Fun Beef Facts and Trivia
June 13, 2009 by Linette Gerlach
Filed under Recipes
I’ve posted a few beef grilling recipes the last couple days courtesy of Stockman and Dakota. Check out these beef recipes for your Father’s Day grill out next weekend, Grilled Teriyaki Beef Kabobs and Grilled Beef Fajitas.
Today I have some fun beef facts and trivia tidbits. Save these bits of beef trivia to dazzle dad at the grill, and have fun quizzing the family to see what they know about beef.
Fun Facts about Beef~ “Beef Trivia,” from Beef From Pasture to Plate
• How beef came to America: Christopher Columbus brought cattle with him to the Western Hemisphere on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, but Hernando Cortez was the first to bring cattle to North America in 1519.
• First hamburger: The hamburger made its international debut at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Café owner Fletcher “Old Dave” Davis of Athens, Texas, described his early burger as a classic, greasy burger served on just-out-of-the-oven slices of bread and garnished with mayonnaise, sliced onion and cucumber pickles. The people of Athens were reportedly so pleased with Fletcher’s sandwich that they raised a pile of money and sent him to the World’s Fair.
• Beefiest day of the year: More beef is consumed on Memorial Day than any other day of the year. The Fourth of July and Labor Day typically tie for the second most popular beef-eating days.
• Most popular beef cut: Ground beef. Between 40 and 45 percent of all beef sold today is in ground form. This includes fast food hamburgers, ground beef from the grocery store and processed meats such as sausage, hot dogs and lunch meat.
• Beefy nutrients: Beef is the number one source of protein, vitamin B12 and Zinc. Beef is also the number three source of iron behind fortified cereal and grains.
From “Beef Flavor Preferences Study,” Beef Retail
• Favorite flavors with beef: The top five most-liked flavors consumers enjoy with beef are onion (58 percent), followed by garlic (52 percent), herbs (33 percent), Worcestershire sauce (26 percent) and lemon/citrus juice (19 percent).
One last piece of beef trivia from the Guinness Book of World Records
• Largest hamburger on record: The largest commercially available hamburger is 164.8 lbs. and is available for $399 on the menu at Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan, as of August 29, 2008.
Wow! That’s one big burger!
Images via Stockman and Dakota
