What Causes Marbling In Meat

Because marbling is added fat between the muscle not the kind that you cut off the edge it impacts your steak s juicy flavors.

What causes marbling in meat.

If you like well done steaks you want cuts with more marbling. Some fats are undeniably. Marbling helps to insure acceptable tenderness at higher levels of doneness. Marbling keeps the meat moist during cooking so natural juices don t evaporate in the pan.

Usda select has only slight marbling. When cooking marbling adds flavor and juiciness as the fat melts into the steak. Graders evaluate the amount and distribution of marbling in the ribeye muscle at the cut surface after the carcass has been ribbed between the 12th and 13th ribs. It also affects the juiciness texture and tenderness of the meat.

Fat is far more tender than muscle fiber in steak. What causes marbling in meat. As meat is cooked to more advanced degrees of doneness the tougher it will get. Degree of marbling is the primary determination of quality grade.

When beef is cooked the degree of tenderness is mostly dependent on the amount of fat in the meat. This is fairly intuitive since you can imagine how difficult it would be to get fat by eating grass. The marbling keeps the meat moist so. Marbling is the little flecks of fat found within the muscle of the meat cuts.

Marbling is the visible unsaturated healthy intramuscular fat that accumulates within the muscle and between the muscle fibre bundles. Cattle that are raised on grain will have more marbling than grass fed beef. Microscopic fat cells within the meat fibers hidden within the red muscle tissue in the photo at the top of the page. As a result marbling adds tenderness which is a preferable.

At chiller temperatures marbled fat appears white and will become less obvious as the meat comes up to room temperature with unsaturated fats beginning to melt. Why is marbling in meat important. Marbling is fat so it is largely determined by the diet of the animal and to a certain degree the breed of cattle. Beef tenderness is actually caused by microscopic fat cells within the meat fibers that are invisible to the naked eye.

Marbling intramuscular fat is the intermingling or dispersion of fat within the lean. Cuts with more marbling have a tendency to be more tender and to tolerate being cooked to greater degrees of doneness. Prime has more marbling than choice and choice has more than select. Meat scientists call it intramuscular fat.

Usda prime beef has the highest marbling score or fat content followed by usda choice.