The lean muscle has a high frequency of thin evenly distributed flecks of fat.
Marbling in different breeds.
And some cattle breeds simply will not produce marbled meat no matter what they are fed how fat they get or how tender their beef is.
Although some people disagree about the quality of different types of marbling the following is the generally accepted standard.
Breed comparison studies many breed comparison studies have been accomplished through production of crossbred progeny specifically f 1 calves in many cases where the different breeds evaluated have been.
Marbling is determined by both genetics and nutrition.
In other words the study compared the taste of steaks which had different marbling scores which is like comparing apples with oranges.
Johnson said the genetics of cattle breeds used in the u s.
The taste scores were awarded for steak from different breeds that were not controlled for their marbling scores.
Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding.
Marbling takes time to develop in an animal which is why it is more prevalent in beef than in lamb or pork.
For example the steak from the brahman had a marbling score of only 470 but it achieved a.
Generally wagyu will develop considerably more marbling than other breeds.
We ll talk more about fat development later but it s.
Marbling is a term used to describe the fat content inside of beef muscle known as intramuscular fat.
Cattle breeds such as angus herefords murray grey shorthorns and wagyu also british white cattle and dairy breeds such as the jersey holstein friesian and braunvieh have higher marbling scores on average versus other cattle such as simmentals charolais or chianina.
Murray grey cattle grazing at autumn s harvest in new york however different cattle breeds metabolize their food differently so the resulting meat varies.
Intramuscular fat is the flecks of white fat found within the actual lean muscle intermuscular fat is different this term is used to describe the fat that is found between the different muscles in the beef carcass.
In this article i will explain when marbling is a good gauge of beef tenderness when it is not and how else to gauge beef tenderness when marbling is not a suitable gauge of beef tenderness.
Marbling can also be influenced by time on feed.
Marbling comes in different shapes and sizes and not all beef marbling indicates greatness.
Marbling producers need to be careful not to ignore and thus possibly sacrifice desirable cow functionality and reproduction traits.
Simply won t allow for marbling comparable to asian breeds although dairy breeds such as holsteins which make up about 20 percent of the beef cattle industry do marble very well and without much backfat.
