The World’s Best Mac n Cheese and Waygu Beef

Recently, our Sunday Night Dinner was courtesy of the fine folks at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese and Mishima Reserve Waygu Beef. My, oh my… A Dinner. To. Die. For…

Kurt Dammeier and Jena Paxton have been fans of my website and supporters of my cheese journey from Day 1. When Spaulding Gray and I were contemplating creating a Cheese Blog/Website in 2008, SG chose No Woman (now known as New Woman) for his first review. Why did he choose No Woman? It was his favorite cheese. When I would bring home a triangle wedge of it, SG would crawl up my leg to get to it. (He was not declawed making it an exciting moment for me.) In a discussion with Kurt, I mentioned this and Kurt ventured it was the beefiness of the Jamaican Jerk Spices that attracted SG. (You can read SG’s interview with Kurt here.) You can buy New woman here.

That first review caught Beecher’s attention and one day a package from Beecher’s arrived at my cheese shop with an autographed copy of Kurt’s first cookbook, Pure Flavor. You can buy both of his cookbooks through my Amazon Storefront.* Over the years, our friendship has continued and is cherished. Another friend and fellow CCP, Nathan Aldridge, told me that a photo of SG/New Woman collage I made for Kurt hangs on the wall of Beecher’s Corporate offices in Seattle. (SG had lots of friends and fans in “high places”. He was one lucky cat…)

The summer of 1970 (when I was still a teen), I traveled around the world (literally) and the last leg of my trip was a week in Japan. While there, our tour group was treated to a farewell dinner that included Kobe Beef. (We were told the cows were fed sake and beer as part of their diet.) Even as a kid, I knew I was tasting something special and 50 years later (geez, Louise I’m old – don’t feel it and most of the time I don’t act it) I can still “taste” that meal in my memory bank. I came home raving about Kobe Beef. As I remember, Kobe Beef wasn’t generally – if at all – available in the US in the early 70s. Since 2011, importing from Japan has been banned .

Fast forward to maybe 15 years ago, I started hearing about American Kobe Beef, now known as Waygu, which means “Japanese Cow”, in magazine articles and it began appearing on menus of the finest restaurants in the US such as Spago’s and The French Laundry.

Now it’s available to all of us. It’s price per pound is not insignificant, averaging between $75 and $100 a pound. Japanese A5 is even more pricey. Is it worth it? Absolutely!!

For years I have lamented that beef steaks no longer tasted the way I remembered them from my childhood. One of my dad’s early jobs was as a traveling salesman for Redfern Foods of Atlanta. He left on Monday morning and returned on Friday night ladened with “expired” beef steaks that he grilled and served rare to us. Those Friday nights were cherished; family time with exceptional food.

Then beef stopped tasting like beef…

The Man and I buy Prime Beef at Costco which is close but… Waygu is exactly the way I remember beef tasting. For more details about American Waygu, check out this page at Mishima Reserve.

I seasoned the Manhattan Cuts of NY Strip with salt and pepper and let them stand until they reached room temperature. I grilled them in a pre-heated cast iron skillet; four minutes on each side (medium heat) to reach an internal temp of about 120 degrees F. I let them rest for five minutes before serving. They were a perfect rare. For a selection of Waygu and Japanese A5 beef, click here.

Along with the steaks, Beecher’s sent two 20-ounce “World’s Best Mac n Cheese” frozen entrees. The recipe is in Pure Flavor and I have made it many times over the years… but, and this is a big but, Beecher’s frozen is better than what I make. A plus is its size. When I make mac n cheese, I usually make too much and when reheated, much of the cheese sauce has been absorbed. Sadly, I end up tossing it. And that tossing is expensive when you use high-end specialty ingredients.

The 20-ounce size of Beecher’s is perfect for two people as an entree or four people as a side-dish. The Man and I ate it as a side with the Mishima Reserve Waygu steaks and when I re-heated it, there was still plenty of cheese sauce. You can buy Beecher’s Mac n Cheese at their website and also at my Amazon storefront.

For our dinner, we started with Dungeness Crab from Pike’s Place Market in Seattle. I ordered it online and had six 6.5 ounce cans shipped overnight. The Man is a fan of Dungeness Crab and while living in the Pacific Northwest, we treated ourselves to it regularly. I made a red cocktail sauce from scratch, with lots of horseradish. You can buy Dungeness Crab by clicking here.

I also put a small dollop of crab beside the steak and topped the crab with a from-scratch Hollandaise sauce I made using farm eggs. The sauce was rich and I thought it over-powered the crab (farm-fresh eggs are naturally richer than commercially-produced eggs). The Man did not complain.

I paired an Italian Sangeovese with the meal and for desert we enjoyed slices of Key Lime Pie… We were thoroughly sated…

P.S. We don’t eat this way everyday… what a treat for The Man and me!!

Be sure and take a break Saturday afternoon, June 20 from Noon to Six at Blue Haven Bee for Random Acts Party Band, Mead and DIY Cheese and Charcuterie plates from my new Grab n Go fridge in the bar.

In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.