So I'm finally done with the egg chapter of the Harold McGee book and am now into the chapter on meat. One of the things I really like about this book are his sidebars on the etymology of food-related words. With regard to meat, he says that, prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, the Anglo-Saxon way to describe different kinds of meat was to take the name of the animal and add "meat" to it. Hence, you had constructions such as "pig meat," "cow meat," and "sheep meat." It was the Frenchies who introduced "pork," "beef," and "mutton" into the language that we now know as English. I have to admit, "pork" sounds a lot more elegant than "pig meat."
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