What Causes Marbling In Meat

Marbling is the visible unsaturated healthy intramuscular fat that accumulates within the muscle and between the muscle fibre bundles.

What causes marbling in meat. 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. This is fairly intuitive since you can imagine how difficult it would be to get fat by eating grass. Visually marbling is soft intramuscular between the muscle fibre fat made up of polyunsaturated monounsaturated and saturated fats. Microscopic fat cells within the meat fibers hidden within the red muscle tissue in the photo at the top of the page.

If you like well done steaks you want cuts with more marbling. Usda prime beef has the highest marbling score or fat content followed by usda choice. Marbling intramuscular fat is the intermingling or dispersion of fat within the lean. Some fats are undeniably.

Marbling is the little flecks of fat found within the muscle of the meat cuts. Prime has more marbling than choice and choice has more than select. As the fat melts into the meat it therefore keeps the natural juices while cooking preventing the meat from becoming dry. Meat scientists call it intramuscular fat.

When cooking marbling adds flavor and juiciness as the fat melts into the steak. Marbling is fat so it is largely determined by the diet of the animal and to a certain degree the breed of cattle. What causes marbling in meat. It also affects the juiciness texture and tenderness of the meat.

Fat is far more tender than muscle fiber in steak. Cattle that are raised on grain will have more marbling than grass fed beef. Because marbling is added fat between the muscle not the kind that you cut off the edge it impacts your steak s juicy flavors. Marbling keeps the meat moist during cooking so natural juices don t evaporate in the pan.

Marbling helps to insure acceptable tenderness at higher levels of doneness. Usda select has only slight marbling. Beef tenderness is actually caused by microscopic fat cells within the meat fibers that are invisible to the naked eye. When beef is cooked the degree of tenderness is mostly dependent on the amount of fat in the meat.

Degree of marbling is the primary determination of quality grade. 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. As a result marbling adds tenderness which is a preferable.

As meat is cooked to more advanced degrees of doneness the tougher it will get.