Field notes
Myths, and what replaces them
A myth is easier to remember than a fact. So each myth here is paired with the fact that should take its place.
Wagyu cattle drink beer, get sake massages and listen to classical music.
Schatzker went to Matsusaka to see it. The farmer gave one cow, one bottle of cheap beer a day in summer, to help her appetite. He brushed cattle only for shows. Sake sprays were an old trick for a glossy coat and had been dropped. Schatzker's conclusion: the real secret is time. Japanese cattle take about 30 months to finish, against a much shorter finishing period in US feedlots. [Schatzker]
Kobe beef and Wagyu are the same thing.
Kobe is one brand, defined by Hyogo's rules and drawn from Tajima cattle. In 2005 Tajima cattle were about 2.3% of all Japanese Black. The 2021 handbook lists 377 brands. [Enoki 2008] [Handbook 2021]
A5 means the most delicious beef.
A is a yield grade, and 5 is the lowest score across four quality checks. Taste preferences vary. See the grading decoder. [Handbook 2021] [Schatzker]
Beef labelled "domestic" (国産牛) in Japan is Wagyu.
That label usually means Holstein or a Holstein × Japanese Black cross. [Yamamoto 2017]
Each brand's taste comes from its own local terroir.
The Matsusaka farmer Schatzker visited used imported Australian grain and US wheat. Matsusaka officials told him the only constant was local water. Historically, Matsusaka, Omi and Kobe cattle were born in Tajima, and Hida rose on a Tajima bull. A brand is a mix of bloodline, fattening place and rules. [Schatzker] [Enoki 2008]
Wagyu were always beef cattle.
They were draft animals that ploughed rice fields and hauled loads. Japanese Black was a draft-and-beef animal. The shift to beef-only cattle came after farm mechanization in the late 1950s and 1960s. [Enoki 2008] [Handbook 2021] [Schatzker]
Marbling is where the flavour is.
Schatzker cites British meat research arguing that flavour tracks what cattle eat, especially grass, while marbling mainly adds juiciness and richness. On this view, the fat's softness is what is distinctive. Japanese Black convert stearic acid into oleic acid especially readily, so the fat melts at hand temperature. [Schatzker]
"Aged beef" is any beef kept for a long time.
Japan has no legal standard for aged beef, and a proposed JAS standard was shelved. Yamamoto keeps the word for dry aging only. Japan also has its own hanging method (吊るし・枯らし) with little airflow, which he finds suits marbled, low-moisture Wagyu. [Yamamoto 2017]
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