Steak lovers used to have to head to their favorite steak house to get those choice cuts of meat they they love so much. But now some of those prime cuts are becoming available at the local supermarkets, even Coscto. The USDA only certifies between one and three percent of U.S. beef as prime. Steakhouses and fine restaurants used to buy most of the prime beef, but with the recession restaurant traffic is way down. That means there is more prime beef available to home cooks.
Amid growing competition in the past few years, many restaurants branched out into serving other specialty steaks, including Wagyu, from the breed of cattle used for Japan’'s highly marbled Kobe beef, grass-fed beef, which has a reputation for being healthier, and brand names such as Niman Ranch.
But this year, high-end steak houses, which depend largely on expense-account dining, have suffered single- and double-digit declines in same-store sales, according to restaurant consultant Technomic. So restaurants are buying a lot less fancy beef, leaving more of it for home cooks.
Two weekends ago, Ray Juskiewicz was at Seattle's Metropolitan Market when a special caught his eye: Snake River Farm's Wagyu beef, on sale for $14.99 a pound. That struck Mr. Juskiewicz, a 47-year-old computer hardware salesman and avid weekend cook, as quite a deal: The only other time he had bought Wagyu beef, he had paid more than $40 a pound. He bought the steaks, seasoned them with coarse salt and black pepper, and grilled them over high heat.
"They were amazing. Very juicy, with a very buttery flavor to them, incredibly tender. You didn't really need a steak knife," says Mr. Juskiewicz. Though he usually finishes a steak with a pat of compound butter, which has herbs or other ingredients mixed in, he didn't garnish the Wagyu, preferring to let its flavor stand alone, he says.
We are suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to go track down some fabulous steaks for dinner.
