Delicious May: It’s National Beef Month!
A perfect storm is brewing in May that may catch many of us off guard.
Not only is the month of May the month of graduations, mothers and memorials, but did you know it's also National Beef Month, National Hamburger Month and National Barbecue Month.
Why has no one been talking about this?
Depending on where you live, the term “barbecue” could refer exclusively to beef on a grill, so we would all be guilty of appalling negligence if we did not celebrate this trifecta of tastiness properly.
To get the celebration started, let's get to know our beef a bit better.
Beef, and its byproducts, have had an immense impact on current society, from the gelatin that holds the marshmallow on your stick, to the soap in your shower — the impact of beef is everywhere.
The U.S. has more than 700,000 cattle operations across the nation, with nearly 100 million head, according to National Beef Wire. In fact, nine states, from South Dakota to Nebraska, have more cows than people. Texas has the most cows, 12.5 million, while Rhode Island has less than 4,000.
The History of Beef
Modern cattle are descended from ancient aurochs (OR-ox), a now-extinct wild bovine domesticated by the first humans on the continent more than 10,000 years ago.
Christopher Columbus brought Spanish cattle during his second voyage in 1493 and the famed Texas Longhorn is actually a descendant of Spanish explorer Herman Cortez’s cattle brought into Texas in 1690.
The Jamestown colony brought the English Devon breed to the U.S. in 1623, where they were all-purpose farm animals; used for milk, drafting and plowing fields and for their beef.
But, beef really blew up in the U.S. during the post-Civil War era when the vast planes opened up under Manifest Destiny allowed the land-hungry cows to thrive on the grass that covered the new territory. Chicago was the primary rail hub for the new national network back then (how do you think the city’s NBA team, the Bulls, got their name?).
Popular Types of Beef
Angus cattle come from Scotland, and is the most popular beef breed in the U.S., making up to as much as 60%. Wagyu is a breed of Japanese beef cattle with four breeds: Japanese Black, Japanese Brown (known as Red Wagyu in the U.S.), Japanese Polled (no horns) and Japanese Shorthorn. Kobe Beef is the most exclusive and regarded type of Wagyu, getting its name from the Japanese city where it’s made.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the grades of beef are:
Prime beef, which is young, well-fed beef cattle with abundant marbling and is only sold in restaurants and hotels.
Choice beef is high quality, but has less marbling while select beef is very uniform in quality and normally a bit leaner than the two higher grades.
The last grades of beef are standard and commercial grades, which are frequently sold as store brand meat while utility, cutter and canner grades of beef are seldom sold at retail stores but are used to make ground beef and processed products.
Fun Facts About Beef
While there are many names for beef, like delicious and tender, there are also different names for cattle. A bull is an adult male. A steer, the most popular for beef, is a castrated adult, while a heifer is a young female, a calf is a youngster and a cow is, technically, a mother. Just 3 ounces of beef provides more than half of your daily protein and is a primary source of vitamin B-12, zinc, iron, phosphorus and selenium.
The most common cuts of beef, which vary regionally, are: chuck, loin, rib and round.
Various estimates say more than a billion cattle roam the planet, with India, Brazil, China and the U.S. having the largest cattle inventories on the planet, in that exact order.
So, as National Beef, Hamburger and Barbecue Month beckons, fire up the grill, gather your friends and family, and savor the succulent delights the month of May brings to our plates.
