A wagyu carcass divides into a few main families: loin, fillet, round, belly, chuck, and the skirt cuts (harami and sagari). Each of these breaks down further into individual cuts, every one with its own texture and flavour.
Rib loin, sirloin and chuck roll are the loin cuts: richly marbled and deep in umami. They are the ideal cuts for steak, sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, and among the most sought-after on the whole animal.
Fillet is a rare cut, yielding only a tiny amount per animal. Its centre section, the chateaubriand, is the most tender and delicate meat of all, and is often called the king of the rare cuts.
The rare cuts to look for include zabuton (part of the chuck roll, rare and beautifully marbled), misuji (a rare shoulder cut with a beautiful balance of sashi), sankaku (near the chuck short rib, with a rare, clean-finishing fat), haneshita (the lower chuck roll, rare and deeply savoury) and tomosankaku (from around the round, lean umami with just the right amount of fat).
Each of these yields only a few kilograms per animal, which is why they rarely reach a supermarket counter at all. We go through them one by one — how much a single animal actually gives, and how to tell whether a restaurant is handling them properly — in Rare Wagyu Cuts: The Connoisseur’s Guide.
Harami (the lumbar portion of the diaphragm) sits somewhere between muscle meat and offal. Along with sagari (the sternal portion of the diaphragm), its appeal lies in a distinctive umami and texture.
Shimacho (large intestine), tetchan (rectum), hatsumoto (aorta), shibire (sweetbread), liver, hatsu (heart), mino (first stomach), hachinosu (second stomach), senmai (third stomach) and giara (fourth stomach) are among the horumon cuts, each with its own texture and a rich, concentrated savouriness.
Tan is the signature item of yakiniku culture. It is divided into tanmoto (the base, the most tender and marbled), tannaka (the middle section, standard texture) and tansaki (the tip, with real chew). The classic approach is a thick cut, grilled rare.
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