Ether‐Extractable Fat in Longissimus Muscles From Beef Carcasses with the Same Marbling Scores but Different Yield Grades

Abstract

ABSTRACTEther‐extractable fat in beef longissimus muscles–completely trimmed of all subcutaneous fat, epimysium and peripheral muscles–from 383 heifer and steer carcasses of A and B maturity was compared to determine whether the fat content of muscle was the same when marbling was held constant but yield grade of carcasses differed. Yield grade was a significant source of variation in intramuscular fat content of trimmed steaks within marbling scores (P < 0.001); as yield grade increased, total fat content of the ribeye muscle increased very slightly, even though marbling score was held constant. These data indicated that marbling score alone did not account for all of the variation in the fat content of totally‐trimmed beef longissimus steaks.