肉类品质分级指南

了解肉类品质

肉类品质通过评估关键的视觉特征来确定，包括大理石花纹、色泽、质地和脂肪品质。USDA 制定了分级标准，根据这些因素将肉类划分为不同的品质等级。

了解这些品质指标可以帮助肉店老板、厨师和消费者为自己的需求选择合适的切块。

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.