Kobe Beef Japan

America is a nation of meat eaters. Burgers oozing mass of fat on the fingers of ribeye steaks thick located on the heavy plate of meatballs to hot dogs in sauce Bolognese fried beef, we eat beef in all its tasty almost infinite variations. whole chain restaurants are dedicated to beef, Ruth Chris Morton's Steakhouse to, the best restaurants in New York as Del Frisco or Peter Luger. Cowboys are an iconic American image, as well as the independent farmer watching his cattle in the West, his eyes still on the horizon. Beef is an American pastime, Case lover and obsession. However, nothing is close to us that fanaticism of the Japanese approach to their beef with Kobe. What is Kobe beef, why it is so expensive, and it's worth the price? Read on and you'll see.

Kobe beef comes from the mountainous region of Kobe in Japan, where cattle were raised in isolated pockets for centuries, resulting in different races that have developed their own unique flavor. Official Kobe beef comes from the black Tajima-ushi Wagyu cattle, and are controlled by an incredibly strict regulations in terms of production, slaughter and sale if they are to qualify for the title. There are specific slaughterhouses which they are sent, they must have a ratio of marbling level 6 or higher and a score of meat quality of A or B.

What makes Kobe beef so famous (or not) is the incredible price at which it is sold. Prices may go up over $ 100/lb, and is justified by the incredible scarcity of meat. Only about three or four hundred head of cattle are available on the market each year, and each of them have been pampered and specially treated to improve the marbling fat of their flesh. This treatment is known to force the cows to drink beer and see their muscles massaged daily by dozens of workers who knead, prod, and feels her hips, back and sides for long periods of time.

Due to the tremendous demand for U.S. beef from Kobe, the Japanese began to export their cattle to the United States to be raised there. As for livestock should be considered official Kobe beef, they must be correct actions, raised according to strict guidelines and slaughtered in Japan, it became profitable for them to be raised in the Midwest, shipped to Japan to be killed, then returned to America for consumption.

Given the way the meat is expensive, a new market has emerged for the Wagyu cattle are fattened and slaughtered in the U.S., processed in exactly the same way that livestock official Kobe, but sold for a much lower price. The steaks are high in fat and low in meat flavor, so that the parties are generally quite small. Is it worth paying the ridiculously high for the official Kobe beef? Not if you intend to purchase Wagyu meat, that U.S. beef collected taste almost exactly the same thing, and be close to one tenth of the price.