Everything you need to know about beef marbling
Here is everything you need to know about beef marbling:
Marbling is the intramuscular fat that accumulates within the muscle and between the muscle fibre bundles. In simpler terms, it refers to the white flecks of fat within a piece of meat. Marbling adds flavor, and some cuts naturally have more marbling than others.
Marbling impacts the tenderness, moistness, and overall flavor and has become one of the most well-known elements of steak evaluation.
What are the differences between marbled v.s non-marbled steaks?
Marbled steaks plays a big part in the quality of the steak, in terms of tenderness, juiciness/moisture and flavour.
The main difference between marbled and non-marbled steaks is the amount of fats on the steak. Basically the fat makes the meat softer and easier to chew, as there is simply less muscle fibre which makes marbled steak much tender.
With a higher fat content, the flavour of the steak will be more robust as the natural fragrance from the beef fat will be released during the cooking process.
Different continents & breeds have effects on marbling.
The type of breed & what do the cattles feed on will greatly affect the marbling of the meat. Also a great percentage goes to the living environment of the cattles as well. As marbling fat develops at a young age in beef cattle, feeding higher energy feeds to young calves will help increase the amount of marbling
How do we evaluate marbling?
In the Australian meat industry the marble score grading is between, 0 to 9. Marble score or grades are a component of the AUS-MEAT beef quality grading system, and is assessed within the ribeye muscle.
In the Japanese system, the BMS scale goes from 3 to 12, with 3 being the basic minimum of marbling a steak should have, and 12 being a steak that is almost white with marbling (because BMS scores of 1 and 2 show almost no marbling, they're not even considered).