“There’s no such thing as Australian Wagyu 🤡”
A lot of people comment on my posts “Australian Wagyu Doesn’t exist,” or “how could it be an Australian Japanese cow?” Etc etc etc.
Well, much like how European or Japanese Americans exist, so does Australian Wagyu.
“Wagyu” translates directly to Japanese Cow. I went into further detail in my previous blog post, but in short, true “Wagyu” is just a cow born and raised in Japan. These cows have very specific genetics and are raised with extreme care to help foster intramuscular fat development in the animal. This is the “marbling” that is so prized in Japan and around the world.
So then what is “Australian” Wagyu? It’s a cow with Japanese Genetics raised in Australia. The % of Wagyu genetics determines how “pure” the breed of cattle are, and how closely the cow will approximate the results of Wagyu bred in Japan.
A general rule of thumb is that the longer an Australian farm has been breeding cows, the higher the Wagyu DNA % is and the closer to Wagyu the resulting cow will be.
So what are the differences between Australian Wagyu and Japanese Wagyu?
Generally speaking, Australian Wagyu have less marbling and are smaller than Japanese Cows. This varies significantly from farm to farm. Australian Wagyu is also less rich and easier to eat in large portions.
Australian Wagyu also doesn’t get graded on the same A5 Scale as Japanese Wagyu. Instead it’s just graded from BMS 1-9+ (Beef Marbling Score). Japanese beef can have a marbling score of up to 12. Though Australian beef isn’t allowed to get scores of 10 or higher, nor be graded on the A5 scale, I’ve seen examples of Australian Beef that could EASILY pass as A5 Wagyu any day.
But just because the marbling score is the highest, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the “best steak.” I personally believe that not every cut is best from every single farm at a marbling score of 9+. For example, both the Australian Wagyu Tri tip and Flat Iron from stone axe I offer at a BMS of 5-6, where as the filet mignon and bavette steaks I ONLY offer at a 9+.
Australia also has tons of farms that raise Wagyu. I’ll talk about this further on the next post, but I go out of my way to try as many cuts from as many farms as I can to find the best representation of each steak. They all offer different experiences for the customer.
So yes, Australian Wagyu does exist. If you haven’t tried it yet, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. More important than knowing the aforementioned nerdy information, know this: Australian Wagyu is some of the best and juiciest steak you can find. It’s supremely tender, and not overly rich. If you are someone that thinks A5 Wagyu is too rich, and are bored by traditional steaks at Whole Foods, then I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.
