Wagyu Chilean Beef Whole Striploin | 2.8kg, 3kg

Chilean Wagyu Whole Striploin - Steaks or Roasting Joint

±2.8kg or ±3kg, delivered chilled. Serves 10 to 12.

1. Straight from the fridge
Your striploin arrives chilled, not frozen. Keep it in its unopened vacuum pack at 0-4°C and use it by the date on the label. If you have frozen it yourself, thaw it in the fridge in its pack, allowing 28 to 30 hours.

2. Decide how to break it down
A whole striploin gives you around ten 250g steaks, or two roasting joints, or one of each. Cut what you want now and wrap and freeze the rest, using it within 12 months.

3. Keep the fat cap
Do not trim the layer of fat along the top. Score it lightly in a crosshatch, no deeper than the fat itself. Rendered down, it is the best cooking fat in the kitchen.

Method A - Steaks (around ten of 250g, 3cm thick)

4. Cut across the striploin at 3cm. Temper the steaks 40 minutes, pat dry and salt generously.

5. Stand each steak on its fat edge in a hot dry pan, holding it with tongs, until that edge is bronzed and the pan has a film of rendered fat. Then lay the steak flat and cook it in its own fat.

6. 2½ to 3 minutes a side. Pull at 52°C for medium rare. Rest 6 to 8 minutes, then slice across the grain at 1cm.

Method B - Roasting joint (reverse sear, for a centrepiece)

4. Tie the joint at 4cm intervals. Salt it all over and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight if you can. A dry surface is what gives you a crust.

5. Out of the fridge one hour before cooking. Oven at 110°C, joint fat side up on a rack over a tray.

6. Cook until the centre reaches 48°C. Allow roughly 35 to 40 minutes per kilo, but go by the probe and not the clock.

7. Rest 15 minutes, then finish at 240°C for 8 to 10 minutes, or sear it in a very hot pan on all sides. Pull at 52°C.

8. Rest a further 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the string and carve across the grain at 1cm.

Do not cook it past medium rare. The striploin carries its fat on the outside rather than through the muscle, so it has less margin than a ribeye.

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 28-30 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.