Wagyu British Beef Whole Striploin | ±6kg

Wagyu Whole Striploin - Butchering, Steaks and Roasting

±6kg. Serves up to 20. Delivered chilled. Cut it down before you cook anything.

1. Chilled, or defrosted if you froze it
Delivered chilled in a vacuum pack. If you froze it, move it to the fridge and allow 32 to 36 hours. Once opened or defrosted, keep at 0-4°C and use within 24 hours.

2. Plan the cut before you start
Six kilos is more than one meal. At 3cm thick you get around twenty 250g steaks from the whole piece. Most people take a roasting joint of 2 to 3kg from the thick end and cut the rest into steaks.

3. Trim, but not too much
Leave the fat cap on at about 8mm. It is what bastes the meat and what you render in the pan. Remove only the silverskin, the thin silver membrane on the underside, which stays tough however you cook it.

4. Portion and wrap
Cut steaks straight down, square to the board, so each one sits flat in the pan. Wrap what you are not cooking within 2 days and freeze it. Wrap each steak separately, not as a block.

5. For steaks
Temper 30 to 40 minutes. Pat dry and salt. Stand each steak on its fat edge for 2 to 3 minutes to render, then sear in that fat, 2½ to 3 minutes a side over high heat. Pull at 52°C. Rest 5 to 8 minutes.

6. For a roasting joint
Tie it at 4cm intervals. Temper 2 hours. Oven at 240°C for 20 minutes for colour, then down to 140°C. Roughly 12 to 14 minutes per 500g after that, going by the probe rather than the clock.

7. Pull the joint at 48°C
It climbs to 52-54°C while resting, which is medium rare. Rest 25 to 30 minutes, loosely covered, before it meets a knife.

8. Carve across the grain
The fibres run the length of the striploin. Cut across them at 1cm. Serve a piece of the fat cap with every slice.

Keep the trim
The offcuts from squaring up the piece make the best mince or steak tartare you will ever have, and the fat trimmings render down into dripping. Nothing here belongs in the bin.

Optional: melt a flavoured butter over the rested meat rather than cooking the beef in it.

If fresh
Keep refrigerated at 0-4°C in its unopened vacuum pack and use by the date on the label. You can freeze it unopened at any point up to that date - at -18°C or below it will keep well for up to 12 months.

If frozen
Keep frozen at -18°C until needed. Use by the date on the pack.
Defrost in the fridge, in its packaging, allow 32-36 hours. Never defrost at room temperature or in a microwave.
Once opened or defrosted, keep refrigerated at 0-4°C and use within 24 hours. Do not refreeze once thawed.
A faint metallic smell on first opening the pack is normal for vacuum-packed beef and will disperse within a few minutes in open air.