Which Breed of Beef Is Not Allowed Outside of Japan
Cows that beverage beer, are massaged with rice wine and heed to classical music?
For meat lovers, Kobe beef is considered the image of fine dining.
But what is Kobe beef, where does Kobe beef come up from and why is it and so expensive?
Photo used with permission courtesy of @somewhere.in.jp
And then, what is Kobe beef exactly?
Kobe beef, sometimes misspelled equally Colby beef, comes from the Tajima-gyu breed of cattle found in Nippon's Hyōgo Prefecture, of which Kobe is the capital and the meat's namesake.
Introduced equally work animals in the rice cultivation industry during the 2nd Century, Tajima-gyu became isolated from other breeds in the small-scale pockets of arable land within Japan's mountainous landscape.
Herd isolation and distinctive feeding techniques are said to take led to unique differences in sense of taste and texture.
Kobe beefiness is renowned for its superior season, tenderness and loftier amount of intramuscular fatty, giving the meat a marbled advent. It is often cited as being healthier than commercial beef considering of its high concentration of monounsaturated fats and omega-3s.
Its prized value must also exist credited to the mysterious rearing techniques said to assistance the meat'south delectable flavour and texture.
There are three major stories that ingather up time and time once more and have achieved somewhat of urban legend status.
- The showtime is that the cows are given beer to induce appetite.
- The second is that they are massaged daily, sometimes with sake (Japanese rice vino), as a proxy for exercise in the tight living quarters and to further accentuate the marbling that Kobe beef is so well known for.
- And the third is that classical music is played to them as a relaxation technique and at feeding time, and then they associate the music with eating and hence the music improves their ambition.
While at that place is no hard evidence to suggest that whatsoever of these techniques improve season or texture, they certainly give the imagery of the cows living as kings, calculation to the decadence of a Kobe beef meal.
Wagyu vs Kobe
So, what is wagyu beefiness and what is the difference between wagyu and Kobe beef?
Wagyu but ways Japanese cow or cattle. It is a holistic term that is used to refer to whatsoever meat from Japanese cattle and, despite mutual misconception, wagyu is not a breed itself, nor does the term have any relation to quality. And so when nosotros talk about 'wagyu meat' or 'wagyu steak,' it simply means information technology came from a Japanese cow.
Wagyu cattle are classified into four breeds – Japanese Blackness, Japanese Chocolate-brown, Japanese Poll, and Japanese Shorthorn.
Tajima-gyu cows, from which Kobe beef comes from, belong specifically to the Japanese Black breed.
Only meat of Tajima-gyu cows that fulfill strict lineage and quality criteria can be termed 'Kobe beefiness.'
This ways that all Kobe beef is wagyu beef, but only a very small proportion of wagyu beef is Kobe beefiness.
In fact, simply around 3,000 heads of Tajima-gyu cattle are certified every bit Kobe beef each year. Kobe beefiness contributes to but 0.06% of beef consumption in Japan, and just a very small fraction of that is exported.
You can already brainstorm to empathise how rare real Kobe beefiness actually is.
Photo used with permission courtesy of @somewhere.in.jp
Wagyu beef grades and Kobe beef grades
Every bit Kobe beef is a type of wagyu beef, Kobe beef is graded using the wagyu grade arrangement. This organisation uses a combination of messages and numbers and is used to rate the quality of Japanese beef.
Wagyu is given a letter course (A through C) for yield and a number class (1 through 5) for quality.
Yield grade
Yield grade determines the 'cutability' of the meat, meaning the proportion of meat that can be obtained from a certain part of the moo-cow's carcass.
Form A : Above standard
Grade B : Standard
Grade C : Beneath standard
Quality grade
Wagyu beefiness quality is determined by evaluating four different categories: the sparse strips or flecks of fatty known as marbling; the color and effulgence of the beef; firmness and texture; and the color, luster and quality of the fat.
The beef is assigned a number grade from 1-5 for each of the categories.
five: Excellent
4: Good
3: Average
2: Below average
1: Poor
Within the marbling category, in that location is additional grading based on the Beef Marble Score (BMS). The BMS allows the distinct marbling of the beefiness to be graded to an even finer caste of accuracy, and is given a number grade of i-12.
This shows just how important marbling, known as 'sashi' in Japanese, is to the quality of wagyu and the overall melt-in-your mouth feel of high quality Japanese beef.
Form BMS No.
5: Excellent viii – 12
four: Adept five – seven
3: Average 3 – 4
two: Below average 2
one: Poor 1
The best score that can be obtained is A5, and within that A5-12, the latter being extremely rare.
According to author of 'Existent Food, Fake Nutrient' and food journalist Larry Olmstead, "USDA Prime number, our highest marbling grade, equates to nearly four (on the BMS scale). Most domestic Wagyu or hybrids would score 6-9, while Kobe usually ranks ten or college."
Quality scores are taken extremely seriously and are done by no less than 3 contained highly-trained assessors, whose scores are combined to establish a concluding score.
Japanese beef must grade at the same level across all quality criteria to be given that status. For example, beef that is assessed every bit A for yield and v across three of the 4 quality measurements, and four for one, can but be given a score of A4.
For wagyu beefiness to exist classified as Kobe beef, it must accept a yield and quality score of A4 or A5. Just that's not all.
Photograph used with permission courtesy of @somewhere.in.jp
What are the requirements for real Kobe beef?
To be classified every bit authentic Kobe beef, there are various boxes that must be checked.
Kobe beef cows
Retrieve that Kobe beef must come from a Tajima-gyu cow, belonging to the Japanese Blackness breed. Not only that, but it must be of pure-breed Tajima-gyu lineage, be a steer (castrated balderdash) or virgin cow, and have been born and raised in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.
During its life, information technology must have been fed just grains and grasses from within the Prefecture, and upon its death, be processed in canonical slaughterhouses in Hyōgo, and have a gross carcass weight of 470kg or less.
Kobe beef quality
Remember the yield and quality scores for wagyu we talked about higher up? Kobe beef must achieve the highest grades of A4 or A5. In addition, the Beefiness Marbling Score (BMS), must be 6 or to a higher place.
Grade BMS No.
5: Excellent 8 – 12
4: Adept v – 7
This means that A4 wagyu with a BMS of 5 does not see the criteria to exist called Kobe beefiness.
Kobe beef authenticity
Kobe beef must be assigned a ten-digit ID number, then that its actuality can exist traced back to the individual moo-cow it came from.
Merely when all of these requirements are satisfied, can a piece of wagyu be called Kobe beef or Kobe steak. If you've ever asked yourself, why is Kobe beef so expensive? And then this is it.
Photo used with permission courtesy of @somewhere.in.jp
Kobe beefiness price and wagyu beef price
Kobe beef is rare and expensive, even in Japan.
Kobe beef toll per pound in Japan (about 450 grams) is about $300, but you can pay around $500 for the best cuts of meat at effectively establishments.
Given its scarcity and price tag, most Japanese have never tasted information technology, and those who have generally reserve it for a very special occasion.
In the US, you can expect to pay $50 per ounce (less than thirty grams). While wagyu tin be one-half that.
Buyer beware – the big Kobe beef and wagyu scam
With its reputation for excellence and consumers ready to open their wallets for a taste of it, it's unsurprising that restaurants the earth over have tried to cash in on the Kobe beef name.
While there are strict laws in place on the usage of the term 'Kobe beef' in Japan, such standards are largely unrecognized abroad, pregnant that restaurateurs outside Nippon are non bound past the same stringent guidelines, leaving them to get creative with their menu descriptions.
You've no dubiety encountered menu items such as American Kobe beef, Kobe burgers and Kobe beefiness sliders.
The reality is almost all beef marketed every bit Kobe beef outside of Japan is not actually real Kobe beef.
American Kobe beef
American Kobe beef is an oxymoron.
Kobe beef must come from Tajima-gyu cattle that were built-in, raised and slaughtered in Hyogo Prefecture and have only been fed from grains and grasses from within the Prefecture, and hence whatsoever beef produced in the U.s.a., whether from Tajima-gyu cattle or not, cannot be Kobe. Plain and uncomplicated.
The usage of terms such as 'American style Kobe beef' or 'American Kobe style beefiness' seems to be a clever semantic variance beingness employed by a number of restaurants who want to leverage Kobe beefiness's reputation, while trying to mitigate any potential consumer-related backfire.
That said, there have already been several class action suits filed against restaurants in America who were allegedly selling fraudulent Kobe beef, and affected consumers are demanding their money back.
According to Attorney Kevin Shenkman, who served as class counsel for suits against a number of these restaurants and dining groups, explains:
"These businesses are passing off their beef as being Kobe beef when information technology is anything only Kobe beef and they're charging premium prices to consumers who are paying those prices because they think that information technology is in fact Kobe beef and it'southward non."
Yet despite growing media attention, it seems to have made piffling difference to consumer awareness or spending in the US, where carte du jour items like Kobe sliders take already taken a foothold in the new age of foodie-ism.
The term Kobe, and fifty-fifty wagyu, is used then liberally on menus in America that customers have almost come up to expect these 'premium' options from but nearly whatsoever neighborhood bistro, without considering glaring facts.
Photo used with permission courtesy of @somewhere.in.jp
Wagyu beef and Kobe beefiness in the US
From 2010 to August 2012, the import of whatever Japanese wagyu beef from Japan, Kobe or otherwise, to the Usa was banned due to concerns over foot and mouth affliction believed to have originated from livestock in Japan.
Even prior to that, but boneless, fresh Japanese beef could be imported and none of it was Kobe, as slaughterhouses in Hyōgo Prefecture (from which only authentic Kobe beefiness tin come from) were not approved for export by the USDA.
Therefore any eating place challenge to be serving Kobe beef in any form in the Us earlier August 2012 was being a bit creative with their menus.
While the USDA's ban on Japanese beefiness importation was lifted on 27 August 2012, only very minor quantities of Kobe beef are distributed to select buyers. Most Kobe beef remains in Nihon for domestic consumption.
Even the term 'wagyu' is very loosely applied in the The states. While pure-bred Japanese cattle do exist in the US, meat need just exist 46.nine% Japanese to be labelled wagyu.
Ofttimes wagyu in the Usa is cross-bred with Angus cattle and may be more than Angus beef than wagyu. However, even this very wide definition of wagyu just applies to farmers and abattoirs; it does not extend to restaurants.
And so essentially restaurants can sell any beef every bit wagyu or Kobe beefiness, and many do.
Where to get real Kobe beef
Fortunately, at that place is a lot yous tin do to protect yourself as a consumer and to avoid existence duped into paying for something that is not the real deal.
Cheque the price tag and skip the Kobe beef burgers
As journalist Larry Olmstead who has done meaning inquiry into Kobe beef fraud says, "High prices don't guarantee that you are getting Kobe beef but low prices virtually guarantee that you're not."
Price is a good get-go indicator. As much as we'd all like to recollect we can go a premium Kobe steak or burger for an extra $10 at the local gastro pub, unless yous're paying a couple of hundred bucks for it, it's not Kobe beef.
And no one in their right mind is going to grind up meridian-quality wagyu, much less prized Kobe beef, into a hamburger patty in the first place. There is essentially no such matter as ground Kobe beef.
The late groovy Anthony Bourdain described Kobe sliders every bit the worst dish in America. "What makes Kobe expert is texture. You lose all of that immediately (in a Kobe slider).
"There's no style that you could appreciate the things that make Kobe interesting and good and expensive in a petty burger or a meatball drowned in sauce. I mean it'south light-headed."
But fifty-fifty when the dish appears to be prepared in a logical manner and the toll seems right, this doesn't guarantee that you're being served what y'all ordered. For that we demand to dig a little deeper.
Ask your server
Whatsoever eating house serving real Kobe beef should be able to tell yous exactly where it came from, its precise course, their benefactor, and exist able to produce the ten-digit hallmark number.
Kobe beef is not like shooting fish in a barrel to procure. If they don't know or hesitate, this is a certain sign that information technology is not authentic Kobe beef.
Check if the eatery, retailer or wholesaler has really imported Kobe beef with this easy online search trick
Kobe beef is highly coveted and regulated in Japan; they don't just send information technology anywhere without knowing exactly who it is going to and where it will end up. Fortunately for consumers, this data is bachelor freely online.
In the United States, there are currently only 40 restaurants that take access to genuine Kobe beef.
Yous can discover a listing of overseas accredited restaurants and distributors here.
You lot can also search by the x-digit authentication number to cheque that it is a legitimate number.
In addition, y'all tin check when the beef was exported and the visitor information technology was imported by here.
If the information you lot are given by an institution cannot exist confirmed here, something is amiss.
The most expensive beef in the world
Given its toll and reputation, yous might retrieve that Kobe beef is the about expensive beef in the globe. But, in fact, it's not fifty-fifty the well-nigh expensive or most prized wagyu.
That award goes to Matsusaka beef, which domestically in Japan is mostly considered to exist the best Japanese beefiness due to its college on average fat content, a key indicator of quality wagyu. While Kobe beef must have a BMS of half-dozen+, Matsusaka must exist 10-12.
The most expensive beef in the world though is reportedly from a farm in Northeastern France where a butcher who runs his own shambles creates aged steaks from his Blonde Aquitaine stock through a process of hibernation. Through the process, in which cold air is diddled at 75 km per hour onto the meat in a -45 degree Fahrenheit environment, the beef may be kept for an indeterminate amount of time without loss of quality.
A 2000 vintage cote de boeuf (rib steak) costs around $3,200.
Conclusion
All this information may sound confusing, but at the terminate of the day, it'due south quite simple. Do your research and avoid cheap (and expensive) imitations.
Become directly to the source and select an accredited Kobe beef eating place, retailer or wholesaler in your state from the list or save your pennies for a trip to Japan for the guaranteed real deal.
And the beer, massages and music, I hear you ask? While I hate to put a dampener on a practiced story, it basically has to be put downwards to myth.
It'due south certainly plausible that some farmers take used such techniques (and perhaps that is where such legends derived), but it'due south definitely non an industry-wide standard.
In the words of Yoshinori Nakanishi, a Kobe cattle farmer who'south been in the business for nearly twoscore years, "Neither I nor any beef farmer I know would ever dream of giving cows beer."
Guess they'll just take to permit the gustatory modality speak for itself. Luckily for them, one bite of the famed "melt-in-your-oral cavity" fare ordinarily requires little convincing.
Have y'all tried Kobe beef? Would you like to? Let u.s. know in the comments!
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Source: https://notesofnomads.com/kobe-beef/
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