When you head out to pick up a few steaks for dinner, you're usually looking for that nice, bright red color, because it indicates freshness and quality. However, when you first see raw Kobe beef in person, you might be skeptical because of its white color, but it's actually a highly-coveted trait that stems from the same strict protocols that make it so rare to find in the first place.

The smaller veins of fat that give rise to the white color — referred to as marbling because they resemble veins in a slab of marble — are intramuscular fat. Aside from originating from the Tajima breed and being born, fed, and raised in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan, true Kobe beef must also meet certain weight, texture, and marbling requirements.