Marbling in pork

[Kent Wang]

Does marbling in pork matter as much as it does for beef? Why is there no USDA grading system?

I got lucky and found a great cut of loin from a Berkshire at Central Market today. Is this considered pretty good?

[Bombdog]

Does marbling in pork matter as much as it does for beef? Why is there no USDA grading system?

I got lucky and found a great cut of loin from a Berkshire at Central Market today. Is this considered pretty good?

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I think that the marbling in pork is just as important as it is in beef. Unfortunately in most mass consumed pork that marbling is non existent.

This is a cross section of some butt I recently purchased for a salami project from Caw Caw Creek

[olicollett]

Marbling in any animal is definitely going to improve the flavour, just in some animals its not possible to achieve. That's my understanding, anyway!

I had some very nice bacon the other week that was marbled and tasted fantastic!

[russ parsons]

just got back from the japanese groceries. the kurobotu that they had was very well marbled, the meat somewhat darker than normal. a different store had something called "spf" pork that was advertised as being "black line", which i took to mean berkshire. this did not seem to be as well marbled as the kurobotu, but it was a little hard to say--all that pork was thinly sliced for sukiyaki, etc., but the spf i could get in a chop.

[WHT]

I think it dose and go out of my way to get it when needed. Unfortunately the meat industry as a whole has gone to the lean side to satisfy “health conscious shoppers” Beef for the most part is leaner than I would like. Now the marketing department gets its licks in by selling us “premium brand” well marbled meat at a higher price. Even though the cost difference in negligible. I have seen the prices for wholesale from Montfort and Excel beef.

[Hiroyuki]

Some info about the current trends in pork in Japan can be found here (pdf file).

SPF (specific pathogen free) has nothing to do with marbling.

[russ parsons]

thanks hiroyuki! it was one of those puzzling labels: SPF Black Line and that was it. now i can track it down.

[Mallet]

Some info about the current trends in pork in Japan can be found here (pdf file).

SPF (specific pathogen free) has nothing to do with marbling.

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Interesting article, I didn't know Smithfields raised Berkshires for Japan!