Marbling In Meat Science

Marbling puts the bling in your beef.

Marbling in meat science.

Marbling intramuscular fat is the intermingling or dispersion of fat within the lean. This results in commercial feedlots forcefeeding grain pellets to fatten the cows faster while keeping them confined to small pens so they don t exert energy or work their muscles. Marbling simply refers to the fat found within a cut of meat and between the muscle fibers themselves. College station beef with reasonable marbling and juicy taste is preferred among consumers and industry leaders continue to monitor how to consistently produce a product with these traits.

Meat marbling and the imf content are strongly related. Marbling is the white flecks of intramuscular fat in meat most notably red meat. The science of bbq marbling skip to main content. In this article we will discuss what marbling is where to find it and why you want to have marbling in your meat particularly beef.

A recent research article addresses the biology and biochemistry of beef marbling and its effects on production systems carcass and fat quality. A high quality steak will have a lot of marbling while a lean cut will have very little or no visible marbling. Marbling represents a single structure rather than being isolated flecks of fat. Marbling is a visual meat characteristic defined as white particles visible on the cross section of the muscle albrech et al 1996 garcia et al 1968 essen gustavson et.

It is streaks of unsaturated healthy fats within the lean muscle fibers of a cut of meat. Degree of marbling is the primary determination of quality grade. The pattern created by this marbling resembles marble like on your countertop. The fat in lean muscle creates a marble pattern hence the name.

Marbling affects meat s juiciness tenderness texture and flavor attributes that determine eating experience in this case more of all the above is better. The usda grading system rewards marbling above all else so the eight grades that a cut could receive will prize a heavily marbled cut of meat regardless of the history or flavor.