What's a good steak?


Home: Beef: What's a good steak?

4-H'ers often participate in meat judging competitions. Take a closer look at the qualities that make a good steak and then test your knowledge in the virtual meat judging contest.

Beef is a good-tasting and nutritious food item, and steaks are the favorite of most people. A good steak is juicy, tender, loaded with flavor, and has a minimum amount of fat. Lean is the cherry-red part of the meat. The fat is the white part of the meat. Fat is a waste item on a steak. It is cut off and thrown away. So a good steak doesn't have much fat on the outside or between the muscles. However, there is a special kind of fat that helps meat be juicy and full of flavor. That is called marbling, and it's the little specks of fat found inside a muscle. A well-known meat scientist calls marbling the "taste fat." In addition, a good steak has a bright, cherry red-color to the lean.