Sous Vide Dueling Steaks: Wagyu vs Ribeye
How else can I start than to tell you 1) I LOVE STEAK and 2) I LOVE MY SOUS VIDE and 3) I LOVE TREATING MYSELF! Of course I would find an excuse to combine these three loves by trying Wagyu Beef!
My recent interest in Wagyu stemmed from an absolutely 🤤 MOUTHWATERING video my husband showed me for an Ohio based farm, Sakura Wagyu Farms. This naturally made me want to try some Wagyu. I mean, it was THAT mouthwateringly good of a video I would go out of my way to buy really expensive beef. Local to me however, the only butcher I could find that sold Wagyu wanted $99 dollars per pound. That is like $3 per bite!?!?!?! Luckily, Sakura is only a few hours away and pretty close to my Sister AND about half the price AND had what I wanted to try available in stock. It was meant to be 🙂
Of course, a 12 ounce Wagyu ribeye was still $40 (about $53/pound) so this is still really expensive in my book!
Naturally, the only way I could justify the cost was to find a way to compare it to a ‘regular’ ribeye, which is I do in this video 😋 The question I set out to answer is if the Wagyu is worth the extra $$$ being that it is almost 4 times as expensive as the store bought ribeye to which I compared it.
What is Wagyu Beef?
At risk of oversimplifying, Wagyu is a specific breed of cow that is of Japanese Origin. Beef from these cows is known for having extra fatty marbling and buttery melt in your mouth qualities. The fat in beef is one of the essential components that helps make beef really good and Wagyu beef all that more special.
How did I prepare the Beef? And what is Sous Vide?
I seasoned both steaks identically to the best of my ability. I used S&P, fresh garlic, fresh thyme, and butter. Both steaks went into vacuum seal bags and both steaks were cooked first in a sous vide water bath then quick pan seared in my cast iron skillet.
About the sous vide, I actually have two Joule Sous Vides. It is SUCH an awesome Kitchen Gadget and please humor my love of this device. Short explanation–a sous vide is more or less a water bath/slow cooker that circulates the water at a very specific temperature (and of course the meat is packaged and not in direct contact with water). Timing is much more generous than stovetop/oven cooking also–the ‘done’ window on a steak (depending on thickness/doneness desired) can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before the steak would be overcooked! The Joule Sous Vide has a wonderful app to help you choose temperature and cook times (plus reminders when food is ready!) as well as it offers manual selection too. The Sous Vides paired with my foodsaver vacuum sealer are probably my two most useful appliances in my kitchen….with my freezer being a close third 🙂
I take advantage of sale cuts of meat by buying enough for two or three dinners, then packing them up once home and putting the extra in the freezer for later. I did just this in this video too, see approx 3:30 in the video. Another awesome sous vide benefit, that extra steak I prepped can be taken directly from freezer to sous vide to skillet for a 95% hands off cooking process and easy weeknight dinner! I really cannot say enough about this device!!!
Anyway, back to the beef! Is the Wagyu worth the extra $$$? Both ribeyes cooked up absolutely perfect and taste so yummy! I do not want to give the spoiler here, but one is better! Watch and see!
