The 11 Most Expensive Meats You Can Eat

There are plenty of expensive foods in the world like black watermelon, coffee, melons, and mushrooms. While these delicacies are worth trying, the most expensive meats are in a class of their own.

Each meat on this list is unique. They offer amazing flavors, rich textures, and even interesting shapes and colors.

Some meats are expensive because of how little you get per harvest. Others take a long time to reach maturity or are incredibly scarce.

If you want to learn more about the most expensive meats in the world, continue reading below.

11. Gooseneck Barnacles – $125/Pound

Gooseneck barnacles are also known as percebes. Depending on the demand and risk of the fisherman, the costs can sometimes go as high as $125 a pound.

10. Foie Gras – $150/Pound

Foie Gras is a fat liver. It’s made from force-feeding a highly nutritional diet to a duck or goose. This causes their liver to swell and grow several times their normal size.

9. Wagyu Beef -$175/Pound

Wagyu is a steak that comes directly from Japan. The cows are from an ancient breed that the Japanese people have kept alive and strong. The cows were also fed a rich diet. Their genetics, the care of these cows, and their diet lead to rich and buttery meat.

8. Jamon Iberico – $4,500/Leg

Jamon Iberico ham is produced in Spain and Portugal. The ham has a very delicate flavor, with hints of herbs, spices, and acorns. After dry aging for three years, it’s sold at a very expensive price, roughly somewhere around $150 to $250 per pound.

7. Pufferfish – $200/Pound

Japanese pufferfish, also known as fugu, is a delicacy. It’s also incredibly deadly, with an estimated 20 to 40 people dying every year.

6. Ayam Cemani – $2,500/Animal

The ayam cemani is a rare breed of chicken from Java, Indonesia. They’re completely black, from their skin and bones to their feathers. Though the chickens are expensive, as more breeders are coming out, the prices are dropping considerably.

5. Kobe Wagyu – $300/Pound

Wagyu is a specific type of cow from Japan. These cows are known for their rich marbling throughout the meat. While wagyu is already a step above most steaks, Kobe wagyu is top of the line. The standards are so strict that only 3,000 to 4,000 heads of cattle come to the market every year.

4. Bluefin Tuna – $585/Pound

Bluefin tuna is one of the most expensive meat on the planet. One bluefin sold for over $250,000 during an auction. The ever-increasing popularity of sushi is likely to increase the cost of bluefin tuna over time.

3. Brown-Lipped Abalone – $907/Pound

Technically, abalone only costs about $227 per pound. However, that includes the weight of the shell, which happens to be most of the catch. If you consider just the meat, you’re looking at $900 per pound.

2. Vintage Cote De Boeuf – $3,200/Steak

There are a few reasons why this vintage cote de boeuf was so expensive. For one, it came from a rare breed of cow known as Blonde Aquitaine. However, what made this one cut so expensive is that they aged it for 15 years before serving.

1. One-Of-A-Kind Porterhouse Steak -$20,000/Steak

This isn’t a steak you can buy anywhere. Wally’s Wine and Spirits at Resorts World in Las Vegas purchased a porterhouse steak that had been dry-aged for 195 days in 2014. Then, they sold the steak for $1,000 per three ounces.

Summary of the Most Expensive Meats You Can Eat