How did chicken, beef and pork emerge as the standard meats?

For a great explanation of why certain animals became the dominant source of food, see Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. http://www.amazon. read more

Things like lamb are kind of pricey, so I imagine pork, beef, and chicken are relatively inexpensive to purchase. read more

It used to be the standard to cook pork and chicken to 180, and beef to 120. Chicken still needs 180 to kill salmonella Pork can now be cooked 135-140 (mid rare), as it no longer carries trichinosis, and is the cleanest meat you can buy now. read more

However, when it comes to land animals, there are just a handful of staple American meats: beef, pork, chicken, and turkey (and, to a lesser extent, lamb and duck). Cows and pigs were brought to the Americas from Europe, but the North American continent already possessed a cornucopia of edible animals: bison, moose, deer, possum, squirrel, pigeon, pheasant, and rabbit. read more