 Look at this. Wagyu in 3D. Is it worth it? We'll take a look. It's the ribeye challenge this time. Wagyu from Costco, Prime, versus a Japanese wagyu and also an American wagyu. Stick around. We'll take a deep dive right now. Hey there. It is Bill West with BBQtricks.com. About a year ago, I did a comparison video. I called it Wagyu. Is it worth it? And I compared a brisket from, it was actually Snake River Farms to a Costco brisket. And I got a lot of feedback. It's hard for me to read through the comments just because it was kind of painful for me. I felt like I did a really good kind of comparison. What I was thinking in the review was, okay, we've got a, actually it shows a choice brisket from Costco. And I got a brisket American Wagyu from, anyway, I talk all about it in the video, American Wagyu from Snake River Farms. And a lot of people thought that was an unfair comparison because I did choice compared to Wagyu and it was American Wagyu. And so it was balancing act. Anyway, I think that video stands. I tried to be fair with it and stands alone. You can see my results there. But to kind of revisit this, I thought I'd do it with some beautiful wagyu steaks. This one actually a boneless ribeye Japanese from my friends at Meat and Bone. I actually spent a lot of time talking to Gabriel and Louis Mata from the CEO from Meat and Bone about, you know, whether the wagyu gradings are worth it and interesting different responses to all of it. I'm going to season these up with just a real simple, actually I'm going to use Saskatchewan seasoning and we'll do a side-by-side comparison. But just looking at these in the packaging, you can see already there is definitely a difference with Wagyu. I didn't see it with the brisket I've done before, but here, and especially when you start talking about Japanese Wagyu, for sure, no doubt there is a visual difference. And I didn't see that in the video before, and I asked Louis, does it really matter? And he said it kind of depends on the cuts. This is what he said. It doesn't, it doesn't. Like, for example, prime, it's still prime. Anything prime is going to be high quality. The difference is like the beef grading is only looking for the most part at the maturity of the cow. There's a few things it'll look at, but mostly maturity and it's going to look at the marvel. But that doesn't tell the whole story. So the USA goes up as far as prime, and that's it, and they'll look at these two factors. When you look at other countries like Australia and Japan, they do a similar, but with a lot more detail. But at the end of the day, what I've discovered is what matters is the details, the devil is in the details. The difference between a $50 cowboy steak prime and a $40 cowboy steak prime, it may be how that cat was fed. And how it was shredded and how it was cut. Is it butchered? Is it steak trimmed and cut by hand? Is it wet-aged? One thing that people don't realize is that every single piece of beef that you've had has been aged. It's been aged at least seven days. So if you age four days or you age 20 or 30 days, and I'm talking wet-aging, you're going to have a completely different experience. One's going to be a lot more tender than the other. And that adds cost. So yeah, the labeling is a little bit, I would say it's a good start to look at, but there's also a sweet spot on some steaks that are choice that can be almost as good as a prime, and then you're saving the premium. On the flip side, there's some cuts where it's worth going for the prime, and there's some cuts where it isn't. So every single great beef in the world, be it Australian, American, or Japanese, you're judging the whole steer by the ribeye. That doesn't necessarily translate as well to the rest of the animal. So that's where it makes a difference, to know the details. Is that the case in U.S.? It's basically judged by the ribeye? Yeah, everywhere. We're all looking at the ribeye when it comes to grading beef. So let's get these going. We've got ribeyes and they look good. I tried to get the same thickness. Boy, look at that thing. That's one. Then we've got these beauties for meat and bone. It'll start with, this one here is a boneless ribeye BMS level 6 to 7. So this would be considered an American breed Angus mix. And I believe what Lewis says is, these are, they recommend, this is like the best buy for your money. And you get a great steak. So 6 or 7 BMS with that. And then here's a beautiful one, a BMS 8.9, which is really getting up there from meat and bone. And unlike when I did the briskets before, you couldn't see as much of a difference when I compared. And I was surprised the American Wagyu brisket to the Costco, it was Costco choice. I really thought you would. But I think it goes to show you that the Costco was really pretty good. But so look at this. One more level up. This is the different levels. And as you can see here, there's a big difference. Like the Miyazaki is insane. Like literally it's almost more fat than beef. It's super rich. You look at the steak and you say, oh, I would eat that in a heartbeat. And then when you're halfway through it, you're like, wow, why is this so filling? And it is because how rich it is. The BMS 8.9 to me is one of the most spectacular ribs I've ever had. It's actually that mix between beefy, extremely tender, extremely flavorful steak, which approaches the richness of the Miyazaki, but it doesn't quite get there. So to me, that's perfect. The 6.7 is a good, high grade American Wagyu rib eye, which is a great, high value. And it's got a good flavor. So here they are all seasoned up. Let's pop them on the grill. I'm going to go hot and fast, just cook them for a couple of minutes each side and see how they taste. So yeah, the Japanese A5 Wagyu is a BMS 9 plus. It's like the best of the best. So good. It did melt in your mouth. It's like butter, beefy butter. They all had a great beef flavor and I season them all the exact same. Even the Costco tasted good, but it's all in the level of succulents, I would say. And I'll try and show you these in order, and I'll cut here the Wagyu A5 Japanese BMS 9 plus. And BMS is the beef marbling score, and Meat and Bone has this all mapped out on their website, nice and clear. When I cut this, you're going to see it's actually looks maybe more white than it is. It's truly nice and medium rare, but it almost looks white because of all the fat it has in here. And again, no doubt the Japanese Wagyu was as succulent as you can get. But let's look at these other ones too. So here's all of them on one cutting board. You've got the Japanese on the left. On the very top, you've got the BMS 8 to 9 beef marbling score, which is the one, that's the one to get. The best you can get, closest to. It is still an Angus Wagyu mixed. And then on the top right of your screen, my left hand is the Wagyu BMS 6 to 7, which was, they say the best for the money. Best in, I would agree. And it is one notch better than the Costco, which is a simple prime. Which again, Costco is fine. There you have it. So there you go. That is exactly what we're dealing with. I would say they, Meat and Bone, thank you. These steaks are incredible. And even Costco's prime is good. But you can definitely see Wagyu is worth it when it gets to these higher levels, especially the Japanese. You can definitely see the difference. I mean, it's just pretty incredible. It's translucent here. I can see light coming through. I don't know if you can, the other way around. But this, Japanese is unbelievable. I was talking to Greg over at Ballistic Barbecue, and I agree. You take a bite, there's something about this that almost just every bite makes you smile or something. It's that good. Japanese Wagyu, thank you, Meat and Bone. Gabriel, Lewis, is Wagyu worth it when it comes to rib-eyes? Absolutely. And there's so many different levels. Find out more about Meat and Bone. I put a link to their website in the description box here. And more on different meat you can get through them and the brisket video as well. For more tips, tricks, other fun stuff, any time, just check it out at www.barbecuetricks.com.