Beef Tenderness Marbling

Tenderness and marbling don t necessarily go hand in hand so while the beef tenderloin is possibly the most tender cut of beef it doesn t usually have much marbling.

Beef tenderness marbling.

Hence the practice of wrapping tenderloin steaks with strips of bacon without it the steak would lack flavor and moisture. The visible fat streaks of marbled beef have become the standard for gauging beef tenderness in north america because until recently virtually all beef in north america was. Marbling adds a lot of flavor and can be one indicator of how good the beef is. Marbling the visible fat streaks and layers in your beef is actually not the important fat.

Marbling is what gives beef its flavor juiciness and tenderness. Usda s agricultural marketing service ams employs 200 highly skilled beef graders who sometimes with the help of electronic monitoring evaluate several factors that determine the grade including the amount and distribution of marbling. If beef tenderness is depends on microscopic fat cells why are the visible fat streaks used instead to gauge beef tenderness in the current usda beef grading system. When cooking marbling adds flavor and juiciness as the fat melts into the steak.

The marbling keeps the meat moist so natural juices don t evaporate in the pan. Fat is far more tender than muscle fiber in steak. It impacts the tenderness moistness and overall flavor and has become one of the most well known elements of steak evaluation. Well marbling refers to the white flecks of intramuscular fat in each cut of meat.

Marbling helps to insure acceptable tenderness at higher levels of doneness. As meat is cooked to more advanced degrees of doneness the tougher it will get. However with beef steaks and roasts tenderness usually receives the highest priority. As a result marbling adds tenderness which is a preferable mouthfeel.