Marbling

Whether working with your butcher, specifying meat or examining deliveries, marbling is a key visual identifier to the chef but does it affect the ultimate eating quality of your dish?

Fat is critical to the flavour of meat and helps differentiate one meat from another. In fact, research has shown that if all traces of fat are stripped from a piece of lamb and a piece of beef, it is almost impossible to set them apart. Aside from the external layer of fat just beneath the surface of the skin, there is another presence of fat in the animals – what we affectionately and descriptively call ‘marbling’. This develops over time so is more predominant in beef than lamb, or in mutton than lamb. In short, marbling is small streaks of intramuscular fat that are found in the muscle. It has a beneficial effect on juiciness and flavour by ‘melting’ through its surroundings during the cooking process.

See graph below

Source: Meat and Livestock Commission ‘A Glossary of Carcase and Meat Quality Terms’, 1999

As described in ‘Plate’, fat is a complex and much misunderstood component in meat. The following definitions should help:

“The adipose (fatty) tissue found in the body. Fat exists both within (intermuscular fat and intramuscular fat) and surrounding (subcutaneous) the lean tissue of the carcase”

“Intermuscular fat is the fatty tissue formed by depots of fat cells situated between the muscles. Along with marbling, intermuscular fat adds to the juiciness and flavour of meat”

“Intramuscular fat is the fat found within the muscles. Visible depots of intramuscular fat are known as marbling”

“Subcutaneous means beneath the layers of skin (or rind) and is most commonly used to describe backfat”

Fat adds specific species flavour and aids the entrapment of moisture within the meat. During the cooking process, fat keeps meat moist and succulent.

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