Why do many traditional cuisines rely so heavily on meat even though it has been scarce for most of history?

Question

Why do many traditional cuisines rely so heavily on meat even though it has been scarce for most of history?

In: 14

Answer 1

One thing is that meat on the whole hasn’t necessarily been incredibly scarce, but rather the good cuts have. Many “peasant dishes” use offal and the sort of leftover cuts, which the richer folk didn’t bother with, so you get a lot of slow-cooked stews and such to soften the meat up.

A sidenote on poor people’s food: Back in the 18th century, lobster was considered “the poor man’s chicken” in the US. It was frowned upon so much, that when it was used as prison food, the practise of over-serving it was deemed “cruel and unusual” and laws were enacted against doing so.