Heard on NPR last night. Angus beef is/was prized because it has been carefully bred for generations to yield the tenderest, most flavorful beef. Every rancher wanted to call his cattle "Angus", so the USDA passed guidelines for using the term: A predominantly black hide, without any prominent features of any other breed.

Real specific, huh?

And guess what else? It's pretty easy to breed for color, and breed out other "prominent features", but not so easy to breed in the taste. By the time you know what a particular cow tastes like, you can't breed it any more.

So now much of the beef sold in supermarkets under the label "Angus" is more likely to have been bred for hide color than for flavor. Some ranchers are trying to get a genetic test approved by the USDA. We'll see how that goes ...