John Daub: This is Niigata snow aged wagyu beef.
An eight kilogram block of A5 ranked rib eye roll
that's been aging for a month.
Many people have told me that snow-aged wagyu
beef is more tender,
more flavorful than other wagyu beef.
In this episode we're going to be taking you from the
yukimuro here in Niigata, to the kitchen and
restaurant to try this amazing wagyu steak.
This is going to be an incredible
food adventure.
[Intro music]
Irraishaimase! (Welcome!)
Peter von Gomm: ONLY in JAPAN
John: Wow this is a generous cut of A5 ranked
snow-aged Japanese wagyu beef.
Tenderloin is the best of the best.
A lot of people say that this snow aging makes
the steak even more tender, juicier
than other wagyu beef steaks
and I'm really excited to dig into this.
But before I dig in to this amazing wagyu steak,
it's important to understand the
snow aging process and then
I can put my years of tasting Japanese regional
wagyu beef to the test.
This all started in Niigata prefecture in the snow.
In the winter Niigata looks like this.
Quiet snowy villages on the far side
of the Japanese Alps.
Mount Hakai, or Hakaisan, is one of the highest peaks in
the area bringing in clean water
to the valley below.
Where exactly is Niigata?
It's about 75 minutes on the Joetsu Shinkansen to
Echigo-Yuzawa and Uonuma.
Valley's on the other side of the Japanese Alps
that get a lot of snow in the winter.
I drove towards the yukimuro through
some breathtaking highway.
To an undisclosed small town.
Down there you can see an opening to
a cellar under a lot of snow.
Let's walk down to the yukimuro cellar.
The thick door is meant to keep in the chill,
keep out the warmth like a Thermos.
It felt like we were in a bunker.
This is the heart of the food storage unit
and there's a rack of wagyu beef on
one side doing some snow aging.
Oh!!!!
(It's quite big, isn't it?!)
Worker: (Yes, it really is.)
John: These blocks of beef age better here
than in a refrigerator: high humidity,
even chill.
(About how long does the Wagyu beef age here?)
Worker: (About a month.)
John: During the month of aging, the beef will
break down in a more flavorful way.
You can't hear any generators in here, can you?
The only power required is for the lights.
All right. Okay.
So this here is a 13 kilogram block of
sirloin wagyu beef and
it'll be aging here for about a month.
Now in other times of the year they have
a lot more wagyu beef in here but
they're also snow aging more than just wagyu beef.
They also have pork.
And Japanese radish, daikon, and soy sauce.
Japanese sake.
and buckets of something up there.
Any idea what that is?
I had an idea but
needed to check it out.
That meant going up a shaky ladder.
[Ladder creaking]
Miso.
They age it or chill it here.
Over time, it'll become more flavorful.
They even store rice up here.
Uonuma koshihikari, some of the best in Japan.
They can store a lot here.
Yukimuro have been used in this area for centuries as
a way to keep food cool throughout the year.
Traditionally with layers of snow
and rice husks to insulate it.
So here you can see the snow that is
surrounding the yukimuro.
This is what keeps this at a constant one to two
degrees Celsius throughout the year
even in the hot summer months you've got
a really constant chill so that plays
a big part on the taste, the tenderness,
the way that the food breaks down which is
why the yukimuro for centuries now has
been a really great way to store the food.
The snow is replaced annually in March
for another 365 days so snow aging beef
can happen even in the middle of summer.
So how does the snow cellar make the
beef more delicious?
High humidity,
a constant near freezing temperature
between one to two degrees Celsius,
no vibrations.
Electric refrigeration has temperatures
that fluctuate throughout the day.
This is a disadvantage to taste and
the process to break down the meat through aging.
It gets detailed with graphs
that illustrate the impact on the wagyu beef:
more tender, smoother,
more flavorful, with slight increases in
juiciness and aroma.
The typical ways to age beef is wet and dry.
Wet is the most popular method with wagyu in Japan when
they're aged in vacuum sealed bags in their own juices.
Dry aged is in the air,
giving it an earthy nutty flavor over time.
The outer parts are typically cut away
and can't be eaten so the yield is
less and carries a higher price tag.
Snow aging is essentially wet aging
but in a high humidity space.
Only the power of the snow
in a yukimuro snow cellar to cool it.
That is such a cool experience.
I've only ever been in refrigerators
where they were storing the wagyu beef.
This is a yukimuro, so now let's go back
to the kitchen to the table to finish
that wagyu steak.
Welcome to Tsubamesanjo Bit near Tokyo Station
where chef Akiyama from Niigata
will prepare the best of the snow aged
wagyu beef for us.
This is chateaubriand tenderloin
especially prized because it's the most
tender and the rarest of blocks.
Chef Akiyama carves off the surrounding fat
and slices a generous cut for a steak.
Here's our lunch.
Slightly salted.
Pan fried in butter.
It's cooked fast to brown the outside
leaving the center pink.
This is medium, perhaps medium rare.
He prepares it with seasonal Niigata vegetables.
And we've a very special
snow-aged wagyu steak.
Itadakimasu. (I humbly receive.)
Wow!!
Wow. Arigato gozaimasu. (Thank you very much.)
A glass of Hakkaisan, the area's famous Japanese sake.
Oh that's so good.
Chef Akiyama explains the snow aging process on taste.
Akiyama: (The flavors are intensified by the snow aging process.)
(The flavors are greatly enhanced.)
(It tastes much better than normal beef.)
(It brings out the good quality of beef like dry aging.)
(This special aging process suits Japanese wagyu beef.)
(It's unique and original in japan.)
John: So quite often when you're eating a
wagyu steak, the way it's prepared can be
more impactful to the flavor than
actually where it's from or the brand of the beef.
In this series I've traveled
all over the country trying wagyu in so
many different ways, it's hard to say one
is better than another.
Brands are just all unique.
Eating it at a restaurant, or
in your room at a traditional Japanese inn,
or a barbecue outside may also
impact your enjoyment.
Everyone's palette is different.
But one thing's for sure,
the fats are quite different than any other beef.
Juicy, light, flavorful, tender texture,
and aroma and within that lies
the differences.
You just know good wagyu beef when you
put it in your mouth, the juices will
explode just covering your palate and
that umami comes out.
It is a little bit different.
It's absolutely juicy.
It's hard to compare it to another wagyu
brand unless you have it with you but I..
I just let's just focus on the experience
of eating the snow-aged wagyu beef.
It's good.
It's really good. It's tender, it's juicy.
It's absolutely perfect.
Again this is a tenderloin.
This is the best of the best.
The juiciest, the tenderest of cuts.
I mean it is just absolutely perfect in every way.
Now you can compare this to Kobe beef.
You can compare this to Matsuzaka beef
or the other 350 wagyu brands
across the 47 prefectures of Japan,
but I don't think that that is
really a fair comparison because again
the regions of Japan all play an impact
uh an influence on the beef but it's
often the way it's cooked and prepared
has more of an impact on the taste.
And snow aging, that constant temperature,
I think it really does make it juicier and
more tender but you're gonna have to be
the judge of that.
You're gonna have to come and find out for yourself.
If you liked it, hit that subscribe button and
don't forget to join me on another
adventure around this amazing country.
Mata ne! (See you again!)
I'm gonna be here forever.
This is so good!
Subtitles by Toby Production Services