Explainer | Weary of wagyu? How about Hanwoo? Korean beef is an emerging luxury meat less fatty, more chewy and beefier than its Japanese counterpart
There’s a joke in South Korea that says you should practise caution around people who treat you to beef. The reason? According to lore, kindness with no strings attached ends at treating someone to pork. When someone buys you beef, there is bound to be an ulterior motive.
Today, few take this literally, but there is a reason behind the joke. In Korea, beef tends to be reserved for special occasions and is much pricier than pork – which is generally eaten in more casual settings.
Beef in Korea is more expensive than in many other countries. According to a 2021 study by civic group Consumers Korea, the average price of a sirloin steak from a domestically reared cow was around 148,000 won (US$110) per kg, the most expensive among 10 developed countries including the United States, China, Japan and France.
While France and China ranked third and fourth after Korea and Japan – where a sirloin steak costs US$100 per kg on average – the average price of French and Chinese beef was much lower at US$27 per kg.
The high price may have its roots in Korean culture, as people historically held their cattle in higher regard than any other livestock.
The perception of cattle as a valuable asset dates back to the country’s agrarian roots. “Ever since people began farming in the Korean peninsula during the Three Han States period [57BC-668AD], cows were treated as equally important to humans due to their outstanding labour capability,” a 2021 report by the Korean government said.
Centuries ago, it was common for Korean households with a newborn baby to hang straw ropes outside their front gates to ward off evil spirits. It’s telling that this tradition also applied to newborn calves.
Consuming beef was generally avoided in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), a period characterised by fervent Buddhism.
During the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), slaughtering cattle and consuming their meat ceased being taboo, and people started eating beef to such an extent that there was a shortage of cattle for use on farms. Only six years into the Joseon dynasty, the slaughtering of cattle was accordingly banned.
Modern machinery now does the work that Hanwoo cattle once did as draught animals, but the cattle population has grown with South Korea’s rising beef consumption. In October 2020, there were 3.2 million Hanwoo cattle in the country.
The size of the cattle has increased, too. In 1969, the Korean government launched a project under which the average weight of a Hanwoo cow nearly doubled in 45 years – from 358kg (790lb) in 1974 to 694kg in 2019.
According to the South Korean government’s Rural Development Administration, there are five kinds of Hanwoo cattle: yellow, black, Jeju black, leopard print and white.
Hanwoo has a very attractive flavour; it’s not as beefy and lean as American steaks, nor as fatty as Japanese wagyu
There is a common misconception that Hanwoo cows are all yellow, which originates from the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) when colonial rulers favoured the yellow cows because their hides were easier to dye and use for military purposes.
It wasn’t until 2015 that Hong Kong started to import Hanwoo beef; today, it is easy to buy it at supermarkets or find it at restaurants.
One can even try Hoengseong Hanwoo – the highest-quality Hanwoo beef, produced in Hoengseong county, Gangwon province – in Hong Kong. The production of this beef is so limited that meat falsely represented as being from Hoengseong appears even in the Korean market.
Hanwoo can’t be found in as many places around the world as Japanese wagyu beef; Hong Kong is one of only four official export destinations for the Korean beef, along with Macau, Cambodia and, most recently, Malaysia.
More than 99 per cent of the Hanwoo beef produced is consumed in South Korea, and in 2022 only 0.02 per cent was exported. Of this 44 tonnes, 40 tonnes – 90 per cent – was shipped to Hong Kong, according to the Korea Meat Trade Association.
One of the reasons the export of Hanwoo beef is so limited is the relatively high cost of rearing the cattle. The Korean beef industry is not as industrialised as its American counterpart, according to Hwang Jaeseok, a Korean food marketer who runs a YouTube channel called Meatlover.
“There are no big corporations in the business, which means it’s mostly smaller-scale livestock farmers who incur a lot of labour costs raising the cattle,” Hwang says. “Hong Kong is a wealthy city where meat prices are high and people can afford Hanwoo, so exporting here makes economic sense.”
Hwang adds that Korean livestock industry players previously didn’t see the need to export Hanwoo beef since most of the meat produced was eaten in South Korea.
Exports of Hanwoo beef are expected to grow in the next few years. This is because of a recent market surplus in South Korea after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Flavour characteristics of Hanwoo beef
“Hanwoo has a very attractive flavour; it’s not as beefy and lean as American steaks, nor as fatty as Japanese wagyu since wagyu beef has a ratio of 70 per cent fat and 30 per cent meat, whereas for Hanwoo it’s about 50-50 or 60-40,” says Jacky Chung, executive chef at Chinese restaurant Yue, at the Sheraton Hong Kong Tung Chung hotel.
The hotel recently hosted a four-hands chef collaboration featuring Hanwoo-based dishes including Hanwoo beef tartare with Korean pear and sweet potato crisps.
“Korean beef’s texture is more tender even without any seasoning to marinate it,” Chung says.
While Hanwoo and wagyu are regularly compared to each other, they have distinct flavour profiles.
Wagyu cattle are raised in a way that maximises the ratio of unsaturated fat to meat, which is seen in the distinctive marbling of fat in the flesh.
“Wagyu feels like it melts in your mouth due to this high fat ratio, but one can also say that as a result it tastes relatively bland,” Hwang says. “Hanwoo is more balanced. It has a stronger flavour of beef and some more texture to chew on rather than just melting in your mouth.”
What the Hanwoo cattle are fed influences the flavour of the meat, too. For instance, chef Steve Lee of Michelin-star Hong Kong Korean restaurant Hansik Goo uses meat from Hanwoo cattle that are fed chongche bori – fermented barley stems cut just before the harvest season.
“Compared with Hanwoo cattle that are not fed this particular feed, the chongche bori Hanwoo has a stronger beef flavour,” Lee says. To keep the flavour consistent, slaughterhouses in the area where these Hanwoo cattle are raised only slaughter animals raised on this particular feed.
One of the best ways to enjoy Hanwoo beef is to grill it over charcoal, especially after marinating it in Korean sauces.
The Korean way of grilling with charcoal is a much more delicate way of cooking the meat than the smoky, intensely flavoured American way of barbecuing.
Hanwoo’s relatively mild flavour compared with American beef gives it a distinct character that suits the Korean way of charcoal barbecuing, too.
“For instance, if you try to marinate US beef with Korean sauces, the beef flavour is so strong that the flavour of the sauce dies down. Korean Hanwoo is just right for marinating and grilling with charcoal,” Hwang says.
Lee agrees that Hanwoo is the most suitable beef for Korean cooking.
“Korean ingredients are definitely most suitable for cooking Korean dishes. With Hanwoo’s decent amount of marbling, good texture and meat scent, you can really recreate what you can eat in Korea, especially when it is marinated.”
