47-Day Dry Aged Japanese A5 Wagyu

Back in July, I started dry aging a Japanese A5 Wagyu brisket I purchased.  Japanese butchering
practices follow seam cutting, resulting in their briskets being larger than what Americans are
used to purchasing.  Their full briskets include the entirety of the point and a chunk of the neck. I cut off this section and dry aged it separately and after 47 days, I decided to cook it.  What started as a 5 lb. 13.9 oz hunk of meat had shrunk to 4 lb. 15.6 oz.

The majority of this cut consisted of fat, so after trimming, I was left with 1lb. 10oz.  The meat
was smeared with a bit of black garlic paste and sprinkled with SPOG before being placed on
the Egg with oak and cherry at 235F.

Smoker shot after 3 hours.  The smaller piece was probing like melted butter at this point
and was pulled.

The larger piece didn't see much of a plateau but I wrapped it around 165F.  A slight stall was
noted around 190F, where it dipped for a short while down to 185F.  It took about 6 hours total. Both pieces were FTC'd when done and due to the late hour, tossed in the fridge until I had time to make burnt ends.

In the interim, the aged brisket extension trimmings were slow simmered into broth and tallow
over a period of 2 days.  

The remaining fat was rendered into cracklings.

The brisket extension was cubed and warmed up on the Egg with some gelatinized aged beef
broth.

Once the meat was warmed through, the cubes were covered with Stubbs Original and cooked
until most of the sauce had evaporated.  Baby portobellos stuffed with spinach and artichoke
dip and topped with dry aged wagyu cracklings were also added.

Time to eat.

I've tried A5 Wagyu before, so I'm familiar with it's eccentricities.  Throwing dry age into the
mix takes it to a new place.  The aged flavor is really pronounced as it has been immersed
in all that abundant intramuscular fat, which coats your tongue.  The aging definitely gave it
some firmness, but was so soft, supple and rich, like eating smoky, aged beef butter.   Despite
all this, it is not overwhelming.  In fact I wanted more aged flavor.  My plan is to continue to
age the full brisket until I'm able to weigh it on my scale that tops out at 17 lbs (started at 20 lbs).

The cracklings gave the stuffed mushrooms that same flavor as they rendered during the cook.
They were, hands down, some of the best vegetables to come off the Egg in recent memory.