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Re Masterchef tonight- would you eat venison that rare? Surely there is not meant to be blood leaking out?

I’m not chrise, but anyway.

The reddish liquid coming out of rare meat isn’t blood.

https://www.rd.com/food/fun/is-meat-red-liquid-blood/

Thank you, cloverjo.
I still wouldn't eat it, though I'm no vegetarian!

Have any of you ever had wagyu beef, specifically kobe? I know it's very expensive but was wondering what it's like.

Hello Brendan!

Yes to Wagyu, when Aldi sell it. No to Kobe.

I think there's a lot of guff at work here!

I stand to be corrected but I believe Wagyu is the strain of cattle, (parallel to a grape being of the Nebbiolo variety).

Kobe beef is regulated as being from cattle grown in a particular delimited area in Japan (like Nebbiolo being grown in a delineated part of Piemonte to make the wine with the protected identity 'Barolo'.)

To me the Aldi Wagyu was less enjoyable than the admirable and IMO underpriced Bavette steaks routinely available in Waitrose...(a bonkersly under-rated cut of beef - don't all rush at once.)

...but as for Kobe I cannot say.

One of the difficulties is that once a type of product becomes esteemed, then charlatans move in to make a cheap buck - in this case by presumably not loving and cosseting the cutie-pie cattle as expensively as was the case when the reputation was formed.

You can quite legally grow Wagyu beef in desperate conditions anywhere in the world, I think. So as with most markets, 'caveat emptor'.

e.g. A friend of mine imports Wagyu embryos from Japan to South Africa, implants them into Aberdeen Angus herds there and sells very nicely direct to high end restaurants in the Cape.

By doing so he makes a lot more money than he would as a crossword compiler! (Though the meat is bloody good, I have to add.)

PS The best steak I've ever tasted was in a Chelsea restaurant called Macellaio - Italian run but the meat was I think from UK... My wallet hurt for weeks mind.

And to conclude the analogy the best wine I have ever tasted was certainly not the most expensive.

So apologies for a unenlightening response to a delicious and simple question!

Regards

M

Thanks so much Kt17/M, that is very interesting.

I guess I'm confused mainly because of the wide disparity in prices. As you say, Aldi sell it for around £8.00 but I've seen it elsewhere, although admittedly from Japan, for close to £1000 for 4.5Kg.

Also, when I buy steak, I instinctively look for cuts with the least amount of marbling, yet wagyu seems to be renowned for exactly that!

On a personal level, the best beef steak I've had to date was in a Docklands restaurant, Gaucho or The Gun maybe, with a bearnaise sauce - absolutely beautiful!

However, the best steak I've ever had, other than beef, was a tuna steak in a little family run restaurant in Tenerife, Tres Rosas - I think. At around 6.0 clock in the evening I would sit and watch as the small fishing boat unloaded it's catch for the day, including tuna. I'd go back to my apartment and, a few hours later, would be sitting in the restaurant eating the very same fish that was landed just a few hours earlier. It was served with small potatoes cooked in sea water - you could actually see the salt crystals glistening on them. It was one of the nicest meals I've ever had :)

Hi all
I've tried, but come to the conclusion that I don't like venison very much!
I've had what claimed to be Waygu beef, but made into a hamburger - it was very good, though.
Brendan - by co-incidence the best beef steak I've ever had was in a restaurant in Tenerife - and I don't think I've seen a cow on the island!

This thread is a great advert for Tenerife!

M

True KT. Have been twice, loved it (except for the time share touts). This was decades ago, mind. Rum and cokes very cheap and lovely salads at a place called the Pink Panther. I still make one of them sometimes!