49 Fun Facts About Meat

Which meat was the most produced in the world in 2023, at about 34% of global output?

Chicken production has more than doubled since 2000; pigs come a close second, also around a third of the total.

Which pigment gives red meat its colour and turns brown when it oxidises?

Myoglobin, the oxygen-binding protein in muscle, gives red meat its colour; when its iron oxidises to metmyoglobin, the surface turns brown.

What is the name of the process, involving amino acids and sugars, that browns a seared steak?

Louis Camille Maillard described it in 1912; it takes off at around 140-165°C.

What is 'marbling' in a cut of beef?

Marbling is intramuscular fat deposited near and between the muscle fibres; it melts during cooking, which is why well-marbled beef is juicier and more tender.

Which of the four Wagyu breeds is actually responsible for the famous rich marbling?

Japanese Black (Kuroge Washu) makes up around 90% of Japan's Wagyu and carries the genetics for intense intramuscular fat; the Tajima strain of it is used for Kobe beef.

In which Japanese prefecture must cattle be raised to qualify as Kobe beef?

Kobe beef must come from Tajima-strain cattle born, raised and slaughtered in Hyōgo Prefecture, whose capital is Kobe; the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association certifies it.

What is the most tender cut of beef?

The tenderloin, the psoas major muscle along the spine, does almost no work, making it the most tender cut; filet mignon and chateaubriand are both cut from it.

How is dry-aged beef produced?

Dry-aged beef is hung or racked uncovered in a chilled, humidity-controlled room for several weeks; moisture loss and natural enzymes concentrate the flavour and tenderise the meat.

Which cut of the pig is 'streaky' bacon made from?

Streaky bacon is cut from the pork belly, whose alternating layers of fat and muscle give it the streaks; it is the standard bacon in the United States.

What are the only ingredients permitted in Prosciutto di Parma?

Prosciutto di Parma allows only pork leg, sea salt and lard: the lard (sugna) is smeared on the exposed meat to slow drying during a cure of at least twelve months; nitrites and smoke are banned.

The finest jamón ibérico is labelled 'de bellota'. What have the pigs eaten?

It must come from pure Black Iberian pigs or crosses at least 50% Black Iberian with Duroc.

Bresaola, the air-dried salted beef, originated in which region of Italy?

Bresaola della Valtellina comes from the Valtellina, an Alpine valley in Lombardy near the Swiss border; it is salted, air-dried for two to three months and turns a deep purple-red.

What gives Spanish chorizo its deep red colour and smokiness?

Mexican chorizo uses chili peppers instead of paprika.

What must mortadella contain at least 15% of, by rule?

Mortadella Bologna PGI must be at least 15% cubes of pork fat (lardelli), cut from the neck and mixed through the finely ground pork; pistachios are an optional extra.

Pastrami originated in the Jewish community of which country?

The word probably passed from Turkish pastirma via Romanian pastramă into Yiddish.

Where does the word 'corned' in corned beef come from?

'Corned' refers to the large grains, or 'corns', of rock salt once used to cure the beef; Commonwealth countries often just call it salt beef.

The word 'jerky' comes from which language?

'Jerky' comes from the Quechua word ch'arki, meaning dried, salted meat; Spanish colonists in the Andes borrowed it as charqui before it entered English.

How does biltong differ from jerky in its production?

Biltong is cured with vinegar and salt and then air-dried for days rather than heated, whereas jerky is dried with heat; biltong originated among the Dutch settlers of Southern Africa.

What is the traditional casing for haggis?

Haggis is traditionally encased in a sheep's stomach, which holds the minced pluck, oatmeal, suet and onion as it simmers for several hours; artificial casings are common today.

What is black pudding made from?

Black pudding is a blood sausage of pork blood, pork fat and cereal, usually oatmeal or barley groats; the high cereal proportion sets it apart from continental blood sausages.

By French law, foie gras must be the liver of a duck or goose fattened by what method?

French law (Code rural) defines foie gras as the liver of a duck or goose specially fattened by gavage, or force feeding; the technique goes back to ancient Egypt around 2500 BC.

What is Spam made from?

Spam is chopped pork shoulder and ham, with salt, water, potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite; Hormel devised it partly to use up pork shoulder, a cut that did not sell.

In which year did Hormel introduce Spam?

Hormel introduced Spam on 5 July 1937, naming it via a $100 contest won by Ken Daigneau; wartime shipments spread it worldwide and a Monty Python sketch gave its name to junk email.

The word 'frankfurter' comes from Frankfurt, but 'wiener' refers to which city?

'Wiener' is German for Viennese: the Wiener Würstchen, a pork-and-beef sausage, was popularised in Vienna in the early 19th century by Frankfurt-trained butcher Johann Georg Lahner.

In which German city is bratwurst first documented, in 1313?

Nuremberg's city records of 1313 hold the first documented bratwurst, the ancestor of the Nürnberger Rostbratwurst; the name joins Old High German brät, finely chopped meat, to Wurst.

How is a döner kebab cooked?

Döner meat is stacked on a vertical rotisserie and shaved off as the outside cooks, a 19th-century Ottoman technique that also gave rise to shawarma, gyros and Mexican al pastor.

What is a turducken?

The English version with goose is called a gooducken.

What are Rocky Mountain oysters?

Rocky Mountain oysters are bull (or calf) testicles, a by-product of castrating ranch cattle; they are skinned, floured and deep-fried and served as a bar snack in the American West.

Which glands are served as 'sweetbreads'?

Sweetbreads are the thymus gland or the pancreas, usually from a calf or lamb; the French call the veal version ris de veau.

What is veal?

Most comes from young male dairy calves not needed for breeding.

What is meat from a sheep in its second year called?

Hogget is meat from a sheep in its second year, roughly 12 to 24 months old; lamb is under a year and mutton comes from older sheep, its name from the French mouton.

Roughly what is the fat content of kangaroo meat?

Kangaroo meat is exceptionally lean, typically under 3% fat and around 23% protein, because the animals are wild-harvested rather than fattened; it is also rich in iron and zinc.

Which country was the world's largest beef exporter as of 2020?

Brazil was the world's largest beef exporter in 2020, shipping about two million tonnes, with China its biggest customer; Australia, the United States, India and Argentina followed.

Who created the first cultured (lab-grown) beef burger patty in 2013?

Mark Post, a physiologist at Maastricht University, unveiled the first cultured beef burger in London in August 2013; it cost about €250,000 and was funded by Sergey Brin.

In which country was cell-cultured meat first sold commercially, in December 2020?

The restaurant was 1880 in Singapore.

The Cree word behind 'pemmican' means what?

Pemmican comes from the Cree pimîhkân, from pimî, meaning fat or grease; the mixture of rendered fat and pounded dried meat fuelled fur traders and polar explorers such as Shackleton.

Which two religions most notably prohibit eating pork?

Islam (haram, Quran 2:173) and Judaism (Leviticus 11:7, kashrut) both forbid pork; Seventh-day Adventists, Rastafarians and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also avoid it.

What is the traditional Scottish accompaniment to haggis?

Neeps and tatties — mashed swede (turnip) and potatoes — are the classic side for haggis, especially at a Burns supper on 25 January, with a dram of whisky.

What is salami, technically?

Salami is cured sausage of fermented, air-dried meat, usually pork, seasoned with salt, garlic and spices; the English word is the Italian plural of salame.

During which period did meatloaf become a way for American families to stretch their food budgets?

Meatloaf became a Great Depression staple in the 1930s, stretching cheap ground meat with bread, oats and leftovers; Poland's version hides a hard-boiled egg inside.

Roast suckling pig, cochinillo asado, is a speciality of which Spanish city?

Segovia's restaurants famously carve it with the edge of a plate.

Which wild ancestor of domestic cattle was hunted by Neanderthals and painted at Lascaux?

The aurochs, a huge wild ox that ranged across Eurasia until the last one died in Poland in 1627, was hunted by Neanderthals and painted at Lascaux; domestic cattle descend from it.

Canadian-style back bacon is a lean cut from the eye of which part of the pig?

Canadian-style back bacon is cut from the eye of the pork loin, the lean muscle along the back, then cured and usually smoked; in Canada itself plain 'bacon' usually means side bacon.

Where does beef rank among the world's most widely consumed meats?

Beef ranks third by volume, behind poultry and pork, making up roughly a fifth of global meat production — around 76 million tonnes a year in the early 2020s.

By what other name is Scotland's square breakfast banger known?

Lorne sausage, or square sausage, is made as a rectangular block of minced beef or pork with rusk and pepper, sliced into portions and fried for a roll; it is rarely seen outside Scotland.

What is the traditional Italian name for cured pork jowl?

Guanciale is cured pork jowl — guancia is Italian for cheek — seasoned with pepper and aged for weeks; it is the traditional fat in carbonara and amatriciana.

Canadian peameal, an unsmoked, wet-cured pork product from Ontario, is coated in what?

Peameal bacon is rolled in fine cornmeal; the name survives from the 19th century, when the wet-cured pork was rolled in ground dried yellow peas instead.

Ancient Italy's most famous sausage, lucanica, came from Lucania, which is now which region?

Ancient Lucania corresponds to modern Basilicata in southern Italy, which briefly re-took the name Lucania from 1932 to 1947; lucanica survives as Lucanica di Picerno and Greek loukaniko.

Which Aristophanes comedy is about a sausage vendor who is elected leader?

In Aristophanes' The Knights (424 BC) the sausage-seller Agoracritus out-demagogues the Paphlagonian, a stand-in for Cleon, to win the favour of Demos, the personified Athenian people.