Is "Wagyu" ground beef a scam?

[@GODHAND42]

Guga: "this feels wrong. it's too expensive. you shouldn't do this" Also Guga: *dry ages 32oz A5 wagyu ribeye in mashed potatoes and fiberglass*

[@RyTrapp0]

And he'll age it for like 5 years so that he has about 1/8th of the steak left to cook after trimming too

[@GODHAND42]

@@apsoypike1956 Yeah he definitely did, look it up, I promise

[@shadowblade232]

​@@apsoypike1956if you look up, you'll see the joke as it flies over your head

[@desert4seat]

😂😂😂

[@Xemphas]

Fortunately he has far too much steak in his fridges and freezers

[@GugaFoods]

Thanks for having me Ethan, A5 Wagyu is something special and just like everything good in life having too much of it is not a good idea. But, WOW it is the best of the best for sure.

[@sladewilson9741]

I mean, in theory, if they're just a type of genetic cow, well then it can be bred to match whatever demand is required once the monopoly is cracked.

[@brunosangonese]

you say eating a5 wagyu hamburguer would be once in a lifetime thing, if that. but you just keep on gobbling it up every day LOL

[@imightbebiased9311]

Now I kind of want to see what's the best non-wagyu burger you can make by cooking one wagyu burger for yourself, and then using the rendered fat to enhance a patty for your buddy.

[@jm9371]

Guga, I follow your 'Sous Vide Everything channel'; you got me fully on-board with the sous vide cooking thing. What a nice surprise to see you on this fantastic experimental cooking channel. Great colab!

[@lorenzocarreon7261]

Mr Guga can you create birria chicken tenders in sous vide everything.

[@U.Inferno]

When Wagyu Burgers first became a thing, my culinarily inclined friend (he doesn't like the term chef as he dropped out of culinary school and holds the term in high regard) basically railed against it, pointing out that Wagyu's draw was its incredible marbling but with ground beef you can already control the fat content and distribution, meaning you'd be wasting good cuts of steaks for little benefit.

[@urphakeandgey6308]

Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking. Never ate it, but proper wagyu seems very fancy... So why tf would you ground it up and turn it into a burger? Makes no sense.

[@nicholascanada3123]

You 💯 % can tell the difference it's not a waste but probably not the best application. Theory vs practice

[@cpK054L]

​@@nicholascanada3123 Overestimating the palate of an average American I see.

[@Propane_Acccessories]

@@cpK054LIf you are going to direct hostility towards a country of a few hundred million people, do you ever wonder why we are the way we are? Direct that energy towards fixing your own fucked up country and maybe the world will be a better place

[@N3gativeR3FLUX]

Your friends respect for the profession is admirable. Many times I've corrected people and said I'm not a true chef but a very experienced cook. There's a difference. Many years experience but I was never formally trained.

[@legendofnoob]

The first experiment needed a bit more control there. Probably should've cooked them in separate pans so the fat oozing out of the wagyu doesn't affect the other burgers. The other two burgers were essentially cooked in wagyu fat and that's gotta be adding some flavour.

[@krisrap3828]

That's the trick right there. You can buy Wagyu beef fat / tallow all over the place including online. Comes in form of unrendered hunks of fat at 3 bucks a pound or as rendered liquid and even as a spray. Cook cheap ground beef in that fat and drip more of it on the burger. And, there you have it -Wagyu burger taste and moistness at McD prices.

[@maxvonattica4744]

well one of them was already infused with wagu fat so it probably lost more than it gained from the wagu patty. But i agree separating the USDA would have been better.

[@Luna-ms2sh]

Completely agree, even the second test would’ve benefited from separating the patties.

[@michaelallen1432]

In fact, the statement about throwing the wagyu fat away is totally wrong. You keep that and cook with it. Maybe fries cooked in wagyu tallow, or breaded cod fried on wagyu tallow.

[@michaelallen1432]

​@@krisrap3828that's interesting, I will try that.

[@snakexpert552]

Recently saw a restaurant menu in America that said you can upgrade your steak to "Wagyu" for only $10 more. It was a red flag in seeing it be so cheap, thanks to Ethan we know better

[@EthanChlebowski]

Dang that's kind of crazy, I've never seen it used as an 'upgrade'. I would have definitely want to take a look at it before they cook it!

[@XxSuperPhilxX]

Maybe it's a low end wagyu like A3 ?

[@craterellus3577]

​@@XxSuperPhilxX My guess is that they cook it with some wagyu tallow

[@stevewebber707]

I have been in more than a few burger shops that have "wagyu" burgers on the menu. I have little confidence in knowing what they are actually serving, but it's a safe bet it's some blend or compromise to full a3 or even a5. I know from personal experience that the name steak burger is so meaningless in the industry that it makes no real difference. I see no reason to expect the wagyu burger description would be better controlled.

[@andrzejcaba1572]

over the weekend in London I saw a burger place that had an Angus for like 11 and Wagyu for 12

[@deejaybeaver3397]

I worked for a meat company that delivered to all the finest restaurants in Seattle. The high end ones ordered the A5, the lower end ones ordered the Australian. If you go to a fancy steak house, ask them to show you the Japanese A5 certificate that comes with every case of beef. We had to provide copys of it to the restaurants even if they didnt order the whole case.

[@deejaybeaver3397]

@@syedzubair1351 search engine one of the certificates. It is really interesting all the info you get on a single cow. Even their snout print!

[@KingPinguofDingu]

Yup, every authentic A5 wagyu has certification. If a place cannot provide any certification, then it's sketchy at best.

[@bobzilla-1]

I grew up in a rlly small Hick Town in Wisconsin. Girl at my High school had a family that raised beef cattle. They had a Kobe (Wagyu beef) bull on their farm that had its own Air Conditioned unit separate from the other bulls on the farm. They would basically go out and "collect its sperm" and aritificially inseminate as many cows they physically could on that farm, and did everything in their power to make the bull as comfortable, happy, and long living as possible.

[@groyperfuhr4871]

yeah the A5 out of Japan is high end, but the Australian stuff is tastier to the average person's pallet. I've tried a Japanese A5 ny strip that looked as marbled as the ribeye in this guy's vid. With all the fat it tasted like I was eating beef bacon or brisket. I even had a vinegar pan sauce to try and cut through the fat. Meanwhile every single Australian cross breed wagyu I've had made me think I'd never eat as tasty a steak again in my life. Not even the top cuts either, I've mostly only had sirloin Australian wagyus. They were all aged which helps, but the A5 one I had was aged too and it still didn't quite do it for me.

[@Soneoak]

@@groyperfuhr4871 No way, I live in Australia - the A5 is >>>> the Aussie stuff.

[@albertau3758]

I think if anyone wants to use an A5 steak in a burger, you can still do it - just don't grind the meat. Just cook it as a medium rare steak and put it between the buns - you won't need to worry about the meat being chewy. A true A5 wagyu (especially if you use rib eye like you did in the video) is so melt in your mouth that you can cut it with a chopstick at room temperature. Horses for courses - regular American beef used for burger patties uses far chewier beef so they grind it. But A5 wagyu (of any cut) is simply different.

[@Soneoak]

that is correct

[@albatronafredo942]

Make a steak burger :-D

[@toriless]

Yeah, even any rib steak is nearly impossible to ruin. I eat my meats only seared, basted. There are biological reason the saturated fat is chemically different

[@qwirkt]

And reuse the molten fat, it’s great

[@jayrogan1835]

@toriless what are you talking about?

[@pawkeshup]

The music selection during the burger prep section is just... *chef's kiss*

[@CarlosSilva-rs8lu]

Random Moonlight Sonata ❤😂

[@p43j77]

I lived in Japan for a long time, and they often have Wagyu burgers here. They all make it differently, but they always have one thing in common: They never have a thin patty You should never do the smash method on these, as once you smash them, all the fat is out of the patty. You want to make a thick(3cm or more) patty, grill it in low heat and thoroughly cook the inside, then use high heat to create a crust outside.

[@ShiroKage009]

They have Wagyuu burger becauae A5 wagyuu there is widely available even in cheap supermarkets. You're in Japan after all.

[@p43j77]

@@ShiroKage009 No, they aren't cheap, even in Japan. None of the burgers is using A5 Wagyuu because that's not good for burgers, and the selling price will drop significantly compared to selling it as a steak. Most Wagyuu burger are made with lower tier Wagyuu, they have less fat% and more suitable for burger

[@ShiroKage009]

@@p43j77 cheap when compared to what you find in the US. Of course you won't use A5 in burgers cause it's stupid, but using Wagyuu (literally Japanese beef) in a burger in Japan will happen almost by definition.

[@p43j77]

@@ShiroKage009 First, A5 wagyu is not widely available in cheap supermarkets. Normal supermarkets don't even have wagyu on shelf. Secondly, Wagyu does not equal Japanese beef. Even if the cow is a Japanese cow, you still need to clear the standard to be called Wagyu. It's illegal to call Japanese beef Wagyu without clearing the Wagyu standard.

[@SentientPickle]

this. Wagyu just means the beef came from one of 4 breeds of Japanese black cattle. The name itself originally did not mean to denote quality as that's what the grading was for, but exoticism and unscrupulous and manipulative marketing led many outside of Japan to infer all Wagyu was the finely marbled A5 quality stuff when it isn't. You can find poor quality Wagyu as well. Using A5 for a mince and burger would be an incredible waste of money, but you COULD do it. There just wouldn't be a discernable difference between it and a mince made of lesser grade Wagyu that's had fat added to get it to the desired lean/fat ratio you wanted. But mincing more affordable grades of Wagyu for burgers? Absolutely. In Japan, that's just normal, and describes literally ANY burger ground from Japanese beef. Unless you're paying for imported beef to grind, any beef you grind for a burger will result in a Wagyu burger.

[@thomascradduck7774]

I used to work for Burgerim back in 2016. We had a “wagyu” burger (slider in all honesty) that you could order for an extra $2. I was super excited about the burger until I tried it in comparison to the regular beef and didn’t taste much a difference, so I looked into it. The company put in 10% USA wagyu beef into the burgers for a crazy up charge to the customers. Marketing like that should be criminal

[@greuju]

I mean 10% usa wagyu doesn't sound like that much of an upcharge but. That's just weird. I'd assume legally they'd need to give majority.

[@ronald8673]

They are only required to be 10% wagyu to be able to be called wagyu burgers in the US. Wagyu in the US only requires the cow to be 2% of the original bloodline.

[@jammaschan]

@@ronald8673 man that sounds incredibly misleading for the consumers

[@Waitingnomad]

that's america for you@@jammaschan

[@pavelow235]

Burgerim IS OUT OF BUSINESS.

[@matteframe]

isn't 'wagyu' kind of like 'parmesan'? Unless it's Parmigiana Reggiano, it's not what you really want. It's crass marketing that preys on the fact that many people don't notice the difference between (perceived) excellence and mediocrity.

[@EthanChlebowski]

Yea that's kind of how it's being used these days.

[@AfroKreamy]

Yes and no. Real wagyu is actually a different thing from regular beef. However companies are saying cows that are 10 percent wagyu are basically the same as a full bred wagyu cow

[@matteframe]

@@AfroKreamy my point is, you need to buy 'Japanese A5 rated wagyu' if you want the real thing. The same way you have to buy 'European Union certified Parmigiana Reggiano' to get that real thing. The rest of it is a marketing ploy and a rip off.

[@xbotraid]

Kind of... Let's also throw "Aceto Balsamico di Modena IGP" vs "Aceto Balsamico" from the store into the mix... :D

[@officerrambo]

I think thats Kobe beef what you are referring to. Kobe beef has the name protection like parmigiana reggiano and can only come from the kobe region.

[@pmeloun]

New subscriber here. Just found you. Endlessly appreciate your content. Thanks for doing the hard work.

[@zuzusuperfly8363]

Guga deserves all the respect in the world. The amount of experimentation he does to improve public knowledge about steak is really admirable. Not only does he publish things that are very interesting to learn about, but the content itself is very entertaining especially if you're someone like me that enjoys watching food videos while eating.

[@madtonesbr]

Agreed. A ton of his experiments are stupid/unsuccessful, but it's clear he's saying that people shouldn't do them. Even an unsuccessful experiment is valuable and he clearly knows what he's doing (and having fun while doing it).

[@StayZero556]

I appreciate that he shares the failures along with the successes.

[@kristinehansen.]

How is this valuable experiment when they cooked the prime rib burger next to the wagyu patties. The us prime rib was cooked in wagyu fat

[@l3kinnn]

​@@kristinehansen.these comments are not about this video but guga's channel in general

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

It's really just doing something you love and getting to monetize it. I'd do it too if I have a halfway decent channel.

[@fuwasheeps]

THANK YOU! I raise wagyu cattle with my mother and sister, and we have legitimate fullblood Wagyu. It's gotten to the point where we can't even sell the beef at a profit due to their genetics being so expensive and the inability to produce at a large enough scale to supply a single restaurant. Being able to compete with some of these "american wagyu" company like Snake River farms is impossible, and yet people buy them just because they have the big word "WAGYU" on the front of the package. I wish there were a way to bring it up to the FDA or something that there should be a restriction on how they market their beef. I really appreciate you bringing awareness to this topic!!!

[@fuwasheeps]

@user-wl1fc9zl9i yes, obviously as a small business we sell at about half our full blood competitors' prices, yet there's no demand even at that price due to the availability of "American wagyu". The issue with our beef compared to the others is full wagyu takes 2 years to mature whereas anything crossed with Angus beef matures in about half that. For half the price to raise the animals, it's impossible to sell at that price to make a profit :(

[@cynthiahembree3957]

@@fuwasheeps Unfortunately most of us just don't have that kind of money.

[@convincedquaker]

Start an online petition.

[@OjsMatte]

Do you market it as 100% Genuine Wagyu? Make it pop!

[@jasminerose3257]

Do you have a website or store location?

[@euclidtrees2334]

The only flaw that I can see this for more accurate testing was the spacing in the grilling. The rendered fat from each of the test subjects was intermingling with each other being so close (potentially issues with cross contamination in a sense). Other than that, really good experiment!

[@yeliaH_annA]

Came to say this and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that thought it

[@diox8tony]

Also should have tested Prime USDA mixed to 50% fat content like the A5. Does the A5 quality really matter when its ground? Or does fat to muscle ratio matter the most? does perfect marbling matter when its all ground up? didn't test this with a simple fat control test

[@grantritchey7509]

yep, that was my thought. And then why throw away that fat?

[@876Raiden]

I came to say this. The fat/oils from the Wagyu went all over the others so I am guessing it would taste the same now.

[@pr0use]

If you are aware of making fresh burgers. The one thing you learn is that the fat gives the taste. And containing the fat is very important for the burgers taste. Thats why they often also mix pork and beef. Because of the fat inside the pork meat. Certain ingredients are being added to also contain the burger in its shape and reduce the amount of fat releasing from the burger while its on the grill.

[@cjc2010]

Ethan: It derives from two japanese words “wah” and “gyu”. Also Ethan: Waygoo.

[@sebaschan-uwu]

It's beyond me how people manage to mispronounce a two syllable word that is spelled exactly how it's pronounced

[@prestonexzabe2997]

Actually it’s derived from the two parts of “Wag” and “Yu” ….jk, I’m just waggin yu chain

[@Shadowfury32]

Wa (Japan's short abbreviation for itself) + gyuu (cow) = WA as in water + GYUU as in throwing a Y between the G and OO in "goo" accent is on the gyuu...

[@mahuk.]

@@Shadowfury32 I get what you're trying to say but I don't think water is a good example for the language of the boo'oh'o'wa'er 😂

[@ImAlwaysHere1]

@@sebaschan-uwu It's the ragu cow. That's amooooore!

[@Gibblets411]

Man, it is so wholesome seeing Guga and Ethan in the same video. Y'all are both amazing people with such great channels.

[@Dad-vice]

I was surprised seeing their relative heights - I guess Ethan is shorter then I imagined

[@xarcaz]

Also worth mentioning is that 和牛 (wagyuu) isn't a single breed in Japan; there are four major varieties. One of these are the 黒毛和種 (Japanese black) which are used for Kobe beef among other local specialty beef, then there's 日本短角和種 (Japanese Shorthorn), 無角和種 (Japanese Polled), and 褐毛和種 (Japanese Red/Brown). But since nurture plays just as big a part as nature when it comes to Japanese beef, there will be a noticeable difference between, say, one of the top three regional varieties (Matsusaka, Oomi, and Kobe) and some other famous one, such as Yonezawa, even though all four are Japanese black. Then even within one of these regional varieties (say, Kobe or Matusaka beef) there will be a lot of different tiers (the gradings mentioned in the video) based off of the end result which in turn depends on their diets, if they've been massaged, etc. So IMO the breed itself is pretty small selling point. It's like trying to sell a cheap Chinese smartphone for the same price as a Samsung or iPhone phone just because it's also made from silicon, aluminum, copper, etc while disregarding the whole production process. Proper wagyuu is fine as a very small properly prepared piece in an izakaya in Kobe, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or whatever during a holiday; but non-Japanese wagyuu or exported wagyuu is just a marketing grift/gimmick to make gullible wealthy people fork out obscene amounts of money for something that doesn't warrant it. Just buy a good cut of local fresh beef from a decent butcher instead.

[@x3wildcard]

Good info, thanks :D

[@kami_in_the_skye]

This crash course in Japanese beef is excellent, but given how crap my couple Samsung smartphones have been, maybe it's time to just pony up & give the Chinese knockoff a fair chance.

[@MichaelWilliams85]

The “wagyu” at Walmart isn’t much more then their choice

[@unscripted483]

Well the Japanese blacks are truly king imo considering that they are the breed that is used in kobe. They are also called the Tojima breed if in not mistaken

[@THEREALZENFORCE]

@xarcaz : Germany and Austria have fullblood Wagyu cows, Marblelution Genetics GmbH and Wagyu Südtirol. Japanese Kobe Wagyu is like French Champagne and other sparkling vines, only the French are allowed to call it Champagne (because of the Champagne region) while for Kobe only the Japanese are allowed to call it Kobe but chemically it is the same thing. In some restaurants around where i live, you have certified Japanese Kobe wagyu and also German fullblood Wagyu, depending on the same grades you won't notice much difference it is almost impercetible the regional gatekeeping doesn't necessarely make it better. Same goes for French wines now losing to German or Californian and even Chinese Wines in World championship events. The French gatekeeping is also slowly fading in Wines away so will Japanese Kobe for wagyu too., where you mostly pay for the name of the region it's coming from and not for better quality or higher standards.

[@R2debo_]

This is exactly the kind of thing that helps me eat easy and nutritious foods when I really don't have the energy to cook during chemo. Thank you.

[@LadyMorrigan]

Hey I know im a total stranger and stuff, but I just want you to know that i'm rooting for you. Hopefully that doesnt come off as too condescending or performative or anything like that.

[@GlacierSound]

U got this.

[@DD-DD-DD]

I'm faxing you all of my spare energy right now.

[@jopedo138]

Sending love from Texas. Beat that B#*+_A$$ C!

[@TheYardvark]

Noticed your comment on Jeremy Jahn’s ninja turtles review a minute ago, must have good taste in KZbinrs. Good luck buddy, we’re all rooting for you here 👍

[@MassiveTrackHunter]

Awesome to see you working with GUGA!! One of the best Channels for Steak aficianados on YT.

[@noahpoobbailey]

Not the collab I would have ever expected, but a welcome surprise for sure!

[@nahor88]

You mean "a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one." I've seen that same Wagyu ground beef at HEB, and I'm so glad Ethan debunked it so I don't waste my money and consume the absurd amount of saturated fat.

[@LadyMorrigan]

This is why they take geographical indications and stuff so seriously in Europe. People laugh in the US about not being able to call sparkling wine champagne, but having serious regulations about what you can and cant call stuff is really important for maintaining the quality and cultural heritage of all kinds of really incredible foods.

[@ratgr]

I don't fully agree, I believe there should be quality regulations, and geographical denominations as separate entities. Sometimes origin denominations make a product worse. How can you find a good non-tequila region tequila(agave hard distilled licor), Sometimes the non-tequila tequila is better than the recognized stuff (mostly on the cheaper end, but the best example I can think RN), I believe a grading would be better, as we would stop caring of the origin and care about the quality, keep the name for the geo-denomination, this will still help keep the cultural aspect while the competition will make sure the denominated stuff is great quality.

[@Tanador680]

Well no, the geographic regulations are because the grass/soil in a particular area has an effect on the flavor.

[@Tanador680]

Also it's funny that Parmigiano Reggiano has a "heritage" that needs to be protected when it didn't exist in its current form even 100 years ago (Wisconsin Parmesan is the original).

[@LadyMorrigan]

@@Tanador680 That sounds like Wisconsin propaganda lmao, there are records showing that Parmigiano was bought and sold in like the 13th century and is probably even older than that.

[@Windvern]

​@@ratgrYou know, in France, "camembert de Normandie au lait cru moulé à la louche" is protected, but anyone can make a plain "camembert". Trust me, even here, many many people don't even know they are being fooled, and think the industrial thing is the real stuff. It sure is a nice thing to be able to buy a "camembert" for so cheap, but that makes people conditioned to those prices and never accept paying more for the real stuff, which hurts the local sector. Never count on the industries to educate people.

[@RS-sj2ht]

First of all, great video, educational content at its finest! Also here in Europe Wagyu has become a trend and the word Wagyu is indiscriminately used for European, Australian, American and Japanese Wagyu alike in grocery stores and restaurants alike. It is always important to make sure to confirm where the meat is from and in most cases, when the meat is from Japan, they should even be able to tell you the name of the brand or prefecture for example Kobe, Tajima, Kagoshima, Miyazaki etc.. If they just tell you "from Japan" it is most surely a scam since you usually take pride in this. As a professional who works with Wagyu almost on a daily basis on many levels such as import, cutting, wholesale and also catering, I would like to point out that is important to remember here that ribeye is used for the 100% Wagyu burger. This is definitely to make it comparable to the US beef as there is also ribeye used, but please keep in mind that these "steak parts" are usually almost exclusively used for steaks, as the name implies. Even among steaks there are more marbled steaks (ribeye, chuck roll) and leaner steaks (sirloin, rump), so of course to avoid it becoming "kudoi", which means overly rich in taste or fat in Japanese, leaner, cheaper and more firm meat is used for ground meat such as neck, shank or knuckle. Steaks can be sold at the highest margin and are easiest to use by the consumer, so naturally you want to cut as many parts of a whole set (Wagyu is mainly sold as a whole but separated cattle of about 350kg) as steaks. Tougher parts are not suitable for tender steaks, so slicing them in 1,4 mm slices for Sukiyaki hotpot is the way to go. Ground meat ranks lowest in price and preferability and I guess it is no secret that generally parts which cannot be sold otherwise are used for ground beef. Last but not least, please do not say the melted Wagyu fat goes down the drain! Fat holds the most flavor, so in Japan this excess fat is used for other dishes like fried rice and sauces. It is such a premium product that it is a waste to throw away and not use it otherwise. As other comments pointed out, the Wagyu fat may have altered the flavor of the US meat and that is what I want to show since you can use Wagyu fat instead of vegetable oil while preparing other dishes to enhance the flavor of Western food with Wagyu.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

HELL YESS, this person knows what's up! Always save your tasty animal fats!! They come in so handy. I mean you already paid for it.. so might as well keep it, right? (one of my faves is pan-frying my brussel sprouts in the leftover pork fat from my bacon, it's lovely 🤗)

[@Izanagi009]

While i certainly do think that the Wagyu fat is useful to use for other dishes, not sure how many home chefs save their grilling fat for later use or make multiple dishes during the same session but taht could be me. Still, yeah, save the excess fat for fried rice and what not; fat rice is a great thing

[@Stop_Gooning]

Wagyu is a breed of cattle; you can raise them basically anywhere.

[@TheTeremaster]

Wagyu is just a breed. Hell even in Japan they happily import Australian Wagyu and slap the Wagyu sticker on it in stores.

[@Purplesquigglystripe]

@@TheTeremasterit’s four breeds actually

[@mikeb.4597]

Such a simple recipe! I finally bought a wok this week. This will be the first meal I make with it. Thank you!

[@mikusiotta]

Wouldn't the wagyu fat that melted next to prime burger affected the flavour? It definitely "travelled" a bit

[@JonBonesJones84]

That’s why they should’ve done each one separately. Clean the grill off too so it doesn’t affect the flavor and texture

[@lunartriton6793]

Yeah I thought most of the flavor was in the fat

[@ADeadlierSnake]

Absolutely. I'm amazed they didn't consider that.

[@markust8904]

Ya i gotta agree, i can see the Wagu fat from that burger contaminating the rest of them, not that is a bad thing.

[@EthanChlebowski]

Yea it’s pretty tough to make a perfect test with what my current setup is unfortunately. For example, even if I did cook them separately and clean the pan or grill each time that’s adding another big variable: final serving temperature Having a temperature difference in the burgers might not seem like a big deal, but I would argue may be a bigger issue since certain flavors and aromas are more noticeable a different temperatures (think about a hot vs luke warm vs cold cup of coffee). Also since a physical reaction like temperature is easier to pick up on when tasting, I didn’t want that to bias me. Ideally, I would have done: - 4 separate burners controlled at 400 F - 4 of the exact same pan - 4 burgers all started to cook at the same time - 4 burgers assembled and tasted with +/- 30 seconds (Bonus: all prepared by someone else) Was there some fat travel? Yep, but it’s not like I was drizzling the fat over the burger right before serving. It was lifted so the free fat was falling back to the pan and there is a large amount of fat still in the inside of the burger that is untouched. Also since it was fairly easy to taste the difference with Guga, and based on those limitations, I decided it was probably best to cook all 4 burgers at the same time at home. I’d love to build out a test kitchen one day and revisit a variety of tests of done! For example, I already want to redo this test but specifically for browning beef that you may use for tacos since that is less likely to be overshadowed by a bunch of burger toppings.

[@jauffins]

Ethan and Guga is a collab I had never considered and that's what makes it all the more special - two guys who are awesome at what they do, joining forces. I love this.

[@sofronio.]

Guga is so humble on the expensive ingredients. Although himself, like you said in the video, maybe the most wagyu eaten guy in the world, he still treated it like a treasure.

[@justgarethsphone9663]

So humble

[@thaedleinad]

He is brazilian and still a brazilian in his very core, you would get depressed if you check the type of crappy cheap meat and cuts we eat on a regular basis... Marbling? This is nonexistent here, most meat pieces are full red with a disgusting thick fat cape at the extremities. The regular meat is so low on intramuscular fat that you need super lean cuts to be able to eat it, otherwise it's like bubblegum in your mouth when you chew it. Even our prime cuts (check "picanha") is just pure meat attached with a blob of fat at the very extremity.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

@@thaedleinad - American beef in 2024 is the absolute worst I've ever had. Even "prime" is junk. This wasn't true 20+ years ago.

[@Miyu3]

I highly doubt this statement, I watched his channel, he doesn't seem have that much knowledge in japanese restaurant and wagyu type, maybe he ate many wagyu, but not all of the top end one

[@SLG52]

The meat grinder I have the complete non-motor meat bearing section is removable and recommended to be in the freezer before grinding. This avoids the issues at 6:37 with the meat turning to paste.

[@PlumbumJelly]

What I love about Ethan's videos is that the conclusion is never "in my opinion, you should do this" but rather "this is my opinion, but you should figure out what you like." He clearly values cooking as an art form over anything else.

[@ArthurAtlas]

He presents us with his discoveries and allows us to form our own conclusion, imo the best way to share knowledge.

[@blurgle9185]

Why would he do anything but that? That's what practically every single food-tuber do, they don't want to rock any boat whatsoever. Feels like you're complimenting someone for using oxygen to live.

[@AjaxAssault]

The term "greenwashing" comes to mind with the Arby's burger and other grocery store wagyu. It's becoming more and more common in American advertising/packaging. Example: "Made with real strawberries grown in the USA" but only contains 5% USA grown strawberries and the other 95% are from various other countries.

[@kgoblin5084]

That's not *exactly* greenwashing, greenwashing is very specifically doing that for ecological clout - eg. the supposed added process is somehow contrived to reduce waste/pollution to non-critical-thinking idiots, but in reality it's theater which just adds cost without reducing environmental impact. Same general category though of complicating an industrial process so you can engage in deceptive marketing.

[@SebastianDingleswitch]

Literacy is definitely increasingly more important - the statements "Made Of" and "Made With" are very different and used intentionally by advertisers. Bill Hicks had the best opinion about those involved in the marketing business.

[@The_Queen_Chrysalis]

before you go on about Arby's, I lived in Nebraska, Arby's was SOLID, PRIME, GREAT, moved to Florida, ARBY'S IS CANCER ON A BUN, I have no idea what went wrong with their shipping, but Arby's is only good near the prime steak area of the united states. EDIT: Omaha Steaks is based in Omaha Nebraska, they will send meat to you, dry ice shipping, top quality, I bet you they will beat your local butcher.

[@madtonesbr]

You just opened my mind up to the slippery language, didn't even realize it could mean that (and almost definitely does)

[@convincedquaker]

​@@The_Queen_ChrysalisOmaha Steaks are very poor quality.

[@davidlincoln4326]

I can't believe they cooked them all smooshed together on the grill. The A5 wagyu had so much fat it had to spill over into the other burgers making them taste better.

[@Dead_Goat]

Yea and they cooked them wrong. YOu dont smash a fat burger. YOu are pushing out all the goodness.

[@felixbeaulieu852]

@@Dead_Goat Can you point me where they smashed it? Didnt see that part

[@i_am_macgyver84]

@@felixbeaulieu852 They didn't smash them for the test with Guga, it seems like Ethan might have for his blindfold test of 4.

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@Dead_GoatYou definitely want fat for a smash burger

[@DJProPlusMax]

I do think so... Could be affecting results...

[@Merc399]

Guga has a great personality for the camera! the way he hopped on the episode and was able to hold his space and keep the momentum going dude is great

[@AaronEmerald]

Not his first rodeo

[@ShuriBear]

I am glad they are being very honest and just say it is not worth it. And that the difference will get lost when the rest of the burger ingredients get added.

[@thenonexistinghero]

Well, there may be a way to keep it in a burger form and retain the fat. Like cook it encased into something and then let it cool down enough for the fat to harden again. Or perhaps add something to it that can absorb the fat as it's cooking (like some very dry ground beef or something). Where there's a will, there's a way.

[@davidroberson1962]

It really isn't even worth it for a steak.

[@cpK054L]

​@thenonexistinghero that makes it worse. Might as well eat a deep fried butter burger

[@thenonexistinghero]

@@cpK054LI'm no cooking expert. I'm just saying there is probably a way to cook it without melting away half of the fat and with it half of the taste.

[@GumshoeClassic]

​@@thenonexistingheroYou could try to preserve the fat by using it in a sauce, but at that point you might as well just buy wagyu beef tallow, that'll probably be way cheaper. Even if you use all the fat, it won't change that fact that you're paying an astronomical sum for a single burger. And as they mentioned, once you add in stuff like the aforementioned sauce, the noticable difference becomes smaller and smaller anways.

[@teamryan69]

Love the Guga cameo. I have been lucky enough to have regularly eaten grass fed beef from my parents' lifestyle block. The difference between that and storebought beef (here in New Zealand) is pretty astonishing. Weirdly enough, the most significant differences in flavour and texture have been when making air dried jerky (Biltong). I made a batch last year that initially looked like it had something wrong with it, it was far too wet, like it hadn't driend enough at all. after a week of drying, I took some out to cut up and try, and was astounded to feel how fatty it was, it was actually difficult to cut, but the meat itself had dried and cured properly. It was the best preserved meat product I have ever had. Every bite had ribbons of fat streaming out of it and it was lovely. My parents have since sold the land where we grazed the cows, so I probably won't be lucky enough to have anything like that again (at least not cheaply). They took very good care of their cows and usually had Angus, Hereford or Friesian. When the butcher came by to slaughter and dress them, he would once slapped the meat to show how fatty it was and said that it was about as good as Wagyu. I'm not going to make that comparison since I have never had proper Japanese Wagyu, but it does indicate that the way you raise and feed the cows makes a huge difference in the finished product.

[@xXRunDeathXx]

this is not a cameo though but a collaboration

[@RubyDoobieScoo]

Store bought beef in New Zealand is grassfed.

[@incognitobandito244]

You should dry your biltong in a cold and dry area and make sure you use vinegar on the meat before coating it in the spice mix + soy sauce as the vinegar cooks it partially due to the acid. It should take about a week.

[@PatrickDKing]

Save the beef fat. I've used it to fry hash browns, potatoes, french fries, and perogies before and it's delicious. You can filter and reuse it pretty much indefinitely or until it's all gone. Just save an old coffee can and throw it in the fridge. I mix it with my saved bacon fat.

[@tigerlilly9038]

Preach but I separate

[@DUBE-NET]

Qrqtaaqa

[@christinefischer2137]

exactly! no need to throw meat fat away. that´s a relatively new development anyway. the traditional chicken and beef stock had all its fat. Meat fat does such a good job of making food tasty, even in small quantities. much better than throwing mayonnaise on stuff or, worse, buying food with a lot of additives among which is the cheap palm oil.

[@Mr.Shartly]

I save mine too. I use it to make garlic bread or texas toast.

[@GuilhermeDiGiorgi]

I think you can reuse one more time, but I'd advise against reusing again and again. Each time the fat gets degraded and worse.

[@TheMeateryShop]

Thank you for featuring us! 25:33 Ethan!

[@Baconzilla01]

Dam 7 months and nothing rip

[@noodles24601]

I actually tried part of what I'm pretty sure was a real wagyu burger (though almost definitely not A5) when I visited Kobe a few years back. It actually didn't use ground beef, but instead used thin slices, almost flakes of beef shaped into a patty specifically so it wouldn't just melt apart.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

Sounds more like a Cheesesteak

[@Machodave2020]

​@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive I don't agree with that definition.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@@Machodave2020 Thin slices of beef in a sandwich?

[@Machodave2020]

@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive it's more grounded as opposed to sliced. And it's not in a regular pun, it's in an Italian hoagie roll.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@@Machodave2020 Hoagie Roll? That sounds even more like a Philly Cheesesteak.

[@Apathymiller]

Thank you Ethan. As someone who worked in a slaughterhouse for a year, i was lucky enough to try this experiment with several different animals/cuts. Like deer, elk, bear, ostrich, moose, raccoon, several other american mammals, and several different cattle. Like american bison, charolais, angus, hereford, longhorn, red angus, american waygu, new zealand waygu, a higland, and even a holsteen( i know sacrilege), but This was in Arkansas. We didnt have "Real" Japanese waygu. I have had a few real waygu steaks though. But we did all of these different burgers on a company picnic. Everything had been frozen b4, and we did have different cuts from different animals. We tried to do at least the same primal if we could. Its been 20 yrs but if i remember correctly we had 37 different animals. We did a blind taste test for everyone except for myself and the owner. Everything's had been hung for 2 weeks before freezing. For anything that didnt have a high enough fat content we added in enough lard or caul fat so that we had roughly a 70/30 blend. This was a fairly small company, we had about 60 employees. The overwelming majority of people preferred the elk, with a few preferring the bison or the ostrich. Until ya do testing like that you dont really know what you'll prefer. We had people rate their top 10. Few people actually had any cattle on their top 10 list. Alot of people were surprised how good the "cute" animals were, like raccoon, bear, opossum etc. Just goes to show you that we just dont know what we dont know. Factory farming has turned americans into beef chicken and pork only eaters, and theres so many other things that are absolutely amazing that we could be eating.

[@Shazam999]

Not surprised. Elk is supposed to taste incredible. Bison has a great "beefy" flavour, but is often served too lean. Adding fat to it would make it fantastic.

[@nordicstorm9666]

Sounds about right, from Norway and had a bit of moose and raindeer, and I would say those are my favorite kinds of meat, though we don’t have it that often

[@TimBryan]

I would love a possum burger.

[@littlered6340]

I got into an argument with a friend about this recently because she's against eating cute animals. Thdt makes me really upset as someone who likes all (okay, most, I hate centipedes with a passion) animals. We should not think some are 'better' because they are cute, imo. Anyway, I am mad jelly of this experiment.

[@Apathymiller]

@@littlered6340 as they say... variety is the spice of life. I've eaten alot of those "cute" animals, they're very tasty. I personally think that eating things other than factory farmed beef pork and chicken are a good thing. They're natural...

[@HartleyHarrison-v8z]

Went to Japan in 1972 and Grandfather took us to his private club where he had Kobe beef brought in. We were unaware that it was $250/lb and ate a ton of it. It was the only beef we had while in Japan and it was excellent.

[@mickanderson3593]

NOM NOM NOM

[@Bozebo]

That's interesting because it's a little before there was much effort to hype it up even within Japan. This has probably helped lower prices over time, rather than inflate them - I suppose that's also why they didn't export it until recently.

[@TheTeremaster]

@@Bozebo But also remember wagyu didn't exist until the 1900s. The modern Japanese black (where you get A5) didn't exist until the Japanese government started importing English and Swiss cattle to crossbreed with the asian breeds. After that the 9 wagyu breeds became 4 and what we know today.

[@NightsShadow1]

This is peak KZbin content. I got so tired of the trend where every video was telling me I do everything in my life wrong. Thank You for actually recognizing all the nuance and informing us to make our own decisions.

[@AsteroidWrangler]

As always, a fantastically informative and methodical breakdown. Whenever I go down to see my parents, we've been lucky to have easy availability of american wagyu from a couple of different local ranches. Being engineers, my dad and I couldn't help but do some similar comparisons, and we came to similar conclusions. For ground meat, controlling fat % was just a larger impact. One thing I will say about those local ranchers that I appreciate is that they do try to be transparent about their genetics and beef quality. Both give BMS scores for their cuts that are at least visually reasonable, even if not regulated in the US. And they're always happy to be transparent about their genetics. As a bonus, they usually have significant surpluses of tallow they give away for free and in bulk, which as someone who makes their own ground venison with fat supplementation has been a godsend. And even though it doesn't make that appreciable of a difference in the burgers, we absolutely end up buying ground american wagyu from them both. For $6 a lb, it's genuinely cheaper than equivalent prime ground at the local stores. Support your local farmers and ranchers, y'all.

[@brycekiller1]

Wagyu is simply a term just like angus. Angus beef is still a very big deal and only comes from angus cattle. Breed of cattle makes a big difference to taste and body makeup (fat percentage) of meat. Beefmaster and angus are two of the larger breeds local to my area in South Texas. Try getting milk from different cows, holstein and jerseys have a noticeable difference when fed the same diet!

[@CoolJay77]

Very well put. I am partial to the flavor of quality Angus beef. However not every Angus beef tastes the same. I had sampled Angus steaks from different sources, side by side. There can be a striking difference in flavor. To me, A5 is more about fat content and melt in the mouth experience than it is about flavor.

[@barcham]

You need to be corrected. To qualify as 'Angus', a cow only needs to be partially BLACK in colour. That's it. No more than that. Wagyu is not simply a term. If you had ever tasted actual Wagyu beef, you would know that. Even Wagyu hybrid beef is head and shoulders above regular beef.

[@brycekiller1]

@@barcham No, YOU need to be corrected. Red angus exists and in no way shape or form does just a coat color match. BLACK angus is popular, but its simply a term for the BREED. Wagyu is simply a term, a term for a Japanese cattle breed. There is more than one singular breed, (shocker not only named by color of their coat), and nowhere in that previous statement is a generalization that they TASTE the same. I literally say that theres a difference in even local breeds that are popular. If you had ever actually read what you responded to maybe id be saying something different!

[@scottgalbraith7461]

Meijers sells "Certified Angus Beef", and I'm pretty sure that's just a brand name.

[@brycekiller1]

@@CoolJay77 You're absolutely right. A5 is a grade more than it is a type of meat. Theres several breeds of wagyu and they have varied diets as well. While they're all going to taste different if they have such a high fat content as an A5 it becomes far more about the experience. Ive only had two or three A5 steaks and you cannot go wrong with them, but I've also had some amazing prime steaks from cattle we have raised and butchered.... and i would pick our beefmaster/black angus mixes almost every time. Wagyu doesn't really take well to our climate here, when crossbred to more heat tolerant cattle the taste is so far from original that its no longer worth the extra cost.

[@masonlazy2740]

2:11 in the vid and i could tell this is a high quality and well made videos. Thank you for the content ❤

[@mrsamvideo]

Ethan, I just wanted to say not only is your information amazing but just your attitude and presentation makes us viewers feel so included

[@KakavashaForever]

75/25 chuck is what we always use for burgers. My buddy started buying Wagu tallow, and we use like a tablespoon of that on the flat top and cook all the burgers in that grease. Makes em a little more 'beefy' without costing an arm and a leg. Bigass bucket of tallow was like $25 and will last several years worth of use.

[@HeadCannonPrime]

Just a note, you really shouldn't keep tallow for more than a year if refrigerated or 2 years even if its frozen.

[@DumbArse]

​@@HeadCannonPrimeYou shouldn't but like, who cares? I only throw tallow out once it starts tasting stale even after melting it, there are months between it tasting stale while cold and tasting stale while melted

[@JohnNathanShopper]

Collabs like this are the best. Guga is certainly different in tone from Ethan, but I a way he’s always been just as methodical and curious as Ethan. 💛

[@Jaylucky777]

Anyone else notice at 6:21 Guga was shaking his head as he was putting the meat in the grinder? Guga and Ethan, kudos for a great video!

[@judecrutchley7171]

Love guga he gets so involved, not just there to listen but there to give his insight. Treats others fans as his own

[@RakuSeer]

I've had soooo many people try to tell me that American "wagyu" is the same as genuine, high quality Japanese wagyu. I'm so glad I now have something to send them when they tell me that! 😋

[@Rommel12]

I mean it is, as long as you get one of those ~5k full wagyu cows that is also an A5 quality one. Time to get to know some cattle farmers I guess?

[@Geion]

​@@Rommel12no it shows in this video a crossbred American cow and Japanese wagyu and it doesn't even remotely looking the same.

[@xSintex]

@@Geion Congratulations on completely misunderstanding the video. No where in this video has he actually shown an american equivalent to the A5. He stated that crossbred will be 25-50% genetically equivalent to Wagyu, but also stated that about 5k cattle are pure bred Wagyu that WILL produce the same grade of beef (And you have to remember, A5 grade is even rarer, only a few cows out of the 5000 would be A5). So no, nothing in the video could show you the american A5 as a comparison, because it is so rare. All of the images were the crossbred cows, which are not the ones Rommel was talking about.

[@Geion]

@@xSintex haven't misunderstood anything but clearly you have and seeing as I'm not a teacher I'm not in there business of clearing up misunderstandings.

[@nathangamble125]

​@@Geion Sintex is right, you have misunderstood the video. Rommel's comment is about the pure-bred Wagyus in America, not the cross-bred ones, so your first comment is irrelevant. Your grammar sucks, too.

[@MilesTheFox44]

This reminds me when the whole "Angus beef" thing that happened roughly a decade or two ago. Everyone was having "angus" in and on everything.

[@jamersbazuka8055]

Or Kobe

[@kami_in_the_skye]

@@jamersbazuka8055 Shh... That craze isn't supposed to happen until late-2037. They can't know. Not yet.

[@diezelvh4133]

And it wasn't even that good.

[@Bozebo]

The funny thing about that is most of it has always been angus beef anyway for a good while before the hype. I live in Angus and it's funny reading the marketing BS written from hundreds of miles away "what, those cows over the hill there that aren't special?" and usually it's worse than normal commodity beef that's not marketed up and marked up.

[@sixstringedthing]

"Angus My Everything" caught on real big in Australia, we actually have an industry organisation called "Angus Australia" that exists to promote the breed to farmers and the food industry. McDonalds and Hungry Jacks (local brand name for Burger King franchise restuarants) both still have a selection of "premium Angus burgers" on the menu for an equivalently premium price. Needless to say, the taste of a fast food "Angus burger" is quite different to eating an actual grass-fed Black Angus steak from a good restaurant. We're quite spoiled for choice down here though given the size of our beef cattle industry, even the "everyday grade" beef from the big chain supermarkets is generally of high quality.

[@MrBabaloo21]

Great video! Thanks for making it!

[@thedallastexan]

Great episode. There is a similar situation now with Iberico ham being referred to as the "wagyu of pork" on social media ads and sold as pork chops, etc

[@FreshfrogmarketingUk]

Had some Iberico pork chops this week. Absolutely amazing. I'm actually in Spain btw.

[@CheckTheWiki]

Cured ham episode with different grades of Iberico as well as ham from Italy, Croatia and anywhere else would be a great idea. Another opportunity for a Guga crossover too!

[@LegendoftheGalacticHero]

Tbh Ibérico pork chops are tasty AF. Ibérico pork has a lot of intramuscular fat compared to the duroc kind for instance. When the pig is acorn fed it also produces a low temperature melting point fat with a characteristic flavor. But I do think that now they are slapping the ibérico tag on everything.

[@andrewdevita629]

It's really cool seeing Guga do this, given he makes so much Wagyu content. Preserving the unique aspects of a particular and labor intensive style of food is pretty important. Muddying the waters with "wagyu" hype for the sake of wagyu damages a really special product.

[@nathancline4000]

Waygu is a breed of cattle. Opinions in Livestock breeding vary on what should be labeled as full-blood/ purebred. With each passing generation of a particular breed, what started out as a crossbred can concentrate those genetics. Feeding systems can also effect taste. One thing this video doesn't talk about is embryo transfer on the Waygu population outside Japan. Cattle have a exceptionally economically driven system in place in places like North America , Europe, and Australia, where elite animals are "flushed" which involves creating multiple pregnancies of superior animals at a time, then those pregnancies are removed at a very young age, or even creeated in vitro, and then transferred to inferior surrogates to carry the pregnancy to term. Result is a purebred calf from the donor born from say a Angus or Holstein surrogate to expand the purebred population. I have a 50% Jersey 50% Waygu cross animal that I am raising as an experiment. For my freezer next year. Jerseys are generally considered to have the 2nd best marbling on average behind Waygu of all cattle breeds.

[@LeSpicey]

One of the reasons I add some garlic paste and/or egg yolks to my meat patties is because it binds quite well to fat and can help keep it together. I think it could help keep the Wagyu fat inside the patty and maybe make it even more melty? I could be completely wrong though

[@psychoedge]

Binding meat with a bit of water- or milk-soaked stale bread, mustard and an egg is how the German "Frikadellen" are made. They were the prototype of the modern burger American sailors brought with them from the port of Hamburg. :D

[@da___man]

Sounds more like meatloaf@@psychoedge

[@carac2009]

I really enjoy your content and loved seeing both of you guys on this video! 🤩 My boyfriend and I eat homemade burgers at least 3 times a week. I have tried all of these options and more! Literally every type, brand, fat content, organic, etc., from every grocery store here in Texas throughout the last 4 years. Decidedly for us, the best ground beef is grass-fed/grass-finished across the board of all brands and fat content. I try to buy organic when i can for personal health purposes, but i can honestly say that i can't tell a difference in flavor of the labeled "organic grass-fed" vs. the labeled "grass-fed". Also, 80/20 is our favorite, but 90/10 is just as good and i use a little butter to fry it in. I'd like to know your thoughts on grass-fed vs grain-fed, too! Thanks again for this great video! 👋🙂

[@mellowmoo6747]

I feel like a wagyu slider would be better than a burger. Wagyu is sooo rich if you had that whole burger you’d feel done with it halfway through. But a slider size would be more palletable

[@yulnikita]

Rich like very flavorful or rich like almost decadent?

[@omarei]

@@yulnikita decadent hehe

[@mellowmoo6747]

@@yulnikita like just a lot of fat, I’ve had a wagyu burger before and halfway through it I felt pretty full 😅 it definitely tasted meatier but I really had to lean into the fries and sides to finish that burger

[@lordsergal8783]

Wagyu sliders are the new fois gras

[@mcnasty0322]

If a chef is wasting a5 on a burger You need to find another restaurant.

[@lordlemmingman]

I always looked at "ground wagyu beef" at the grocery store and thought it was a waste. Glad to confirm my beliefs and now I don't need to worry about it.

[@TheGrace020]

Guga and Ethan? My fav two meat fellas meet 😻

[@matthewmowen2736]

Meat*

[@mikek8029]

In my quest for the best burger ever, Ethan once noted "use 70/30" beef, which is not readily available. Just yesterday I bought one of those shrink wrapped "waygu" beef packages because it was the only way to get the fat content up from 80/20. Haven't tried it yet. Your video is timely.

[@lyconxero457]

I used to buy the Wagyu burgers from the grocery store when I first saw them because I had been hearing the term go around from all of these cooking shows about how great Wagyu was and to be fair the burgers tasted good. However, as grocery prices started going up I quickly had to start shopping more economically and very quickly discovered (almost accidentally) after comparing 3 different burgers available from my supermarket that the cheapest one actually ended up tasting better than the others for some reason. I didn't really know WHY this was a thing but after watching this video I feel like it probably has a lot to do with my cooking method and just how well the cheaper burgers seem to hold up to it. Also, for me 80/20 is the way to go always as 70/30 shrinks the burgers like crazy and 90/10 or even 85/15 just seems to lack a bit of flavor.

[@JRiddelle]

Yeah, ironically, ideally you're not using 90/10 for burgers either, because it has the opposite problem of a wagyu burger. While with a wagyu burger you're paying a lot of money to melt the fat out of the patty, with a 90/10 you're probably paying more for a leaner ground beef that you'll have to add additional fat to afterwards. You might still find grass fed has a different flavor, but overall the most important thing is to not go too far adding or removing additional fat.

[@georgcantor7172]

Maybe the store was grinding up a mix of different scraps of meats that had been gathering dust and laying around for months. And the store was forming this particular grind into patties and labeling them Wagyu Burgers and charging premium prices for them.

[@silentpit666]

Nice one. Just a thought: in the first test they should have been fried separately as rendered fat from real wagyu could have "enhanced" taste of two other burgers.

[@aleprj]

It definetly enhaced the flavor. They should have been made separated.

[@Stop_Gooning]

Once it's rendered it all tastes the same.

[@tdb517]

Yeah I thought the same. They got this huge frying surface and they put the patties so close to each other.

[@mikkelboisen5543]

I think it was about 10 years ago (when Wagyu really started to become popular in Europe) that I read an article about how much was imported into the US and how much was being sold as "genuine" at restaurants.....the numbers didn't really match. IIRC lots of A5s were being sold at US restaurants years before Japan even started exporting their beef crack.

[@Onagadori-cu2hr]

When I was apprenticing as a butcher we used to make ground pork and it looked a lot like the Wagyu grind. Even when grinding in a temperature controlled room the pork was very pasty and would melt from the heat in your hands, the grinder also has a tiny amount of friction heat too so it immediately becomes a mess. Also makes a great filling for certain fried things.

[@CP-tm7be]

Fun video! Nice to see Guga in yours - I've loved his channel(s) for years too. I would love to see a video comparing different breeds of cow, and how their meat compares. Angus vs Herefords, etc. My uncle, who was a beef cattle rancher for most of his adult life, swore that Holstein cows (almost always raised as milk cows) made the best tasting burger.

[@koltoncrane3099]

I’ve heard of a beef convention served Holstein steers and were told afterwards. He’s Holsteins make good beef. The issue is they’re literally a large beef breed. So steaks are also bigger. The average U.S. consumer is taught smaller proportions are better and angus sized beef etc has been standardized so people expect certain sized proportions and cost. Holsteins also take longer to feed or finish which is fine but it’s more money cause the carcass is bigger and then there’s more meat sure but lots of people aren’t used to t-bone that’s way bigger for instance.

[@CrimeVid]

Yes, I remember buying in 32oz T bone steaks ! Men order them in restaurants, and mostly can't finish them.

[@ogret]

There is one problem with the experiment - the burgers were fried side by side and very close one to another. The vast quantities of the Wagyu burger fat probably got into the other burgers and made them taste much better than they really are. Should have done the frying separately.

[@MoMatcha69]

i know. the skillet was huge too. This guy has credibility for this one.

[@BobbsVegine-eg3xz]

Are you trying to say American Burgers don't taste good. Without saying it?

[@Sage_Hashish]

@@BobbsVegine-eg3xz That's an whole other sentence. Objectively speaking the American burgers contain less "flavour" (intramuscular fat) so cooking the three burgers right next to each other (they're literaly touching) kinda goes against the whole point of the video

[@snitox]

The Wagyu KZbinrs should make a lobbying group to change legislation to accurately label Wagyu and Kobe beef

[@rodjacksonx]

I'd chip in. That US companies are that deliberately vague about it should be criminal.

[@JaePlay]

Im actually surprised Ethan was being honest and not softly denying the scam.

[@Felix-Felix]

My two favorite meat cookers in a single video. Thanks for the collab and the info.

[@artful1967]

worth noting that by cooking them so close to each other you got the Wagyu fat soaking into the other burgers. This would definately make them taste better too.

[@sanveersookdawe]

That's also the problem I noticed with this

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

By the way, you should have mentioned how those so-called "Wagyu" burgers at Arby's are cooked: they are frozen and deep-fried in the same oil that they cook chicken in. That probably has some effect on the flavor, although I didn't notice when I ate one. The first time I ate one, I had no clue how they were cooked and would have assumed that they were cooked like most fast food burgers on a flat top grill. Then, I got a job at Arby's and discovered that they don't even have a flat top grill and that their burgers were deep-fried. I was shocked!

[@Nibleswick]

That is a surprisingly old fashioned way to do it. Several of the oldest recipes for American style burgers have you fry balls of beef in tallow about half way up the meat, and when a crust develops on one side you smash the burger down the rest of the way into the grease so that it deep fries.

[@joseph1150]

A local farm sells A4 and 5 Wagyu beef, processed. In addition to buying whatever cuts you want, you also can buy a quarter, half, or full cow. You get all the standard cuts, a few modern ones, and a fairly large amount of ground wagyu. The prices of course are not as high as imported Wagyu, but it's still the same blood lines, still the same care and consideration into raising it, and still the same level of marbling and fat content. The farmer will sometimes throw in less popular cuts with an order to avoid having a bunch of it just sitting.

[@ScoobyJoobyJew]

Real A5 Wagyu only comes from Japan.

[@joseph1150]

@@ScoobyJoobyJew Sure, it's really just Prime++ but the qualities of it are the same. Same marbling, same genetics, same tenderness and fat percentage.

[@LittleThingsinJapan]

What a great video! I work in the wagyū business and the whole experiment was really interesting to see. Thanks also to bring some awareness about the Wagyū nomenclature, meaning and real fullblood experience!

[@n.c.467]

What a knockout combo...GUGA and Ethan...totally loved this power duo collab!!! And as usual, I learned a TON!!!

[@millenniumf1138]

This really helped me figure out that I really don't need wagyu in my burger. I like a bit of a firmer texture in my patty, and the improvement in taste for the meat will probably be overshadowed by all the other components in the burger.

[@Teampegleg]

Honestly anything ground won't make a difference unless you have access to exotic Wagyu like Olive Wagyu trimmings. But that is so rare that I doubt that anyone Kagawa has used it for anything.

[@HaiTharImDavid]

I realized this the 2nd time I tried any wagyu burger. It's just a buzz word now. It still tastes like a regular burger to me.

[@mcbrodz1663]

If you want more of those fatty flavours just use bone marrow

[@ramencurry6672]

For me it’s Wagyu A 5 all the way. I like my burgers plain with salt only

[@jonathonsimon7770]

My preferred burger can either be med-rare lean 1" patty, or a well-done 2 x 1/2" patty with a lot fat. The 1" lets you crisp up the outside of a more lean patty without it over cooking. And somewhere in between (medium temp and medium fat content) makes for the best visually pleasing burger.

[@lonchaney3651]

Frying together doesn’t the tallow mix with the others? That being said if you had an steak burger fried in the waggu tallow wouldn’t that make it better?

[@digginggopher]

It probably would taste better, I might look into buying a bottle of wagyu tallow if such a product exists, to fry everything in, I bet it would deep fry an awesome french fries, like original McDonalds but better

[@Dinofrogg]

To me you're the vsauce but with food. I gets to watch cooking and food videos but at the same time i learn alot. Im so glad to have found this channel.

[@alexborr1746]

I was thinking exactly the same :P

[@Doughboy14145]

Well said! 🤟🏽🍃

[@chrishoffman4635]

I have found the ground American Wagyu is best used when you keep the melted fat. I use it for tacos and chili. I would be interested to see this experiment again but with dishes that aren't burgers.

[@timdavis6088]

@8:25 - Beef tallow is a wonderful by product. Fry your morning eggs in left over steak or hamburger grease.

[@joncarroll2040]

I would think the ideal use for ground wagyu would be something like a bolognese sauce. Yeah the fat is going to render when you brown the meat but then you add your tomatoes to the same pan so it should all emulsify into the final sauce, sort of like adding butter but beefier.

[@destroyerarmor2846]

Chicken and pork cook with their own fat too. I think wagyu is a gimmick

[@marcusjohanson1064]

​@@destroyerarmor2846you obviously never tried wagyu if you think it's a gimmick.

[@Basomic]

I started to smile at 26:05 as the camera zoomed out. The organization of the video, the production/editing, and the thoughtful answer made me think that even though I've always loved your videos, you've come a long way and have really grown as a cook/KZbinr. Thanks for the awesome video!

[@mapowey]

perfect collab. guga is the mad scientist and ethan is the traditional scientist.

[@dragonbricks7086]

Best statement in this video at 0:56. "If "wagyu" (or any specific word) is used to describe everything, it begins to mean nothing"

[@RB-xv4si]

There is a reason that the Wagyu fat melts away so much more quickly and thoroughly than fat from regular beef. You mentioned the difference in fat percentage but did not mention that the fat is chemically different also. Wagyu has a much higher monounsaturated fat content than regular beef, which has mostly saturated fat. Monounsaturated fat is usually liquid at room temp (think olive oil) and saturated fat is usually solid at room temp (think butter).

[@Foggybottom45543]

He did talk about the melting point

[@FENomadtrooper]

America: "You don't know what you're getting, there are no guidelines." Sums up all of our food industry nicely.

[@leofandersoniii]

Tuesday is Soylent green day 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@peterdefrankrijker]

_Now with extra chlorine_

[@equestanton1017]

LOL that was an anti Brexit mantra, we still prefer EU chickens, did anyone ever think we were going to buy USA, still its probably in that Kentucky or frozen Kiev breasts, Mc Nuggets. They get it into us no matter what. Industrial chicken flesh.@@peterdefrankrijker

[@mm6705]

yep. there are very little laws governing anything that would interfere with corporate profits...packaging can say almost anything in most states. Certain states have certain regulations on certain foods, but overall...yeah profit is king. if you don't know the grower/farmer/raiser of your food, you literally cannot know what you are eating.

[@achriso99]

I've been unsuccessfully trying to solve a wagyu mystery for a few years. I was eating at a restaurant with a large group of people. One of them got a waygu steak and said it smelled a bit like poop. Naturally he passed it around and only half of us were able to smell it (and some of them are related). Every now and then I've been trying to find out what the smell is coming from. I believe the ability to smell it was because of genetics.

[@CanularRadio]

Letusknow

[@katl8825]

Scent perception definitely varies person by person. Not just sensitivity to different notes, but also the associations (as humans have the strongest sense-memory in smells). Between the Covid pandemic (and how this virus specifically affected a lot of people’s noses and led to a lot of interesting phenomenon, between losing smell/losing smell memory) and the world of perfumery, you can find a lot of interesting science on smell and how perceptions change person-by-person.

[@TheTeremaster]

Well Wagyu is known for having a big umami characteristic. So if you're sensitive to certain aromas you'll really pick up a mushroomy aroma

[@achvi_rw7095]

I'm wondering, as you're mincing it, what would be the difference between wagyu beef mince and standard beef with extra cow fat minced together? And would there be a taste difference?

[@cowetareserve]

It’s wild; the first time I tried to grill wagyu I found I grilled a little too long on one side given it’s propensity to grill a little quicker. Is the moisture content and the fat really rendering the meat that fast? It’s wild. However I have to say I couldn’t bring myself to grind up a 100-200 dollar steak 😂 I’m so glad y’all did this for me.

[@merphul]

Thanks for doing this guys, I'm feeling pretty validated. I've spent years criticizing the concept of wagyu burgers as it seemed silly to take what is already crazy tender beef due to the high marbling and further degrading the texture by grinding and then largely masking the taste by adding condiments and toppings. Didn't even consider the fat run off that cooking a patty to temp would entail. I don't regularly eat a lot of A5, but quickly seared cubes or short/thick strips has always struck me as the best way to get appreciation of the texture/flavor. Grind it up with ketchup, mayo and some onion on top? c'mon...

[@dianapennepacker6854]

What about a Philly cheese steak? Just tthinly sliced cuts, cheese, and roll. No onions or anything else except the cheese. Well garlic and pepper. Personally I don't like fat.

[@merphul]

@dianapennepacker6854 I'm not even on board with adding cheese. If fat is not your thing, I'd say any super marbled meat is possibly not worth your money? No point in spending the extra money on cuts that aren't to your tastes.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

@@merphul Oh agreed. I tell people that Waygu isn't for me and get hammered.. Was just curious as to how Waygu would be for that. It is like Waygu Tallow... Like WTF. Does it really taste different or better (or things cooked in it anyway.) Tallow is just rendered fat to begin with. Anyway yeah I'm a lean meat type of guy. Marbling is different but I don't want 1000% like that meat shown here before they chomped it.

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

Great team-up, guys! And yeah, wagyu literally just means "Japanese beef"... Koshu wine beef is a local beef that I always go to for great burgers👍

[@Ghostdogsurvivalist]

Guga told you at 12:59 what would happen when you qadded toppings. 80/20 ground chuck plus toppings, classic and delicious.

[@adrianli7559]

I know that this may get me crucified, but sometimes, the fattiness of Wagyu (even without grounding it) can work against it - having 200 grams of a regular steak may leave me wanting for more, but a similar amount of Wagyu would easily put me into a coma.

[@gehtdichnixan3200]

i agree i dont think a steak that fat can be good ... some fat yes but not 90%

[@etanaratsastaja]

I don't approach A5 wagyu the way I approach a normal steak for that reason. I have a fairly small piece among several other dishes. The one time I had a proper steak it became a bit too much towards the end.

[@MrAssChapman]

This is a common opinion and generally considered correct by people who've eaten enough of it. American and Australian hybrids are great for eating a whole steak though. They hit the balance.

[@flymykim]

I love how visibly upset Guga is while placing the wagyu into the grinder @ 6:22. Hes literally shaking his head like.. wtf am I doing?

[@kristinehansen.]

As a person who has only eaten real japanese A4 and A5 wagyu two times in my life because it's so expensive it hurt a lot. Only store that sells it in my city stopped importing A3 and A4 and they only sells huge A5 steaks. I literally saved up for 3 months just to try a small A4 wagyu steak. And a date shared a small steak of A5 wagyu once. But the only store only sells big ones now. It was the best meat I have ever tasted and it hurt so much to see them destroy it like that. I didn't even throw away the leftover fat when I cooked it. I saved it and cooked pancakes in it the next day. Best pancakes ever.

[@discordia013]

It hurts me every time someone grinds wagyu for random mince product. It's goddamn delicious but having the primal cut is so much more.

[@catterin7815]

I've seen Guga do this before on his channel and was surprised he did it again as it upset him the first time as well.

[@Not_Ciel]

1:22 I’ll tell you right now from personal experience that I tried the Wagyu ground beef from Costco and there was a noticeable difference from regular ground beef. Just by cooking it on the grill you could tell it was made with real Wagyu (or a very fatty blend) because it would catch fire easily. The taste was also noticeably different. I haven’t tried other “Wagyu” products but that one was definitely Wagyu and worth the experience.

[@ykx777]

yepp i made burgers from the costco wagyu ground beef, they were amazing

[@Not_Ciel]

@@ykx777 I actually just made tacos with them a couple hours ago and they definitely have a different mouth feel and more beefy taste imo. Not bad for $6 a pound

[@michaelolson556]

What does the Japanese do with the other cuts of the beef? Such a chuck or arm roast, brisket, or even sirloin. Does it have the marbling & could it create the flavor at a better price point?

[@EvanEdwards]

The Arby's burger is interesting. It is sous vide followed by a flash fry sear (a common restaurant method to cook bacon), and only 52% "American Wagyu." Labeling and nomenclature issues aside, it is an intriguing patty, especially if you just view it as a novel cooking method designed for a restaurant without any grills. For a fast food product (and keep in mind that context!), I'd say it's not bad. Although the beef taste is muted a bit, it is reliable, and it pairs with sauces well due to the texture. It's different. I sort of want to try the technique with a salamander finish instead of a flash fry, but I don't have sous vide equipment. I recommend it in the same way I recommend people try a steamed cheeseburger, but there are far more Arby's than steamed cheeseburger joints, especially as you get farther away from Connecticut. I've seen them in Pennsylvania (where I tried it) and Virginia, so they are around. (They are made in a special burger and cheese steam tower, so you can't generally make them at home.)

[@wyliecapp]

Here in Canada we have the same issue as in the US, very little regulation on what is allowed to be called Waygu, so you see it pop up all over the place. I've often been curious about this, thanks for putting in the hard work!

[@Sam-hj8hy]

I used to get the high fat ground beef, but I didn't like them shrinking so much. I started using 91% lean about a decade ago. I don't notice the difference in taste...they still taste like beef for me. The salt/pepper or steak seasoning comes through more than the beef flavor. And if you don't kill them over high heat, they stay juicy too.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

Eat that fat. That's the whole point of it. If you're not going to eat it, then you're wasting flavor AND energy, because it contains a ton of energy.

[@sebaschan-uwu]

​@youuuuuuuuuuutube when you make a burger, you don't scoop up and eat all the rendered fat. More than 10% fat in ground beef is a complete waste unless you're cooking application requires a ton of fat, which it shouldn't 90% of the time. Cooking a burger on a grill, where it doesn't sit in it's own oil, only needs 80/20 ground beef to stay juicy as long as you don't burn it. You don't need to go out of your way to consume oil, you just need to make sure your food is adequately oily.

[@VicDavila]

Sous and Banquet chef here, when I worked for Langley's/ Del Frisco's, wagyu was the least popular item at our location. For 180$, no one was picking it over a 70$ standard, large steak plate.

[@MikeySqueeze]

Great video! But I have to wonder if cooking the other burgers next to the A5 Wagyu burger affected the taste of the other burgers because of the fat melting on the flat top surface.

[@aikofujita2420]

Hi from Japan! Yes, we cook eggs near the Wagyu and they gain flavor from it. We also buy the wagyu tallow to add to our regular hamburger or other beef to flavor them.