About beef
Marbled Beef: What It Is and How to Choose It
What marbled beef is, what drives marbling, which cut is the most marbled, Angus or Nelore, and how to cook it so the fat melts properly.
MYASYA team4 min readupdated
What marbling is
A cut of marbled beef shows white streaks that look like the veins in marble. That's intramuscular fat. As it cooks it melts, bastes the fibres and gives what people pay for at a steakhouse: juiciness, tenderness and a buttery flavour. The fat cap along the edge isn't marbling, though it adds flavour too.
What drives marbling
- Breed. Angus tends to lay down fat inside the muscle. Nelore lays it mostly outside and between the muscles, so the meat is leaner and firmer.
- Feeding. Grain at the end of feeding adds fat inside the muscle. Purely grass-fed beef is leaner.
- Cut. The rib section has the most marbling, the tenderloin the least.
| Cut | Marbling | What to expect on the plate |
|---|---|---|
| Ribeye | High | Fat between the fibres, the juiciest steak, forgives an extra minute on the grill |
| Striploin | Medium, with a fat cap | One dense muscle, fat runs along the edge |
| Filet mignon | Low | The most tender, but almost no fat: best rare or medium rare |
Astra Foods or Frigon
Both our producers are from Brazil and both supply ribeye and striploin. The difference is in the meat profile, and it's worth choosing for your menu rather than at random.
| Astra Foods | Frigon | |
|---|---|---|
| Breed | Nelore | Nelore & Angus |
| Marbling | Consistent, classic Nelore profile | Higher, thanks to Angus |
| Ribeye cut weight | 1.2-1.5 kg | up to 3 kg |
Astra Foods and Frigon ribeye and striploin: today's price per kg, orders from 5 kg.Steaks in the catalogue →
How to choose a steak: cut, marbling, thickness and how much per portion.Read →
How to cook marbled beef
The main rule: let the fat melt. At rare the streaks stay waxy, so a marbled ribeye shows its best at medium rare or medium. Take it off the heat by thermometer, not by time: the steak keeps cooking while it rests.
A temperature table for every doneness level.Doneness levels →
How to store it
All our beef is frozen at −18 °C, cuts vacuum-packed. Thaw slowly in the fridge: fast thawing pushes out the juice, and a marbled steak loses exactly what it was chosen for.
How to thaw cuts so steaks turn out predictably.Read →
