Afaik in the US the most commonly consumed meat is chicken, but I have a hunch that beef is a lot more popular there than here in Italy, probably because of the abundance of pastureland you have.
So yeah, beef or pork?
I can personally say that I eat beef maybe once a month and a half, and pork once a week or more. It’s just a lot cheaper and easier to cook. Most Italians I believe would have the same habits as me.
(Vegetarians and vegans welcome to contribute)
Comments
beef definitely. pork is the least amount of meat I consume.
Beef, I keep strict kosher
My family eats a lot more beef, being lower income growing up, pork was used for a lot of meals and made me hate a lot of pork cuts.
Beef
I eat chicken and turkey by far the most.
Beef and pork are probably roughly tied for me? It’s hard to measure because I eat them in different ways.
I don’t eat beef at all and eat pork about once a month (usually just some sausage or bacon on or in a meal). I eat fish once a week, and I eat chicken or turkey 4-5 days a week each (I assume we eat a lot more turkey than Italians).
Chicken most common, beef second. I don’t eat much pork other than bacon or sausage with breakfast once or twice a week, and a pork tenderloin once or twice a month. I don’t each ham much at all.
Neither. I eat fish more than either of those
We live in cattle country, but we eat a lot of pork too. I would say chicken is number one, followed by beef, with pork a close third.
I eat about 2lb of meat per month and most of it is bacon (mostly for the delicious grease). So I’ll go with pork.
I’m American and I don’t eat pork aside from the occasional pork roll (taylor ham)
Beef. It’s what is in burgers
Beef for sure. I just like it more than pork. Lots of Americans love the taste of pork though and probably eat it more often than I do. For some reason I only taste the grease in the pork and nothing else.
Excluding occasionally eating bacon 🥓 I don’t typically eat pork.
I definitely eat more beef. I make different kinds of meatballs a lot using just ground beef, steak tacos, bulgogi and burgers. I work at a brunch restaurant though and do eat a good bit of bacon, sausage and pork chorizo here, just not as much as beef.
Personally, I eat more pork because of cost. I can get pork loin and tenderloin on sale for a fraction of what I’d pay for beef.
The average American eats 55 lbs of beef per year and 50 lbs of pork
Fun fact, Chicken is the most consumed meat in most large countries, the U.S. but also including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Australia, South Africa, etc. Chicken is the most eaten meat in the world compared to other meats (most in 70 countries, compared to fish being the second most in 56 countries).
Pretty much all of North and South America eats chicken the most too.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-meat-consumption-by-country-and-type/
As for me, I eat more beef than pork, though more seafood than either of those. Thanks to Japanese and Korean food, I have a lot more seafood than I did before. Though I love my families tradition fish dishes like ackee and saltfish, steamed fish with green bananas, fish escovitch, etc. etc.
Beef. I go through 2-3 pounds of ground beef per month at home. Unless I get bacon or ham on a pizza, I don’t really ever eat pork.
I think it depends on the agricultural region. There are some regions that are historically cattle-heavy, like Texas or Colorado or the midwest. And others that are BBQ/pork-heavy, like the central midwest or the deep South.
I won’t lie, though, I don’t eat steak or pork nearly as much as I eat chicken or fish.
Over the last five years, I have consumed much more pork and chicken than beef. The price of beef continues to rise. Pork has remained affordable.
I don’t eat pork, so I eat beef more. 😁
The abundance of land is why the classic big meatballs were created by Italian immigrants compared to the original little ones. They got here and it was abundant and they could afford it.
I think the whole chicken thing is due to health. Without looking up any research, I think Americans probably eat the most beef as compared to the rest of the world. And between beef or pork in the US, it’s definitely beef more often.
Beef. I occasionally like smoking pork shoulder to make pulled pork in the smoker. Other than that and the odd piece of bacon on a cheeseburger, I don’t eat pork at all.
I come from an old cowtown. One of the larger ones back in the day. I eat so much more beef than pork. It’s not even close. I probably eat more beef than chicken even
Are we talking frequency or quantity? For me, pork wins for frequency, beef for quantity. Bacon or pork sausage at least 3 times a week for breakfast, sometimes a lot more. But a single dinner with beef, which we have at least once a week, is a lot more quantity than 3-4 slices of bacon or sausage patties per week.
That’s an interesting question, because as I assume a lot of people are saying beef, they probably eat more bacon than beef. Which is pork
I eat pork once a week and beef 1 to 2 times a week.
More beef, but that is more about the convenience than anything. We have chicken quite often as well. And we would like to have more fish, but it’s expensive to get really good fresh fish.
Most people will say beef, but we eat a lot of bacon, ham, and sausage. We also like our bbq, which includes pulled pork and pork ribs.
We aren’t sitting down to a pork chop or roast too often, but we eat a ton of pork. It’s less expensive than beef.
Pork. Very well done. Slow roasted and falling off the bone.
I don’t eat any pork and I keep red meat to a very minimum. Chicken and fish are my most consumed animal product. I typically have some type of meat or fish a day for 1 out of my 3 meals
Chicken >>> Pork > Beef.
I’d wager I eat pork and beef one day a month each.
Chicken more than either. Rarely have beef or pork.
Chicken is definitely the leader, beef is probably 25%, pork 10%, fish 5%, and lamb ~3%. I would love to eat more fish and lamb, but the SO isn’t big on either.
I cook more with beef and eat it more often. I don’t usually cook pork but am not a stranger to ham and salami sandwiches.
Probably beef more than pork, but pork is stealthy: Pork itself is a rarity, but bacon/ham/sausage I eat a lot more often
Beef, but we raise cattle
Beef, but only because my wife doesn’t love pork.
Me, on the other hand, I love pork and would eat it a whole lot more if my wife would. Ribs and pulled pork are god tier food.
Love,
a North Carolinian
Beef, although I mostly eat chicken. I don’t eat pork.
I used to eat a lot of beef like multiple times a week. I started eating more pork in college a lot more and kind of stuck with it out of college where I’ll make it multiple times week. But I’ll make steaks here and there now around once a week.
region will definitely matter. I grew up in the deep south and Gulf coast, I eat pork more often than chicken or beef.
I don’t usually eat pork. Every few months I’ll get a slab of bacon or order a bacon cheeseburger. I have beef about once a week on average.
Beef and chicken are all I eat.
Wife eats Beef, Chicken and Pork in that order from greatest to least.
Yes.
Joke aside, I actually eat more chicken than beef.
Neither, I am a vegetarian. (I wouldn’t normally contribute to a question like this, but it seemed like maybe you wanted veg input!)
I eat neither. I’m more of a seafood gal.
Chicken and pork. I rarely eat beef.
I eat beef (typically ground) a few times a week. My wife will usually make a meat sauce to eat with pasta, and picadillo for taco night. Then I might have a burger on the weekend. When I eat pork, it’s typically bacon. But we might have a pork surplus here soon because of the tariff situation, so I may have to stock up if the prices drop.
Grocery/meat prices vary depending on regions of the country.
I grew up really poor and chicken was the most inexpensive meat here; so that’s what we ate the most. Pork was a close second but the economical cuts of pork were really fatty so my mother didn’t buy it as much. Finally, beef was a delicacy for us. We ate it no more than two or three times a month.
I eat chicken and fish the most by far with beef being a distant 3rd, and almost never eat pork unless I’m making something specific for a special occasion or something
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.
Beef. At least 2-3 times per week. Not a pork guy, except for bacon and sausages like Italians or kielbasa.
Eat a lot of chicken and fish, too. Especially salmon.
I eat a lot more beef than pork. I mean I have bacon or sausage with breakfast, and the occasional ham sando, but I only do pork chops about once a month. Beef is on the regular.
I don’t eat beef or pork very often, but between the two I eat beef more often than I eat pork. Most of my protein comes from chicken, fish, and beans.
For my family, between beef and pork, definitely beef. I don’t eat pork for personal reasons plus pigs in general kinda freak me out, and I do all the grocery shopping, so I buy the turkey alternatives to typical pork products (turkey bacon, turkey sausage, turkey lunch meat, turkey pepperoni, etc). My family will sometimes order pork when we go out (usually bacon) but that’s the pretty much only time any of us eats pork. My husband prefers the typical pork products to the turkey alternatives but has more or less accepted it at this point. Our son is more used to the turkey alternatives but still likes the pork products too, I’m not sure if he really has a preference though especially since he doesn’t really love meat in general
Beef. I don’t eat pork.
I eat as few animal products as possible. With that said, much more pork than beef. Beef is usually a burger and maybe a once a year steak.
Pork here. Tenderloins are cheap here. Porkchops from sam’s are grilled weekly in summer months. i do chilli with ground pork and ground turkey. Sausage and ground pork jambalaya/dirty rice.
Pork is easier to cook? What kind of beef are you cooking that is difficult.
Ground beef, steak, burgers, etc… are all about as easy to cook as it gets.
Beef
I do like ham but I don’t eat a whole lot of it anymore in favor of roast beef
Pork, for me at least, is an occasional treat these days
Beef is definitely in second place. Many people do not consume pork at all, me included. And then I feel like for the people who do consume pork. It’s not their number one meat. I consume far more seafood than I do chicken.
Here’s a breakdown of meats consumed by Americans on a monthly basis courteous of chat GPT: I’ve rounded these figures.
1: Chicken – 8lbs
2: Beef – 5lbs
3: Pork – 4.5lbs
4: Fish/seafood – 1.6lbs
5: Turkey – 1.5lbs
chicken -> pork -> beef. But only because I married into a Korean family so pork is more common ingredient in Korean food.
Otherwise it used to be beef -> chicken -> pork because I grew up and still sort of live on a beef farm.
Probably beef, but only because I married a pescatarian. Red meat is usually grabbing a burger. When we occasionally go out for dinner, I’m always stoked if there’s a solid looking pork dish on the menu. I prefer pork, it’s just not incredibly common at quick service spots
I recently started eating more pork because it is cheaper than beef.
Honestly, I think it tastes better too.
I personally consume more Chinese barbecued pork and roasted meats more than beef. I also like lamb, unlike my parents.
We eat pork with breakfast (ham, bacon or sausage). Beef is mostly for dinner, we eat ground beef 2-3 times a week, and steak twice a month. Fish once a week. Chicken or vegetarian the rest of the time.
Beef more often than pork. My protein consumption is as follows;
Fish – 4 times a week
Chicken – 3 times a week
Beef 3 times a month
Pork 4 times a year
Edit – I do eat pork sausage more often though, maybe a couple times a month.
I’d say pork, but i eat mostly chicken and fish. Burgers once in a while. Steak once a year if somebody else pays. Ground turkey instead of beef in chili and meatloaf.
Red meat just isn’t that healthiest option, so i avoid it and steak is usually too heavy for frequent meals for me. I Feel like crap afterwards
Pork. I do live in NC which is a top pork producer. And Eastern NC BBQ is the bomb.
I routinely buy pork tenderloins on BOGO, Pork Chops, and pork shoulder for cheap.
If it was solely up to me it would be beef all day every day with a side of bacon.
My wife however does not eat beef. So we do chicken 4+ days a week, pork maybe once a week, turkey about once a week too… This does not include dining out. I’ll get a carne asada (beef) burrito on “taco night”.
When I go out to lunch (only about once a month) it is either a burger (beef) or pizza (pepperoni).
Out of curiosity OP, what do you expect vegans and vegetarians to add to the pork/beef question?
I absolutely prefer beef but the prices are crazy right now, so I’m eating a lot more chicken and pork. Even seafood is cheaper than beef right now which is WILD.
Beef. Don’t really eat a lot of pork, except for bacon maybe.
Lots of shrimp and chicken.
About the same. Have some of each at least once a week, sometimes twice.
More beef.
We eat a good amount of bacon, and an occasional pork shoulder for pulled pork. But beef is on the menu every single week. Meatballs with Sunday gravy and Taco Tuesday are part of our routine.
Beef but we raise our own cattle. Chicken and then pork.
Pork for me it’s usually cheaper
Beef is my go-to, budget permitting. And sometimes even when the budget is feeling stingy.
I eat beef almost every single day. It’s far and away the meat I eat the most. Of course, I live in a big cattle state.
Beef
Between those two choices? More beef because the others I cook for don’t like pork very much.
When I cook for myself, I “treat” myself to some pork chops or a ham slice.
Cow is more expensive than pig, but not by a crazy amount. Lower income households will eat a lot more pig because the difference in cost can really make a household budget work better, but I’d say most Americans eat a lot more beef than pork. When my family was broke we leaned real heavily on pork so I’m not a pork fan…that and for other reasons.
It also depends on the region and what we call ‘national origin.’ Immigrant or immigrant descended families from some areas tend to bring the habits of the old country with them, and teach those to their kids, which goes on for a few generations. Families with an Italian background unsurprisingly eat more pork than families with an Irish background.
OTOH almost everyone eats hamburgers so…yeah.
Beef, by far. It’s more expensive, but tastes better. I can buy various cuts of pork for $2 – $3/lb. (€4 – €6/kg), but most similar cuts of beef runs $8-$12/lb (€16 – €23/kg).
Probably pork. Mainly cause I have bacon or sausage with my eggs pretty much every day. I might have beef like once a week.
I eat more pork than beef, but it was an effort, I was raised eating a lot of beef.
Personally, I eat mostly chicken, to the point that I am not sure how much of the other options I eat. Aside from a few options, beef doesn’t appeal to me and pork is hit and miss as well (I don’t eat sausage).
We’ve been consciously reducing our total red meat intake but still probably eat a little more beef than pork.
Trying to increase healthier options like sashimi and chicken.
But summer is coming, and that always involves throwing steaks on the grill. I’ve at least gotten better at eating about half a Costco filet and slicing up the rest for sandwiches during the week, as opposed to hoovering one of those big boys at one sitting.
For me, it’s fish, chicken, pork, and beef last. I eat fish two to three times a week and beef once a month, maybe. It’s not about cost for me; it’s related to health.
Hard to say. Probably beef, but I do eat a lot of bacon as well
My family doesn’t eat pork
Chicken is, by a large margin, the most popular in my house. It’s versatile and cheap in comparison. Beef would be the number two followed by pork. I would say that pork tends to be used more in things like sausage for us. I should start to incorporate more pork though, because it’s a lot cheaper than beef.
I don’t like pork. I HATE ham. I don’t even like bacon. We mainly eat chicken, beef and fish. We have a lot of good salmon and trout here. My son fishes.
For dinner: we have beef probably 2-3 times per week, chicken 2-3 times per week, pork about once a week (in the form of bacon, salami, sausage, pepperoni, or carnitas; we may also have bacon with breakfast on Sunday mornings). We also eat ground turkey regularly and then seafood is usually just on vacation or when dining out (and then we eat a meat-free dinner 1-2 times a week). Most days for lunch I get salad bar with no meat but sometimes I bring leftovers so have meat twice that day. That said, we don’t eat huge portions of meat- we usually plan on a pound of meat (less than 0.5 kg) for the family (5 of us) and often have leftovers with that.
I eat more beef than any other meat. I eat more pork than chicken.
Pork but that’s a budget thing.
Beef. I like bacon and ham, but to be honest I am a little skeeved that pigs are so similar to us. So that is basically what we taste like…. and they are smart… and I don’t like to eat smart things…
I eat Pork Chops more often than steak, but I eat ground beef more often than pork chops.
So I guess it depends on what you mean exactly.
Ground beef is pretty cheap and versatile, so we eat more of it than pork. I love pork chops, pork sausage (especially bratwurst) and pork fritters, but I don’t always get to make the final say on what we buy.
Beef, I personally find it to be more versatile to cook with than pork, but that’s just me.
I eat beef occasionally, pork rarely. If I eat meat at all, it’s probably chicken. I’d prefer fish/seafood, though.
My husband can’t eat beef, so we eat more pork. Chicken is probably our most common, though
I probably eat the same amount of both.
I think due to ground beef being so versatile here it would easily be beef. For me its very close though due to pork specifically the loin being so cheap at least around where I live due to a lot of pig farming happening close by.
Well right no pork is cheaper than beef. So I’m eating more pork. Poverty meals.
Beef and chicken mostly. Pork is very hard on my system and always makes me temporarily ill unless it’s from a clean farmer that treats their animals well and doesn’t just feed them garbage so they can make a quick buck.
Beef
Pork is cheaper than beef, so we eat a fair amount.
It’s close but probably beef.
More chicken. I have GERD & GOUT. So I have to limit pork and beef. Mainly eat pork in the form of bacon on burgers and breakfast tacos. Beef it’s usually just burgers and the beef I use in Soup de Fideo.
Beef for me, but I really don’t like pork. We eat beef multiple times a week.
Beef. I’m from fucking Nebraska, not like those pig farmers over in Iowa.
Beef. I eat more chicken than beef though.
I don’t like pork other than bacon, sausage, and occasionally ham. My mom made pork chops a lot when I was a kid because it was one of my dad’s favorites. They were tough, chewy, and had no taste. I’m sure they aren’t supposed to be that way, but I have no desire to ever eat them again.
Beef waaaay more than pork for me. My mom eats pork more often, but that’s primarily because eating too much beef too often wrecks her digestive system. Pork is her second-favorite, she just has it more often based on her circumstances.
Chicken > Beef > Pork > Seafood
Grew up on a farm. Beef and chicken were our primary meat. Pork was mostly bacon or a ham.
Beef, it tastes better.
I’d prefer to eat Beef but it got too expensive..
Pork is my favorite. I love a thick bone in pork chop with like broccolini and sautéed shiitakes. I eat ground Turkey most often after this. I love duck, too. I don’t eat a ton of beef but when I crave red meat I’ll get a very nice cut, but if available I’d prefer bison and then elk. Chicken – I’ll either have a weird aversion to it to months or I’ll roast a whole chicken, eat it for a couple of days, and then make broth with the carcass / soup with the leftovers. I eat salmon more often than chicken.
I eat neither. Been sticking to poultry and seafood since I was about 9. Most of my cooking is with chicken or vegetarian, sometimes fish.
When I was an omnivore, we definitely ate beef more frequently than pork.
Chicken
I don’t eat pork, I eat beef a couple times a month, mostly eat meatless /fish/chicken
In our house, we are probably at a 60/40 split on pork and beef. We don’t have any dietary restrictions, but pork is less expensive and I’ve found it to be incredibly flexible with different cuisines.
That being said, the lion’s share of what we buy and eat is chicken. We would like to lean into more fish since we’re in Maine now, but cost is still a limiting factor.
Beef by far prob tied with chicken, then fish, then turkey. The only pork I eat is bacon sometimes. Otherwise the last time I ate just straight up pork was maybe 2 years ago had a nice pork chop at a steak house. Maybe sometimes I’ll get al pastor tacos.
Pork and chicken. Cost and health benefits are better. Also lots of fish.
Beef. We buy all local, pasture raised meat but we are also on a budget. Surprisingly enough, grass-fed beef is quite a bit cheaper than pastured chicken or pork, at least at the local farms I’ve checked.
We eat ground beef 3-4 nights a week, chicken 1-2 nights, pork maybe 1 night. We rarely eat other cuts of beef because the cost increases exponentially.
More pork for me. We eat it at least once a week for dinner, and eat bacon or sausage once a week with breakfast. I probably have beef about twice a month.
I’m probably less typical in this regard, though.
For me it’s about equal. I eat a lot of ham sandwiches. But beef is in half of my dinner lol
I definitely eat more pork than beef. Bbq on weekends is often pork. We have pork chops at least once a week. Then you have sausages and bacon, pepperoni, and I have ham sandwiches for lunch most days. Beef, maybe a burger once in awhile or tacos/ hamburger helper once or twice a month. I do like a steak dinner once a week or so though.
I probably eat chicken 5+ times each week, beef twice, and pork a couple of times each month. I eat more seafood than pork.
I’d like to eat beef more often, but it’s waaaaay more expensive, and my kids complain like crazy about tiny little bits of fat. We do burgers probably twice a month. Pork is really cheap so we do that most often
Neither – we primarily eat chicken in my household and rarely eat beef or pork.
I eat pork more often but when I eat beef, I eat more. So… it’s probably a wash. Chicken is in third for me.
I used to eat more beef but its gotten to be very expensive. There are other cuts of pork that go much farther for cheaper than beef. I would do more beef if it was in the budget.
Chicken first followed by beef – by preference at least – but beef has gotten so expensive that I am cooking pork more and more. A pork chop or pork shoulder is way cheaper than a steak or chuck roast, even ground beef is too expensive to have as often as I would like. I would guess my family probably eats pretty close to equal amounts of pork and beef.
Beef by far.
Beef = 4 to 5 times a week.
Pork = bacon 1 to 2 times a month. Non-bacon, 1 to 2 times a year.
Beef
I intentionally try to mix more white meats into our dinners, we probably do beef 3x a week (taco tuesday, burgers, steaks) then the rest of the week is some kind of chicken or pork.
Beef is way more popular in the US. I had a buddy who lived in Germany for awhile and one of the big differences he told me about was Germans eat a lot more pork. I actually like pork a lot and will have pork chops every couple weeks, but really 90% of my meat meals are chicken. It’s healthier than either pork or beef and it’s much cheaper. Beef is like $15/lb these days give or take depending on the cut. Chicken breasts are like $3/lb.
We eat way more chicken, fish and pork than beef for sure.
Pork chops, pork loin, tenderloin, bacon, pork belly, sausage. I don’t buy beef much other than minced bc it’s very pricey right now. An occasional roast. In fact, I’ve got two giant pork loins defrosting in my fridge to smoke Thursday for pulled pork which I’ll freeze the majority of.
Pork is cheaper than beef or chicken, and I make a lot of Mexican and Asian dishes with pork. So I’m with OP, pork at least weekly, beef monthly, chicken in the middle somewhere. But I buy pork butts and smoke them all the time, make carnitas, grind them for homemade sausage(s), it’s very versatile.
Chicken and fish by far when I cook at home which is very often. But living in California, burritos are a staple and so I probably do carnitas and carne asada equally.
Rarely eat beef, it is too expensive
Pork is a distant fourth behind beef, chicken and fish/shellfish.
Pork because it’s MUCH cheaper
Pork is about to get cheaper with China refusing multi-million pound shipments.
I wonder if people saying they don’t eat pork are including ham, and various sausages, both cased and ground.
Beef, fish (salmon, ahi tuna, orange roughy), chicken, and finally pork. (When stateside.)
When I’m in France it becomes lamb, duck, beef, in that order.
Writing this made me realize that I need to figure out why I don’t eat fish when I’m in France.
I live rurally and there’s a lot of farms around us that sell shares of a cow. You can buy 1/4, 1/2 or even a whole butchered cow. Lots of people do it and it saves $. I’d imagine there might be places that do it with pig, but I haven’t heard of one. Beef is much more commonly eaten.
I don’t like beef, pork, or eggs. I eat chicken and fish. It depends on the person, but as a whole I would say most Americans eat beef….tacos, spaghetti, chili, steak are staple meals in a lot of households. Pork is very common too…pork chops, sausage, bacon, pork loin, bbq.
Uhhhhh my parents are Hindu so I will never eat beef but I will start eating pork when I go to uni and beyond
I eat more beef than I do any other meat. Honestly, pretty much the only pork I eat is bacon and sausage. I genuinely couldn’t tell you the last time I bought pork chops, loin, etc. I know I have, but it’s probably been over a decade.
Beef more than pork and chicken way more than anything.
I eat more fish/vegetarian with some chicken maybe twice a month. If I have to have beef I’ll eat it, maybe once a year, say at a party or something. Husband has dementia and neurologist said investigate mediterranean diet and cardiologist said go vegan. After researching it, I want to avoid my husband’s fate, so changed my diet.