Marbled meat is meat, especially red meat, which contains various amounts of intramuscular fat, giving it an appearance similar to a marble pattern. Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding. Cattle breeds such as Angus, Murray Grey, Shorthorns, and Wagyū type cattle and dairy breeds, such as the Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, and Braunvieh have higher marbling scores on average versus other cattle such as Simmentals, Charolais, or Chianina. Veal has little to no marbling since young cattle develop subcutaneous fat first, kidney, pelvic and heart fat second, intermuscular (between the muscle, or ‘seam fat’) third and then intramuscular fat – ‘marbling’ – last.
Marbling can also be influenced by time on feed and type of feed. The longer a pen of beef cattle are on feed in the feedlot, the higher the chance they will grade higher on quality scores, but will have much lower yield grades (percentage of carcass lean to fat ratio). Feeding a high amount of cereal grains, such as corn or barley, will change the color of the carcass fat from a yellowish to a white, plus increase the chance of obtaining a higher quality grade according to the USDA. But cows evolved to feed on low calorie grasses not energy rich cereal grains and can be made ill by overfeeding.
The Daily Omnivore 
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