Snow-Aged Wagyu Beef From Central Market — It's What's for Dinner (for $159 a Pound)

We love Central Market. From black truffles to Chilean sea bass to its jaw-dropping cheese selection, it is a bona fide foodie wonderland. We were browsing the Lovers Lane store in Dallas recently (which is never boring) and found ourselves face to face with beef glimpsed only in our wildest dreams: Snow-aged Japanese wagyu New York strips and ribeyes.

Alas, it will have to remain in our dreams for the foreseeable future because this beef retails at a cool $159 per pound. If I could afford it – which I absolutely cannot – I could see myself taking one of these home and ruining it on my $40 Weber grill.

After a bit of research, we learned that snow-aging is a 200-plus-year-old Japanese technique in which A5 wagyu (the highest-graded beef) is placed in a chamber known as a yukimuro room and blanketed in rice and snow, creating a natural refrigerator with a cold and humid atmosphere. The beef then ages for about a month at a constant temp of 0 to 5 degrees Celsius.

This precise climate gradually evolves this already ridiculously tender beef to somehow being even more tender, which we didn’t think was possible. This aging method also gives it a mellow and sweet flavor profile (so we hear) versus the more intense flavor of wet-aged beef.

Central Market's buyer for this product told us it's sourced from Allen Brothers — a popular high-end restaurant meat supplier. The key to cooking it properly, per Central Market, is to slice it thin and sear it over very high heat for four to five seconds, just enough to get a sear on the outside. It should be served rare and salted to taste.

If your local Central Market doesn't have any, we're told you can request it.

As of this writing, snow-aged wagyu is still available (according to the website) at Central Market’s Lovers Lane location. No other area locations appear to have it, although the Southlake location has Oita wagyu beef striploin (which also scores the prestigious A5 beef grade) for $119.99 per pound.

As for restaurants serving this delicacy, we spotted a 3-ounce strip on the menu at Nuri for $120. Anyone want to go in on threesies?

Central Market, 5750 E. Lovers Lane. Daily, 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.