Wagyu Tomahawk Steak
A Wagyu Tomahawk steak is a highly prized cut of meat. Not to be confused by adding the term wagyu to tomahawk because in each term they are uniquely their own. Wagyu is a breed of premium world class cattle, where as Tomahawk is a cut of beef that comes from a cow. Infuse the words and you have a Tomahawk steak from a Wagyu cow. Noting that you have a delicious cut of beef from the pinnacle of beef is reason to celebrate. The Tomahawk cut is the Ribeye cut with the rib bone remaining for several benefits that we will detail in this post. Also known as a “bone in ribeye,” you will find a Tomahawk steak at all great steak houses and quality butchers.
best way to buy a tomahawk steak
Many consider our American Wagyu tomahawk the Ultimate Steak. With our special dry-aging process we’ve found a way to make this exclusive cut, even more elite and flavorful. The tomahawk is dry-aged for a minimum of 30 days.
Impressive in both stature and taste, our 100% Grassfed Beef Tomahawk Steaks (AKA Bone-in Ribeye Steaks) are the perfect choice for your next outdoor grilling session. Our beef comes from Angus lineage.
How to cook a tomahawk wagyu steak | chef chris royster’s 4 tips
Tip #1: Start the process early. Salt well in advance (in the morning), leave your salted steak in the fridge, preferably unwrapped and on a baker’s rack. This will pull the moisture out of the steak and help to create a better crust ultimately making for a much better flavor. Fattier steaks like a Tomahawk require more time with salt and oxygen. Season the steak liberally always more than you think you should. Fatty steaks require more salt than expected. Season your steak with fresh ground pepper right before it goes on the grill. Do NOT marinate, no need to add fat to a tomahawk, let the fat melt out of the steak if grilling.
Tip #2: If you have decided to trim the meat entirely off the bone (see French Trimmed Bone below) make sure to wrap the bone in aluminum foil to prevent a burnt bone. This makes for a gorgeous presentation.
Tip #3: It is always a great idea to grease your grill in advance. Use a throw away towel or rag you’re your lightly dip into a high burning oil, use tongs to rub a thin layer of oil onto your grill rack.
Tip #4: Grilling technique to make you a pro. Put ½ grill racks on high heat and ½ on low heat. Start on hot side, sear your steak hard on both sides, then move to low heat side on a cross hash to bring the steak the rest of the way up to temperature, flip. When you close the grill lid this will create a convection in the grill with one side generating more heat to push throughout the grill. Consider this grill tip the same as when you sear your steak in a pan then put it in the over to bring up to your desired temperature. Chef Chris Royster recommends medium rare. For tips to prepare your steak Blue Rare, click here.
Guide to Cooking a Wagyu Tomahawk Steak:
- Using an instant read meat thermometer has its benefits but when you puncture / cut any muscle fibers before resting a steak will release juices from the steak. Leading the steak to dry out faster. Old school home cooks always used the “thumb guide” but with the variety of beef that we have on the market right now, its nearly impossible to tell the temperature of a steak through this home trick. Thermometers are a sure way to double check your work if you are new cooking steaks. Thermometer guides tell you their temp controls, make sure to always go 2 degrees under the temperature listed. This gives you more wiggle room and accounts for the carryover time from resting. You can always cook the steak more, but you can never cook it less.
- With thickness, type of cut, marbling, all play a role in how fast the heat moves through the steaks. These variables add complication to how long you are supposed to cook a steak.
- Thin steak = never take off high heat. Thick steak = high then low to continue the cooking process through the entirety of the muscle.
Tomahawk steak price, Pros & COns
(+)Keeping meat on the bone in steaks like a tomahawk helps muscle fibers have something to attach to so they do not retract as easily when being cooked. This helps not just the presentation but cooking items on the bone always gives the meat a deeper flavor than the boneless options.
(+)Tomahawk Steaks are thicker cuts because the butcher has to follow a large rib line.
(-) Restaurants will list the ounces of the steak to include the bone. Just note that a bone in ribeye will account for at least 2-4 ounces in inedible bone.
(-) Being a select cut you will likely pay a higher price for a Tomahawk than a ribeye.
(+) fat to muscle content is near perfection
(+) Utilizing the leftovers from the bone are the perfect breakfast for the next day. Consider a hash with shredded steak.
Ribeye steak | Tomahawk steak cut detailed
A Tomahawk steak is the Rib Eye cut with the bone left in. The “Eye” is a long loin that runs the upper cavity under the rib cage of a cow. Near the head this loin creates a rib roast. Halfway down the down this becomes the ribeye and lower to the T-bone cut. Closer to the front quarter of the cow you get higher marbling intermuscular fat. As you go down the loin it gets less intramuscular fat and more of a thicker fat cap on the outside of the loin. This eye develops the same loin that become the NYS further down the cow. The cap is the ribeye cap on the outmost layer of the cut. Separated only by a delicious layer of fat.
dry aged tomahawk steak
Dry aged steaks are all the rage for true steak connoisseurs. Steak houses flaunt dry aging beef and have proven that dry aged beef was not just a short-term trend. The process of dry aging beef helps to concentrate the beef flavor which makes for a more premium experience. However, it is worth taking a deeper dive before shelling out an extra 20% on your plate. Now, we all know that aging adds character and to get age it takes time. Welp, just like an old wine or nice anejo (aged) tequila, you pay a higher price to account for the storage time of the product in a facility. Only when this timing adds value to the produce does the purchaser see the benefits. Dry aging beef in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment is a heavy price for a producer to pay, holding inventory and managing HAACP plans is enough of a headache to prove worthiness. Only under very strict rules and regulations can dry aging be accomplished. Consider the fact that most animal proteins have a sub one week shelf life in your own refrigerator. Well, the dry aged steaks range from one to three months in a well-managed facility where the beef has time to slowly loose its water content. By loosing water, the muscle fibers become more concentrated in flavor. Arguably a way of slightly fermenting beef, dry aging will surely give any cut a more robust flavor. Is it worth the extra cost? Well, that is for you to decide.
What is a French Trimmed Bone? (Step process for Trimming the bone)
Most at home cooks do not want to waste their time trimming good meat off a bone simply for presentation. The bone holds well marbles meat considered a prize for whom gets to eat the tender meat off the bone. However, if you do want to go for show and less mess:
Step 1: Start by scoring a circle around the bone on where you want to start the presentation (circumference of the bone).
Step 2: Run a paring knife from that cut to the top of the bone on the flat side (back side of the bone) (to ensure you have a sharp enough knife, check out our favorite knife sharpeners).
Step 3: Start to push the connective tissues hugging the bone to the sides. Then take the back of your knife and start scraping from the corner of the bone upwards. This will release the meat from the bone.
Step 4: Pull the meat back with your fingers from the top of the bone down. Rarely will a beef rib bone become perfectly clean initially. Use a basic butter knife or a spoon to aggressively scrape the remaining meat and connective tissue.
Step 5: Aluminum foil wrap the entire clean bone. This helps keep the bone white for presentation as opposed to a black char from the grill.
best sauce for a tomahawk steak
5 Minute Chimichurri | A light refreshing to a fatty steak. Do not add something heavy to such a heavy steak.
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Lemon
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Scallion
- Cilantro (optional)
- Dried chili pepper
Finely mince garlic, oregano, parsley, scallion, cilantro and dried chili peppers into a bowl. Squeeze the juice of one lemon. Begin to add olive oil and mix, add only 3 table spoons at a time, mix together until you achieve a loose pesto like consistency. Serve Cold, salt to desire. Enjoy!
Tomahawk axe
The Tomahawk cut of steak got its name from its incredibly close resemblance to the Tomahawk Axe. A traditional tomahawk style axe has a long and thin handle with a heavy head that tapers off at the end. Visually it is easy to see a slight comparison. Originated by American Indian warriors as both a weapon and a tool, the Tomahawk axe sure has withstood the test of time. You will now find similar items in modern warfare as basic gear, firefighter equipment, camping basics, and indoor axe throwing arenas.
If you are enjoying what you read please visit our post on our favorite and lesser known cut of beef, The Zabuton Steak, Here.
Flagstaff House Review Page is Reader-Supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.