Beef
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Beef. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the flesh of domestic cattle. The name was introduced into England by the Normans. It was spelled at first as in the last syllable of Front-de-Boeuf in Scott's Ivanhoe. All qualities considered, beef is the most desirable kind of meat. If mankind were restricted to one kind of meat, the choice would undoubtedly be beef. England has long been noted for the consumption of beef. At last accounts the English were using sixty-three pounds of beef per person each year. The consumption in France and Germany is but forty-three pounds per capita. The consumption in the United States and Canada is greater. In the production of beef, the United States easily leads, with over 3,000,000 tons a year; Russia produces half as much; Argentina is next; Germany produces about a million tons a year; Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain produce in the neighborhood of three-fourths of a million tons each; and Australia about one-third of a million. The total world's production of beef is not far from 10,000,000 tons a year. The world's mutton and pork taken together amount to only half as much. Chicago is the greatest primary beef market in the world.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the flesh of the ox or the cow, used either fresh or salted. It is the most nutritious of all kinds of meat, and is well adapted to the most delicate constitutions. It should be well cooked, as it has been proved that underdone beef frequently produces tapeworm. Good beef is known by its having a clear, uniform fat, a firm texture, a fine open grain, and a rich reddish color. Meat which feels damp and clammy should be avoided, as it is generally unwholesome. Fresh beef loses in boiling 30 per cent. of its weight; in roasting it loses about 20 per cent. The amount of nitrogenous matter found to be present in one pound of good beef is about four ounces. In the raw state it contains 50 per cent. of water.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's claim in 1910 that "if mankind were restricted to one kind of meat, the choice would undoubtedly be beef" no longer reflects either diet or economics: poultry has overtaken beef and pork as the world's most-eaten meat, and global beef output is now around 60 million tonnes a year, several times the 10,000,000 tons Aiton reported. The geography has shifted too — Brazil now rivals the United States as the largest producer, India is a leading exporter of (buffalo) meat, and Chicago, called "the greatest primary beef market in the world," saw its Union Stock Yards close in 1971. Collier's 1921 warning that underdone beef "frequently produces tapeworm" was sound and still is, Taenia saginata being killed by proper cooking, though beef tapeworm is now rare where meat inspection is routine. What neither entry could weigh is beef's land, water and methane cost, which now shapes public argument about eating it at all.
Written for this edition, 2026.