Kobe Beef

Tajima cattle were raised for over a thousand years as small, thin-boned draught animals in the mountains of the Tajima region in northern Hyogo, valued before the modern era for farm labor rather than meat. Beef-eating took hold only after the opening of the international port of Kobe in 1868, when a foreign settlement grew in the city and Westerners began asking for local beef; the Tajima cattle slaughtered for them won a reputation, and meat shipped out of the port gradually became known abroad as "Kobe beef." Through the Meiji era (1868-1912) the Tajima bloodline was recognized for the quality of its meat and bred deliberately for the table. The modern certification system was formalized in September 1983 with the founding of the Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association, which fixed the definition and issues the Kobe Beef certificate; the name was registered under Japan's Geographical Indication system in 2015. Today the Tajima strain remains the common ancestral bloodline behind the other great branded wagyu as well.

A good Kobe steak is dense with thread-fine marbling that turns the cut surface a pale rose-pink rather than deep red. Seared, the fat softens and renders within the muscle, so the meat eats soft and yielding, with a clean, almost sweet richness and a buttery, melting finish rather than a chewy bite. It is intensely rich, which is why it is served in small portions and often only lightly seasoned with salt; a thin slice off the teppan can feel like it dissolves on the tongue. Overcook it or choose an over-fatty cut, and the same fat goes from silky to greasy and cloying, the texture loosening to mush and the sweetness lost.

Kobe beef eats the way it does because of its fat, not in spite of it. The intramuscular fat is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids — chiefly oleic acid, reported at roughly half of the fat in wagyu loin — and these bent, loosely-packing molecules give the fat a low melting point, commonly cited in the low-to-mid 20s °C, far below the roughly 40-50°C at which ordinary beef fat starts to render. Because the marbling is fine and evenly dispersed through the muscle rather than walled off in seams, when the lean is heated the fat melts first and bastes the meat from within, lubricating the fibers so they read as tender and the whole bite seems to melt near body temperature; the oleic acid also reads as sweet and aromatic. This is why Kobe is sliced thin and cooked lightly — a quick sear or a few seconds on the teppan, or a brief dip in sukiyaki or shabu-shabu broth. Long, hot cooking renders the fat fully out, taking the moisture and the melting quality with it and leaving the meat dry.