How many cows do you think you’ve eaten in your life?
It’s kind of a bastard question, huh? I mean seriously, if you combined all of the beef products you have consumed in your life how many cows do you think that would be?
Is it like one cow or is it closer to two or three. I mean seriously how many cows have you eaten?
Don’t worry I did some research for this to help you answer.
A cow will deliver 185 pounds of ground beef. Most hamburgers that we eat are at least ¼ pound patty. And who are we kidding we are probably having two or three at a time. If we get McDoubles that’s a ½ pound right there. But let’s say the average is ¼ pound patty. If you’ve had 740 hamburgers in your life than you’ve eaten that portion of the cow.
I’m pretty sure I hit that quota by 18. Think about all the kid’s meal menu options where you just had hamburgers, those were just getting you on the right patch to eating a whole cow.
175 pounds will go into round and chuck roasts and steaks. I just made a 3 pound roast this last weekend and I will eat all of that by the end of the week. Growing up roast was a common staple in my household. Not only that but think about when you started to grow up and actually started going to restaurants and eating nice steaks 12-16 oz at a time. I can guarantee that I’ve eaten 175 steaks in my life. And seeing as most of those were on the 16 oz plus side I went well over in just steaks. Throw on top the roasts I’ve probably already eaten than we need to slaughter another cow because the steaks alone got me to the goal.
130 pounds go into other cuts like brisket, ribs, skirt steaks, flank steaks, etc. Yeah, once again, I’ve eaten a lot of stews which has some of this miscellaneous meat in it. Not only that but anyone that went to a school with a lunch program probably ate their 130 pounds of miscellaneous meat before they hit the 8th grade.
So right there I’ve eaten at least one and a half cows.
But let’s not forget that this is just the meat that is used for most beef products. Think about the stuff we aren’t using like the brains, intestines and tongue. Well we don’t have to worry about that, no cow is going to waste, because of all the hot dogs that we’ve eaten in our life make up for that.
So next time you sit down to a nice steak dinner, or a tasty hamburger at your next picnic; just remember, that your meal is just a small percentage of the cow you are eating for the rest of your life.
I’m Tucker Diedrich and I am not a doctor or a dietitian.