Marbled Beef Breeds

The former are adapted to hot climate while the latter the typical european cattle are adapted to cooler weather.

Marbled beef breeds.

Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding. At chiller temperatures marbled fat appears white and will become less obvious as the meat comes up to room temperature with unsaturated fats beginning to melt. But beef marbling is not always a good gauge of tenderness in grass fed beef cattle. Marbling is a measure of quality and as such the meat industry is always using meat science to make production more predictable and uniform to boost profits.

Marbling is determined by both genetics and nutrition. Certain breeds have higher marbling scores on average due to the way they metabolize food. Nowadays breeds fall into two main types bos indicus and bos taurus. Wagyu beef for example can be extremely marbled due to its genetics so much so that it s prized for that marbling.

Generally wagyu will develop considerably more marbling than other 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. How does it happen. Feed and finishing may also impact marbling with grass finished cattle offering a leaner beefier flavor whereas grain finished beef are much milder.

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. Marbling can also be influenced by time on feed. It is believed that all domesticated cattle evolved from a single ancestor the aurochs which is now extinct.