Is 'Wagyu' ground beef a scam?

What does Wagyu even mean these days? In this video, I want to start and get to the bottom of it.

📃 RECIPE Link: None

📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:

MY FAVORITE KITCHEN GEAR

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
2:03 What is Wagyu? Where did it originate?
4:56 Test #1: Wagyu vs USDA Prime with @GugaFoods
14:26 How did Wagyu get to the United States?
20:58 Test #2: Cheap vs Expensive Ground Beef

MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
Voice recorded on Shure MV7
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:

[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.

[GODHAND]

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*

[pawkeshup]

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

[pmeloun]

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

[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.

[pisswizard]

I'm a butcher in Australia here. I often tell my customers that the mincer (meat grinder) is the great equaliser. It doesn't really matter the grade of the meat that goes in because fat is the only real determining factor in the flavour of mince (ground beef).

[Merc]

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

[mikeb.]

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

[snakexpert]

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

[deejaybeaver]

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.

[MassiveTrackHunter]

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

[GhstHstTwenty-s]

The world would be better if we all had a friend like Guga. Dude is an amazing human.

[thomascradduck]

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

[albertau]

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.

[peterheuer]

Cooking them all touching side by side seems like a good way to skew the results

[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.

[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.

[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!!!

[lowlightevangelist]

This was an excellent video. Intelligently done, and everything video was on point! Well done, sir.
Please consider trying grass fed longhorn burgers.
Best ever.

[pj]

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.