A genuine Wagyu steak can cost £120 or more in Tokyo. Aldi is selling
two very generously-sized burgers for £2.99 using beef from New Zealand.
Can Aldi deliver something as tasty at about one-100th of the price?
Well, of course, it can’t. But it is still pretty delicious.
The burger I tried was cooked by Simon Rimmer, the Manchester-based
chef, who grilled it on a barbecue without adding any extra seasoning or
flavourings.
It had a beautiful crust and a genuinely loose,
tender texture. Fatty, without being too greasy, it was a burger that
made you immediately lick your lips and go for another big bite.
“Gosh, that’s really quite good,” I said, slightly taken aback, to Rimmer when I first tried it.
“I know, I was sceptical like you too, but you get a really good depth of flavour and melt-in-the-mouth texture,” he said.
• What's all the fuss about Wagyu beef?
It was packed full of flavour, to such an extent, I started to examine the packaging to find out what Aldi, or its supplier, had added to the burger. The answer is a lot of salt, some pepper, water, chickpea flour, cornflour, and various preservatives. As Rimmer says: “There is a bit of filler to bring the price down.”
Now, I don’t mind a bit of breadcrumb in my burger to help with holding it all together, but Aldi’s Wagyu burger is only 86 per cent beef, which seems a bit mean. A Tesco Finest British Beef Burger has 94 per cent beef, for instance.
Also, they were just too salty. Each burger had 2.1g of salt (35 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily allowance). Again, a Waitrose Aberdeen Angus burger has 1.3g and a Tesco one has 0.7g. Hey, I speak as a man who would prefer to boil all his vegetables in water from the Dead Sea, and encrusts most of my meat in salt, but an hour after eating the burger I found myself downing a half-litre bottle of water to quench an insatiable thirst.
• How Ireland is revolutionising the art of ageing beef
The other issue I have with these Wagyu burgers is that, like nearly all the Wagyu beef served up in Britain, it is not pure Wagyu. Aldi was unable to tell me which specific breed of cattle in New Zealand the meat came from. The supplier is Firstlight Food in New Zealand, which says the cattle are grass fed. It’s possible the cattle are pure breed, but most Wagyu that ends up on supermarket shelves comes from cross-breeds.
Aldi has gained a reputation for selling a handful of genuinely tasty products at a fraction of the price of its rivals. The Wagyu burger almost fits into that category - the flavour and texture of these burgers marks them out as a notch above most premium supermarket burgers, but not necessarily better than all of them. And £2.99 for two burgers is cheaper than, say, a Tesco Finest Aberdeen Angus pair of burgers for £3.
Harry Wallop has also taken to the streets to taste-test Asda's Serrano ham versus Fortnum & Mason's:
He has also pitted a £600 box of chocolates against Cadbury's Milk Tray:
• WATCH: Wolfgang Puck's tips on how to cook the perfect steak
Anglo-Vietnamese shredded beef brisket recipe
Sirloin steak with wasabi mayonnaise recipe
“Gosh, that’s really quite good,” I said, slightly taken aback, to Rimmer when I first tried it.
“I know, I was sceptical like you too, but you get a really good depth of flavour and melt-in-the-mouth texture,” he said.
• What's all the fuss about Wagyu beef?
It was packed full of flavour, to such an extent, I started to examine the packaging to find out what Aldi, or its supplier, had added to the burger. The answer is a lot of salt, some pepper, water, chickpea flour, cornflour, and various preservatives. As Rimmer says: “There is a bit of filler to bring the price down.”
Now, I don’t mind a bit of breadcrumb in my burger to help with holding it all together, but Aldi’s Wagyu burger is only 86 per cent beef, which seems a bit mean. A Tesco Finest British Beef Burger has 94 per cent beef, for instance.
Also, they were just too salty. Each burger had 2.1g of salt (35 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily allowance). Again, a Waitrose Aberdeen Angus burger has 1.3g and a Tesco one has 0.7g. Hey, I speak as a man who would prefer to boil all his vegetables in water from the Dead Sea, and encrusts most of my meat in salt, but an hour after eating the burger I found myself downing a half-litre bottle of water to quench an insatiable thirst.
• How Ireland is revolutionising the art of ageing beef
The other issue I have with these Wagyu burgers is that, like nearly all the Wagyu beef served up in Britain, it is not pure Wagyu. Aldi was unable to tell me which specific breed of cattle in New Zealand the meat came from. The supplier is Firstlight Food in New Zealand, which says the cattle are grass fed. It’s possible the cattle are pure breed, but most Wagyu that ends up on supermarket shelves comes from cross-breeds.
Aldi has gained a reputation for selling a handful of genuinely tasty products at a fraction of the price of its rivals. The Wagyu burger almost fits into that category - the flavour and texture of these burgers marks them out as a notch above most premium supermarket burgers, but not necessarily better than all of them. And £2.99 for two burgers is cheaper than, say, a Tesco Finest Aberdeen Angus pair of burgers for £3.
Harry Wallop has also taken to the streets to taste-test Asda's Serrano ham versus Fortnum & Mason's:
OUR FAVOURITE BEEF RECIPES
Clodagh McKenna's beef and Guinness stew recipe
Anglo-Vietnamese shredded beef brisket recipe
Sirloin steak with wasabi mayonnaise recipe
