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Thursday 24 May 2012

Beef

Beef eating dates back to prehistoric times when men hunted aurochs for food. Aurochs were large wild animals large pointing horns that were ancestors of modern domestic cattle. The last individual auroch was killed by a poacher in 1627 on a reserve near Warsaw, Poland.

British politician, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the 'sandwich.' He developed a habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.

Count Pavel Stroganov of St Petersburg was a noted gourmet as well as a friend of Czar Alexander III. A recipe called Beef Stroganoff had been in the family for some years and had been brought to the notice of many due to the Count’s love of entertaining. A chef, Charles Briere, who worked in St. Petersburg, submitted the recipe to L 'Art Culinaire, thus bringing the dish to the attention of many.


A major outbreak of BSE or mad cow’s disease in the late 1980s in Britain resulted many shying away from eating beef. On May 16, 1990, a photograph of British minister John Selwyn Gummer feeding his daughter a British beef burger appeared in many newspapers. Because of the growing anxiety about BSE the British minister was keen to show the world that British beef was safe.





In 1994 controls of export of British beef to the continent were imposed due to fears of contamination from BSE. The livelihoods of many British farmers were affected. Such health scares contributed to many turning to vegetarian options.


Corned beef got its name because this beef was preserved with pellets of salt that were the size of corn kernels, which was also referred to as "corns" of salt.

25% of global land use, land-use change and forestry emissions are driven by beef production. This includes the conversion of forests in the Brazilian Amazon.

Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world. The number of cattle in the country has risen from 78 million back in the 1960s to well over 200 million today. In 2014 Brazil exported 2.23 million metric tons of beef.



In the US, people eat over 1 billion pounds of beef at McDonald’s in a year, which is five-and-a-half million head of cattle.

Hong Kong consumes the most beef per capita.

Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton.


The actor Shia LaBeouf's name means "Thank God for beef."

Source Food For Thought (Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World) by Ed Pearce

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