Same as buying a taco or burrito in the states, most places are very different than getting them in Mexico. Or pizza here is different than most pizzas you get in Italy. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.

InvalidID · #3 04/16/12, 11:54 AM

The trick with Kobe beef is that you're suppose to eat very small very thin strips. We Americans want an American sized steak, which means we'd get a huge mouthful of fat eating Kobe.

mary,tx · #4 04/16/12, 12:39 PM

DH just bought me six yearling Wagyu cattle from a friend. Not my first choice, but he was set on doing it. I'm hoping that raising them like American cattle, they'll turn out like American beef. I do not like fat.

goodhors · #5 04/16/12, 12:52 PM

The trick with feeding beef, is to keep it exercised during animal's life, to spread the fat thru the meat fibers. Standing around the animal will put fat on in layers under the skin, feedlot beef. I would have no problem eating the pictured Kobe beef, if it was thicker! Fat is evenly spread all over the pieces. Meat with no fat is not going to be tender. Fat SHOULD be small and widely dispersed in the fibers for best tenderness, easy chewing.

Steaks with fat all removed, grass fed with almost no fat, are tougher, not easy chewing, ESPECIALLY if cooked very long. The longer you cook it, the tougher the meat gets, especially when grilling steaks.

Kobe pictured, is not what is commonly seen in steaks these days. Customers might have to learn about the REASONS meat looks that way. That of course would be how the animal is raised, exercised, fed.

I sure wouldn't turn down a raw steak that looked that way, if it was thicker, in the meat cabinet. I hunt out steak with lots of thin fat layers running thru the meat fibers because they DO cook up to eat tender. I wouldn't buy a fatless steak, or any cut of beef. It is going to be like eating shoe leather unless you boil or moisturize it some way, cook it with other stuff over a very long time to break down the meat fibers.

tinknal · #6 04/16/12, 04:45 PM

I like good fat beef Would love to try Kobe beef.

genebo · #7 04/16/12, 04:51 PM

Kobe beef comes from 4 different breeds of japanese cattle. Those that are raised in the Kobe district may carry the Kobe name.

The fatty beef results from the way the cattle are raised. They are female cattle, kept confined and fed constantly, with beer added to their diet and periodic massages of their muscles. They are also kept until they are very old by US standards. Instead of 17 months old, they may be 4 years old. It takes that long to make them that fat.

Think of Kobe beef as being like bacon, instead of pork chops. It is served very thin and cooked on very hot rocks at the table. The sizzle is part of the experience.

Wagyu is the Japanese word for cattle. Any of the 4 Japanese breeds may be called Wagyu. For a long time the Japanese didn't allow the import or export of cattle, but that changed a few years back. Now some people are raising the Japanese breeds in the US.

It is proper to call these cattle Wagyu, but not to call them Kobe. They are Wagyu because they are Japanese cattle. They are not Kobe, since they are not raised in the Kobe district of Japan.

The cattle themselves are not remarkable. They descend from the same lines as most of the European cattle. The treatment they receive during their lifetime is what makes the difference. No cow on earth would ever get that fat eating grass.

People pay the extremely high prices for an experience unlike no other, where their thinly sliced, fatty beef is prepared for them at their table by a well-trained performing chef. The overall performance would put a top sushi chef to shame.

It really doesn't have a whole lot to do with how the beef tastes.

tinknal · #8 04/16/12, 04:57 PM

Genebo, I see "Kobe" as a "style" rather than a "brand". I'll keep calling bubbly wine "Champagne" and no stinkin' Frog can stop me, LOL!

myersfarm · #9 04/16/12, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonshine

Did you read the comments in the comment section? Although it's not offical Kobe Beef from Japan

YES I READ the commits in the comment section.....

BUT put your POINTER on the PICTURE..and a pop up will say

A chef in Hanoi displays a plate of Kobe beef......

so THAT IS THE REAL KOBE BEEF IN THE PICTURE

and no it does not look like a steak I would eat..and if it was 1 inch thick half of it would be fat...I trim most of mine off...do not like grass feed either..extremes on both ends

Ed Norman · #10 04/16/12, 06:53 PM

Looks like it would make a nice steak sandwich.

TNHermit · #11 04/16/12, 07:34 PM

My Dads family was butchers. I learn much (Don't ask

) they wanted me in college/ but I know this. No fat , no flavor. Modern beef sucks. Its a little thin yea but it would have more flavor than anything comin out sof some grocery store.

When I have my stuff butcher/ cutup I tell them to leave the fat with it.

read up on beef gelatin. you will find some things to surprise you and why a lot of people have arthritis. Same goes for lean pork an skinless chicken. Just another case of people who no nothing educating others

**gone-a-milkin** · #12 04/16/12, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mary,tx

DH just bought me six yearling Wagyu cattle from a friend. Not my first choice, but he was set on doing it. I'm hoping that raising them like American cattle, they'll turn out like American beef. I do not like fat.

You should take some pics of your new herd for us to see.

mary,tx · #13 04/17/12, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

You should take some pics of your new herd for us to see.

Thanks, I'll do that when I get them home, hopefully next weekend.

G. Seddon · #14 04/17/12, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TNHermit

My Dads family was butchers. I learn much (Don't ask

) they wanted me in college/ but I know this. No fat , no flavor. Modern beef sucks. Its a little thin yea but it would have more flavor than anything comin out sof some grocery store.

When I have my stuff butcher/ cutup I tell them to leave the fat with it.

read up on beef gelatin. you will find some things to surprise you and why a lot of people have arthritis. Same goes for lean pork an skinless chicken. Just another case of people who no nothing educating others

Completely off topic, but TNHermit, you have some really NICE things in your woodworking portfolio. Wow!