What Causes Marbling In Meat

Marbling intramuscular fat is the intermingling or dispersion of fat within the lean.

What causes marbling in meat.

Cuts with more marbling have a tendency to be more tender and to tolerate being cooked to greater degrees of doneness. Fat is far more tender than muscle fiber in steak. Why is marbling in meat important. Some fats are undeniably.

Usda prime beef has the highest marbling score or fat content followed by usda choice. This is fairly intuitive since you can imagine how difficult it would be to get fat by eating grass. If you like well done steaks you want cuts with more marbling. Marbling is the visible unsaturated healthy intramuscular fat that accumulates within the muscle and between the muscle fibre bundles.

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. Marbling is known for adding flavour to the meat. As the fat melts into the meat it therefore keeps the natural juices while cooking preventing the meat from becoming dry. When cooking marbling adds flavor and juiciness as the fat melts into the steak.

Meat scientists call it intramuscular fat. What causes marbling in meat. It also affects the juiciness texture and tenderness of the meat. Degree of marbling is the primary determination of quality grade.

As meat is cooked to more advanced degrees of doneness the tougher it will get. Prime has more marbling than choice and choice has more than select. Marbling helps to insure acceptable tenderness at higher levels of doneness. Visually marbling is soft intramuscular between the muscle fibre fat made up of polyunsaturated monounsaturated and saturated fats.

When beef is cooked the degree of tenderness is mostly dependent on the amount of fat in the meat. The marbling keeps the meat moist so. Beef tenderness is actually caused by microscopic fat cells within the meat fibers that are invisible to the naked eye. Cattle that are raised on grain will have more marbling than grass fed beef.

Marbling is the little flecks of fat found within the muscle of the meat cuts. As a result marbling adds tenderness which is a preferable. Marbling keeps the meat moist during cooking so natural juices don t evaporate in the pan. Usda select has only slight marbling.

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.