Guia de Classificação de Qualidade de Carne

Entendendo a Qualidade da Carne

A qualidade da carne é determinada avaliando características visuais chave, incluindo marmoreio, cor, textura e qualidade da gordura. O USDA estabeleceu padrões de classificação que organizam a carne em níveis de qualidade com base nesses fatores.

Entender esses indicadores de qualidade ajuda açougueiros, chefs e consumidores a selecionar os cortes certos para suas necessidades.

Anatomy

Primal, sub-primal, retail cut

A beef carcass is divided into nine large primals. Each primal does a different job for the animal, which is why a flank steak eats nothing like a ribeye even though they both come off the same cow. Primals get broken down into sub-primals at the wholesale stage, and sub-primals are portioned into the retail cuts you see in the case.

Where a cut sits on the carcass tells you almost everything about how it eats. Muscles that did less work, like the rib and short loin, marble heavily and stay tender. Muscles that did more work, like the chuck and round, build connective tissue and reward slow cooking with deep, beefy flavor.

Names change by region. A ribeye is a scotch fillet in Australia, a cube roll in trade, an entrecôte in France, and ojo de bife in Argentina. Same anatomy, different label.