What you see there is the absolute best steak I have ever eaten in my life. Believe me when I tell you that I am not exaggerating. I have eaten a lot of steak in my like; from shoe leather, well-done crispy critters, to a succulent, melt in your mouth Kobe strip. But this Akaushi steak has risen the bar for me.

I was mulling around looking for a place to purchase a heritage turkey for this Thanksgiving. (You can read more on the heritage turkeys here) I tried to buy my turkey from a farm about two hours from where I live, but they sold out really fast. In any case, I found this place, did a bit of vetting and decided to get my turkey from them.

Well, I found that they had a veritable cornucopia of foods ranging from Berkshire pork to rabbit, to Guinea fowl, to Alaskan wild salmon. I literally spent a good part of my day browsing and contemplating purchasing something along with my turkey. And I did. I bought the Akaushi steaks…four of them.

You may be familiar with what the term “Kobe” or “Wagyu". Well, The word Wagyu refers to all Japanese beef cattle (’Wa’ means Japanese or Japanese-style and ‘gyu’ means cattle). The Kobe steak comes from the Tajima-ushi (black cow) cattle, whereas these steaks come from the Akaushi (red cow). There are stories of the Tajima-ushi cattle being placed in slings, massaged, and being given Sake and beer. They are all bred for their amazing genetic characteristic of producing abundant intramuscular fat. The marbling.

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Here is the U.S.A, the U.S.D.A (the department of agriculture, if you didn’t know) has a beef scaling system. Beef is graded on a scale of three: select, choice, and prime. Prime is the best due to the marbling, or fat, woven like silken threads through the meat.



You may think that the leaner “select” grade is better, it is unequivocally not! When the beef is cooked, that fat melts and makes for a juicy, beefy, tender, steak. Prime is what you want, but only 2% of the beef in the U.S. is prime and it does not end up at you local supermarket. Not even Whole Paychex has it. Now they have grass-fed beef that they dry-age which produces a great tasting steak, but that’s fodder for another show. You can find prime beef on the web and some or your local butchers will carry it.

The Japanese also have a scale. Theirs is 0-12, with 12 being the best. Our U.S.D.A. prime would fall between 4 and 5, at best, on their scale. Kobe beef is a minimum of 9 on the scale. Just look at the intense marbling on the Kobe rib-eye.

That is really nice if you can afford $100+ per pound for Kobe. Me, yeah, not so much. So when I got the opportunity to pay half the price of Kobe and still get a well marbled Wagyu, I decided that I was going to play “wealthy for a day.” The fact that I got 15% off my first order was enticing as well.

Now, have a gander at these babies:



Two 12 ounce well-marbled rib-eyes that obviously put U.S.D.A prime to shame.

It would seem logical that one would want to steer clear of the fatty meat, yes? Well, the health benefits of Akaushi steaks begin with the fat – in fact, Akaushi beef contains more monounsaturated fat (the “good fat”) than any other U.S. beef. Monounsaturated fat – the same fat found in olive oil – has been proven to help lower cholesterol, prevent heart disease, and even promote weight loss. Akaushi beef also has the lowest cholesterol of almost any meat in the U.S. A two-ounce serving of Akaushi beef contains 10 milligrams of cholesterol. The same serving of chicken contains 32 milligrams of cholesterol.

Cholesterol in a 2 oz serving of Akaushi (fatty) beef versus other proteins:
Akaushi - 10 mg
Turkey - 36 mg
Chicken - 32 mg
Fish - 28 mg
Buffalo - 39 mg
Rabbit - 32 mg
Deer - 45 mg

Why eat these expensive cuts of beef? Because they taste fantastic. Tender and beefy, buttery…that’s why! I teamed these steaks up with salt and pepper and broiled them at 600 degrees-f for 4 minutes. Did you hear me? FOUR minutes! Sauteed onions and shrooms and a baked potato put my wife and me in a euphoric zone that I wish could have lasted all weekend.

I’ve about completed my coursework in Steakology. I am moving on to the next class where hangar, skirt, and flat iron steaks will be featured.