Thaw A5 wagyu in the fridge for a day, then take it out 15 to 20 minutes before cooking. Heat a dry cast-iron pan until it's very hot, sear a 3/4-inch steak about 60 seconds a side, rest it on a warm plate, slice it thin and salt it at the table. Plan 2 to 4 oz a person.
New to A5? Start with what the grade means on our Japanese Wagyu guide.
Why A5 needs its own method
A5 is the top grade in Japan's beef grading system. The A means the highest yield of meat from the carcass. The 5 means top marks on all four quality checks: marbling, meat color, firmness and fat quality. For marbling, that means a score of 8 to 12 out of 12. How the A5 grade works.
That marbling changes how the steak behaves in a pan. About half of Japanese Black fat is oleic acid, the fatty acid that keeps olive oil liquid at room temperature. Studies of Japanese Black cattle put the melting point of their fat at about 70 to 85°F, below body temperature. Cook A5 to the medium you'd give a Prime ribeye and most of that fat ends up in the pan. Everything below follows from that: a hotter pan, shorter contact, smaller portions.
Thaw
Move the steak, still in its vacuum seal, from the freezer to the fridge the day before you cook it. Set it on a plate in case the seal leaks. Give a steak a full day. USDA says even a 1-pound package needs that long, and a roast needs about a day for every 5 pounds.
Thawing in the fridge keeps the fat solid and the meat below 40°F the whole time. Once thawed, a steak keeps in the fridge 3 to 5 days.
Don't thaw A5 on the counter, and don't use the microwave. The counter warms the outside into USDA's 40°F to 140°F danger zone while the center stays frozen. The microwave starts cooking the fat before the meat has thawed.
Temper
Take the steak out of the fridge 15 to 20 minutes before it goes in the pan. That's long enough to take the chill off the surface so it browns evenly. Leaving it out longer gains nothing on a cut this thin, and USDA's limit for raw meat at room temperature is 2 hours.
Pat both sides dry with a paper towel just before cooking. Water on the surface turns to steam, and steam stops a crust from forming.
Pan and heat
Use a heavy pan that holds its heat when a cold steak lands in it: cast iron or carbon steel. Heavy stainless steel works too. Skip nonstick, which isn't built for the heat this needs.
Heat the pan dry until the surface reads at least 450°F on an infrared thermometer. Without one, flick in a few drops of water: when they skitter and vanish in a second or two, the pan is ready.
Don't add oil or butter. Within the first 15 seconds the steak puts out enough of its own fat to fry in. Added oil turns the sear into a shallow fry and leaves the surface chewy.
Cook on the stovetop or a flat-top griddle, not over an open grill. Rendered A5 fat drips onto the coals and flares up.
Time
For a steak cut 3/4 inch thick, the way we cut most of our A5 steaks: lay it in the pan and leave it for about 60 seconds, until the underside is deep brown. Flip once and give the second side 45 to 60 seconds.
That is the limit. Past 60 seconds a side, the fat renders out of the steak and into the pan, and the texture turns waxy. If the crust isn't there at 60 seconds, the pan wasn't hot enough. Turn the heat up for the next steak rather than leaving this one in longer.
Thin strips cook faster. A 1-by-4-inch strip needs 20 to 30 seconds a side.
Salt
Salt at the table. A pinch of flaky salt on each slice lets you taste the salt and the beef separately, and the fat carries the salt across your tongue.
If you prefer to season before cooking, salt the steak right before it goes in the pan. Skip the dry brine you'd give a thick Prime steak: salting hours ahead pulls moisture to the surface, and a 3/4-inch A5 steak has no time in the pan to dry it off again.
Pepper burns at this heat. Add it after.
Rest
Move the steak to a warm plate and rest it 3 to 5 minutes. Use a plate rather than a wire rack: the fat that runs off is worth spooning back over the slices.
Slice
Slice across the grain into strips about 1/2 inch wide, or into bite-size cubes. Spread them on the plate so people can take one at a time.
Some cooks slice first and sear one strip at a time at the table, eating each strip as it comes off the pan. It's the most forgiving way to cook A5 because each piece spends seconds in the pan. When to cube A5 and when to keep it whole.
Portion
Plan 2 to 4 oz of raw A5 a person. Use 2 oz when A5 is one course in a larger meal and 4 oz when it's the main event. A 12-oz ribeye feeds three to six people.
A5 carries three to four times the fat of a Prime steak, and a 12-oz portion each usually goes unfinished. Serve it with something sharp to reset the palate: pickled vegetables, grated daikon, a squeeze of citrus or a green salad.
Doneness and food safety
Two different numbers apply here, and it helps to keep them apart.
Pull temperature is a cooking target: the internal reading at which you take the steak off the heat, before it rises a few more degrees as it rests. On A5, most cooks aim for rare to medium-rare. On a 3/4-inch steak you won't get a thermometer reading worth trusting, so time and color are the guide.
USDA's safe minimum internal temperature is a food-safety threshold. For beef steaks and roasts it is 145°F, measured with a food thermometer, followed by a 3-minute rest. A5 cooked to 145°F is well past the point where most people enjoy it. Cooking it below that is a choice USDA doesn't endorse, and that applies most to young children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with a weakened immune system.
Reverse sear for thick cuts
The 60-second method suits steaks up to about 1.5 inches thick. Past that, the outside burns before the center warms through. Thick strip steaks, a whole roast or a thick-cut filet need a reverse sear instead.
Heat the oven to 250°F. Cook the steak on a rack over a tray until the center reads 105°F. Then sear it in a very hot dry pan for 30 seconds a side, rest and slice. The low oven warms the center gently, and the short sear builds the crust.
Our reverse-sear A5 ribeye recipe walks through it on a smoker and grill.
Sous vide
Sous vide works on A5. The water bath doesn't render the fat out the way people fear.
Joe Heitzeberg, our co-founder, learned this method from chef Mike Bagale, formerly executive chef at Alinea:
- Seal the steak and cook it at 135°F (57°C) for 45 to 60 minutes.
- Chill it in the fridge until cold. A cold steak can take a hard sear without the center overcooking.
- Take it out 20 minutes before searing, pat it dry and season it.
- Sear in a hot dry pan for about 30 seconds a side, rest and slice.
Prefer to watch?
Cooking A5 wagyu from frozen
Thaw A5 first. Cooking it from frozen is safe, and USDA says frozen meat cooks fine in about 50% more time. It doesn't work on A5 for a practical reason.
The cook-from-frozen method works on thick steaks because a long, gentle cook gives the center time to thaw. A 3/4-inch A5 steak spends about two minutes in the pan. That isn't long enough to thaw the center, so you get a seared outside around a frozen middle. If you leave the steak in until the center thaws, the fat renders out and you lose what you paid for. The frozen surface also throws off water, which cools the pan and steams the steak instead of searing it.
Thaw in the fridge whenever you can. The slow thaw keeps the fat firm and gives the best texture. If you forgot and dinner is tonight, cold water is the fallback. Keep the steak in its sealed package, put it in a bowl of cold tap water and change the water every 30 minutes. A single steak thaws in under an hour. Cook it as soon as it has thawed, and don't refreeze it raw.
For other beef, cooking from frozen often beats thawing. How to cook a steak straight from frozen.
How to cook Olive wagyu
Olive wagyu comes from Kagawa Prefecture, where the cattle finish on dried olive pulp left over from olive oil pressing. Under the Kagawa promotion council's rules, each animal eats at least 100 g of it a day for at least two months before shipment.
Cook it the same way as other A5, with a lighter hand:
- Thaw it in the fridge for a full day. Never thaw it on the counter.
- Cut it into strips about 1 inch by 4 inches before cooking.
- Sear one strip at a time in a hot dry pan, 20 to 30 seconds a side, and eat each one as it comes off.
- Season with a little coarse sea salt, or none. Go light so you taste the beef.
How to cook Kobe beef
Kobe beef comes from Tajima cattle born and raised in Hyogo Prefecture. The Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association certifies it. To qualify, a carcass has to grade 4 or 5 for quality, score at least 6 for marbling and weigh no more than 499.9 kg. The association certified 6,820 head in fiscal 2024.
Cook Kobe exactly as you'd cook any other A5: thaw it in the fridge, sear it 60 seconds a side in a dry hot pan, slice it thin and salt it at the table.
Our Kobe beef is sold out right now. About our Kobe beef ranch (sold out).
