Got it or not– it matters!

By: Miranda Reiman

October 17, 2011

If you don’t have it, perhaps you’re more likely to make excuses.

At least that’s my gut feeling when I hear people trying to downplay the importance of marbling in beef. So every time this myth pops up, I wonder, “Why aren’t they just trying to improve the quality of their herd?” Instead they argue whether it’s even important.

Obviously they haven’t eaten as many steaks as I have, or they wouldn’t need research to prove this one false:

Myth—Marbling scores aren’t highly correlated with tenderness or eating experience. 

Fact–Beef Checkoff-funded research out of Colorado State University says it all. I recently interviewed veteran meat scientist Daryl Tatum on work he and his team just completed.

They used a trained panel to evaluate steaks from carcasses that were camera graded into seven different marbling scores, ranging from USDA Standard to Prime. Rather than assign positive or negative ratings, panelists were asked to quantify the presence of specific flavors such as “meaty, brothy” or other descriptors. They also gave ratings on tenderness, juiciness and the overall sensory experience.

Here’s what Daryl had to tell me:

“The last study that everyone wants to cite, the actual research was done in the late ‘70s and published in the early 80s. That was a long time ago and so we felt like it was time to take a look at it again.

Marbling has kind of gotten a bum rap from a lot of people saying it really doesn’t predict much, but across the full range, it has predicative capabilities. When you can measure it precisely,it does a really good job.”

And he can say that because the results show tenderness and “buttery,beef-fat” flavor accounted for 91% of the variation in overall sensory experience; in turn, 40% of tenderness variation and 71% of variation in that desirable flavor was due to marbling score.

Tatum told me that marbling was an insurance policy: “If you’re going out for that occasion where you’re wanting to treat yourself, it’s pretty important to have marbling in there. It really performs on all levels when you do.”

Not that I needed any convincing to choose CAB, but this data is proof to all my friends and family that it’s not just because they sign my paychecks!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink.

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