The alt-meat industry has created quite a sizzle, promising delicious burgers, steaks and even sushi that is grown from animal cells in the lab.

But most cellular agriculture still looks like mush. The manufacturing process — which starts with animal muscle and fat grown from stem cells in petri dishes — is fine for making burgers, but it fails to provide the kind of texture needed for more substantial cuts of meat, like steaks.

On Monday, scientists at Harvard University reported that they had found a way to more closely mimic the form and flavor of real meat, by growing the muscle cells of cows and rabbits on a gelatin scaffold. Their research was published in the journal Science of Food.

“We showed that it can be done,” said Luke MacQueen, the Harvard researcher who led the study. “Now we’ll keep improving our methods, tweaking the type of scaffold fiber to try even more complex textures, tastes and nutritional profiles.”