Beef Tenderness Marbling

Hence the practice of wrapping tenderloin steaks with strips of bacon without it the steak would lack flavor and moisture.

Beef tenderness marbling.

However with beef steaks and roasts tenderness usually receives the highest priority. 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. Prime has more marbling than choice and choice has more than select.

Marbling helps to insure acceptable tenderness at higher levels of doneness. Marbling adds a lot of flavor and can be one indicator of how good the beef is. 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. It impacts the tenderness moistness and overall flavor and has become one of the most well known elements of steak evaluation.

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. Fat is far more tender than muscle fiber in steak. As meat is cooked to more advanced degrees of doneness the tougher it will get.

As a result marbling adds tenderness which is a preferable mouthfeel. Marbling the visible fat streaks and layers in your beef is actually not the important fat. Marbling and external fat crusts on meat cuts may add to the grease in the frying pan but they are not responsible for the flavor and tenderness of the meat. 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.