My grandaddy told me when he was a boy, there was no refideration or freezers because there was no electricity way out in the country. His family and the neighbors had a "Beef Club". Someone would have a bull, usually a Herford, that everyone used to breed their milk cow to. About once a month, someone would butcher their calf, and each family in the club would get a part...whatever they could eat in a few days or so. Might get a shoulder one month, tenderloin the next, brisket the next, etc, and over the year everyone would end up getting a whole calf. That's why most of the time, they ate pork,, because they could cure it or smoke it, and hang it in a shed with no refridgeration.