Tenderness And Marbling

Mmi hopes to offer testing for traits like reproduction efficiency and fertility in the future.

Tenderness and marbling.

Marbling is the white flecks of intramuscular fat in meat most notably red meat. It has the fat and marbling that break down well in low and slow cooking and gives you something to shred. Select grade beef is somewhat leaner and very uniform in quality. 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. There are markers for other traits such as the color black which is important in certain breeds and the amount of marbling expected from the meat for usda grading. It is fairly tender but because it has very little marbling it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades. Marbling adds a lot of flavor and can be one indicator of how good the beef is.

Whereas the picnic on the other hand is most of the front arm so you get more. There is also a genetic marker for potential tenderness which is an inherited trait. 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. An increase in tenderness is associated with substituting a c allele at calpastatin uogcast1 and a c allele at both μ calpain loci calpain 4751 and calpain 316.

In the usa where cattle are fed grains and other supplements to lay down extra fat within the muscle marbling consumers often choose the most marbled cuts as an indication of tenderness. This is the most popular grade of beef. It has less marbling than prime however still contains sufficient marbling for tenderness and taste. Igenity profile tenderness is a dna genetic marker panel test comprised of three markers uogcast1 calpain 4751 and calpain 316.

Two enzymes play a part one inhibiting and one encouraging cell breakdown. In addition because the relationship between marbling and tenderness is known to be positive though weak any tenderness gains should not be at the expense of increased marbling. Results take about two weeks for parentage verification and two or three weeks for marbling and tenderness analysis. Incidentally genetic solutions introduced the world s first commercial dna test for a beef production trait two years ago with the genestar marbling evaluation.

It impacts the tenderness moistness and overall flavor and has become one of the most well known elements of steak evaluation. Yet marbling accounts for a mere 10 of the variation in tenderness. Although marbling or the intermingling of fat with lean has been equated with palatability and tenderness for years increasing concerns regarding animal fat in the diet has caused the perceived health benefit from fat reduction to receive greater importance than assurances of tenderness or palatability.