Did you know that the fat in marbling is considered a healthy fat? I heard Sam talking about marbling for a long time before I really understood all the benefits. Not only does it make the steak taste amazing, but it is an unsaturated healthy fat. It is not the blobs of white fat, but is the streaks of white that is the intramuscular fat, as it is found inside the muscle.
When cooking the steak, the marbling melts likes butter and gives the meat its tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. We love a good grilled steak, but because of all the marbling an ease, I often cook our steaks in a frying pan because it captures all of that butter like goodness. If you haven't tried a pan seared steak, I recommend you try it asap. Not only is it quick and easy, but you can monitor the inside and not overcook it.
So, how do you get the marbling, you say? The breed and genetics of the cow are the most important. Wagyu and Angus are the top two breeds known for their marbling. The feed and nutrition the cows get also plays a role. Everyone has an opinion and different takes, but we believe that purely grass-fed beef is too lean and just doesn't cut it as far as taste and marbling goes. Our cows are grass-fed for most of their life, then separated to a field for the last 90 days or so where they have both grass to graze on and a choice of a grain feed. This is where you get your bigger steaks, marbling, and flavor.
A sirloin is typically known to be a leaner steak, but with the right breed and feed, you will see in the photo below that you can still have a well marbled and flavorful steak.
Another thing to consider with marbling is your hamburger meat. Hamburger is ground meat from the entire cow that will not otherwise make good cuts. If you do not have a good marbling content, the fat that is mixed in with your hamburger will be the exterior saturated chunks of fat. If you have a cow that is well marbled, you will get more of your fat content from the unsaturated inner muscular healthy fats. You will be able to see the difference when cooking ground meat and feel the difference when patting out hamburgers. The pan is not swimming in fat and your hands are not covered in the thick white grease that your get from standard hamburger meat. Yet, still full of flavor and tenderness.
You can read more about our genetics here.