Harami / skirt

ハラミ and サガリ are frequently treated as interchangeable and they are two different muscles. Harami is the costal diaphragm. Sagari refers to the crura, the pillars of the diaphragm, and is commonly compared with the cut sold in the United States as hanger steak. A menu that distinguishes them is being precise; one that uses harami for both is doing what most menus do.

Both are the diaphragm, the sheet of muscle separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. That is a working muscle with a distinctive grain and a deeper, more mineral flavour than the loin cuts, which is why it has a devoted following rather than a mainstream one.

This is the part that surprises people. Japanese trade classification treats the diaphragm cuts as offal rather than as carcass meat, and they do not appear among the 13 standard beef-partial cuts. That is a classification fact about how the trade divides an animal, not a judgement about quality, and it has a practical consequence: harami sits outside the framework that the other cuts on this site are described by.

It is also why the diagram on this page shows harami apart from the body rather than as a region on it. Drawing it as a primal would be a tidier picture and it would be wrong, and a diagram that contradicts the classification it is illustrating is worse than no diagram.

Because it is not carcass meat in the Japanese scheme, the usual grading vocabulary sits awkwardly on it. A carcass grade describes the animal, and the marbling behind that grade was read at a cross-section through the rib, so quoting A5 on a diaphragm cut is even further from a measurement of the thing in front of you than it is on a tenderloin.

The claims worth asking for are origin and the specific muscle. A seller naming sagari rather than harami, or naming the animal's origin and programme, is telling you more than one leaning on a grade. Harami is usually served thin-sliced for grilling, so the usual yakiniku cautions apply: cook to the USDA guidance for whole beef steaks, 145F with a three-minute rest, and keep raw-meat utensils away from cooked food.