07. Beef

Cattle are huge animals, weighing well over 1,000 pounds and yielding more than 500 pounds of edible meat per carcass. Almost all of the cattle raised for meat in the United States are hybrids. The longhorn of cowboy ballad and cattle drive fame, the breed that established the beef industry in North America, was stringy and tough, and they all but died out as a source of meat in the late nineteenth century, when they were replaced by blockier, meatier, British breeds, such as Hereford and Durham, and the Scottish breed Angus. These animals were bred with drought-resistant humped breeds from Asia, particularly Brahmans, to create a stock that was resistant to environmental hardships and disease but possessed large musculature, good marbling, and tender meat. These qualities became the hallmark of American beef.