Marbling

The culinary use of this term describes the veining of intramuscular fat or flecks of fat in otherwise lean meat. This is a desirable phenomenon from the cook’s point of view, since it has both a moisturizing and flavour-intensifying effect.

Marbling is the whole point of Japan’s famous and fabulously expensive Kobe snow beef, where it is encouraged to develop in prime cuts by giving the pampered animals massages following their daily bottle of stout.