Meaty Good

Europe

Sweden

Kottbullar are famous Swedish meatballs. These meatballs are crispy brown on the outside and have a tender texture on the inside. The meatballs are made with ground beef mixed with pork or veal and seasoned with onions, salt, pepper, and allspice. Once mixed, they are shaped into small, round meatballs and browned in hot butter. The meatballs are served with lingonberry sauce, creamy mashed potatoes, and thick gravy. For a lighter meal, they can be served with cucumber salad or red cabbage.

England

Shepherd’s pie is a popular comfort food originating in the UK but is now popular world-over. The dish is prepared as a casserole with minced lamb or mutton meat, onions, carrots, Worcestershire sauce, thick gravy, and seasonings like black pepper, marjoram, and parsley. The ingredients are placed in a baking pan and covered with butter, and creamy mashed potatoes. The casserole is baked until the mashed potatoes are golden brown on top. 

Beef Wellington is a dish made with a whole filet of beef coated with a pate and duxelles, a combination of minced mushrooms, herbs, and shallots. Then the beef is wrapped up in a puff pastry and baked in the oven. When the pastry is golden brown and the beef is done the slices of beef are accompanied by Madeira sauce.

France

Entrecote is a type of beef steak cut from between the ribs. It is usually known as a thin and boneless rib-eye steak. Butcher’s cut bone-in-rib-eyes with a bone on each side. There are six leftover boneless steaks from the meat between each bone-in-rib-eye known as entrecotes. They are usually cooked on the grill or in a pan on high heat. These are popular in France and all of Europe. Entrecote means “between the ribs.”

Coq au Vin is a classic peasant stew from the Burgundy region in France. This dish has two main ingredients – coq or rooster and vin or wine, a bold, rustic red wine. The rooster is cut up into pieces and combined with rooster blood, onions, carrots, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, parsley, mushrooms, salt, pepper and red wine. All the ingredients are placed in a pot and cooked slowly over low heat until the meat is tender.

Beef bourguignon is a stew originating in the Burgundy region. It is prepared with Charolais beef, robust red Burgundy wine, onions, garlic, thyme, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and a few strips of dried orange peel. The ingredients are simmered until the meat is tender and a hearty, dark sauce has formed. Some say this dish tastes better prepared a day ahead of time and refrigerated for 24 hours and reheated.

Switzerland

Cordon bleu is a popular international dish with Swiss origins. It is prepared with two meat scallops one on top of the other with ham and cheese in-between. Then breaded on both sides and deep-fried in hot oil, shallow-fried in a pan or baked in the oven. There are many different versions like veal cordon bleu, chicken cordon bleu, or cordon bleu with mushroom sauce.

Austria

Wiener schnitzel is one of the best-known Austrian dishes. A thinly sliced veal cutlet is breaded and pan-fried until golden brown on both sides. The dish is served with lingonberry jam, lemon wedges, and buttered parsley potatoes, a potato salad, or French fries.

Germany

Leberkase is a traditional German product that consists of ground meat like pork liver flavored with onions and formed and baked into a meatloaf. The loaf has a crispy crust and a juicy, pink inside. It can be served hot or cold paired with mustard and bread. You can fry slices of the meatloaf in a pan for a snack.

Rouladen are traditional meat rolls stuffed with different ingredients. Long, thin beef steaks are pounded, seasoned, covered with sharp German mustard and rolled around bacon and sliced pickles. Other versions can include carrots, onions, or bread. The steaks are rolled around the ingredients to form small logs and are secured with toothpicks. Then placed in a pot and simmered until ready.

Sauerbraten is a traditional German pot roast. Beef like chuck or bottom round is marinated in red wine, tart vinegar, and spices. Then braised for a long time and the remaining cooking liquid is whisked into a roux and simmered into a thick brown gravy. Sauerbraten is usually served with spatzle egg noodles, bread dumplings, or boiled potatoes and cooked red cabbage.

Poland

Gulasz is Poland’s traditional dish similar to Hungarian goulash. It is prepared with beef or pork simmered with onions in a paprika-spiced broth. Various vegetables can be added to this dish. It is usually served with rice, pasta, or bread on the side.

Golsnki is a traditional Polish dish that consists of cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice. A head of cabbage is parboiled so the leaves can be separated from the head. Then into each leaf minced meat and rice with seasonings are placed and wrapped up and tied with string so the stuffing stays in place. The cabbage bundles are placed in a pot with mushroom or a tomato-based sauce and simmered until everything is cooked through. These are usually served with mashed potatoes.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Cevapi is a favorite dish in Bosnia. Tiny, hand-rolled minced meat sausages are a mix of ground beef or other meats like pork, veal, or lamb. The meat is mixed with spices like garlic, salt, black pepper, and paprika or hot red pepper flakes. Formed into sausage cevapi are barbecues over charcoal. 

Romania

Mititei are a favorite Romanian street food. The dish consists of grilled ground meat rolls made with a combination of lamb, pork, beef, and seasonings like thyme, anise, black pepper, and garlic. The ingredients are combined and made into small sausages.

Turkey

Iskender kebap is a specialty of the city of Bursa. The dish consists of thinly sliced lamb that is grilled and then combined with a spicy tomato sauce. It is served on pita bread and melted sheep butter and yogurt are drizzled over the dish.

Shish kebab is the most popular of this kind of dish that consists of meat cubed and skewered then grilled over a fire. The meat cubes are marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, milk, yogurt, cinnamon, and allspice. When skewering along with the meat cubes of vegetables can be added.

Adana kebap is a skewered meat dish that is made with ground lamb and tail fat kneaded together with garlic, onion, paprika, and hot red pepper flakes. The combination is pressed around flat metal skewers and grilled. Traditionally it is served on a platter over flatbreads and tomatoes.

Greece

Gyros are one of the most popular Greek street foods. They are made with pork, chicken, or lamb cooked on a vertical spit. Once ready the meat is thinly sliced and placed in pita bread with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cucumbers and tzatziki sauce.

Italy

Polpette is a word that denotes Italian meatballs. These consist of ground beef or veal and sometimes pork mixed and rolled into small balls. The meatballs are seasoned with parsley and garlic and eggs and Parmesan are added. Then fried golden brown and eaten as an appetizer, snack, or finger food.

Porchetta is a traditional boneless pork roast. It is made with a piglet or grown pic deboned and flavored with salt, garlic, rosemary, and fennel seeds. The roast is stuffed with liver, fat, or pieces of skin and meat with salt and spices. The meat is rolled up, spitted, and roasted over a wood fire. Then thinly sliced and served warm or cold with bread.

Spain

Cochinillo is a Spanish dish that consists of a roasted suckling pig with a tender and crispy skin. The pig used should not be heavier than five kilos and not older than three weeks. They are traditionally roasted in large, open-faced brick ovens. 

Asia

Philippines

Sisig is a popular Filipino dish. It is made by boiling, chopping, and grilling the parts of a pig’s head like ears, cheeks, and jowls. These are seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar. The meat is combined with fried onions, sili, and chicken livers. The combination is topped with a raw egg.

India

Vindaloo is a curry that is popular in England and originated in the Goa and Konkan regions of India. It is prepared with marinated pork but can also be made with beef, chicken, mutton, or paneer. The meat is marinated with wine vinegar and garlic. When cooking spices like tamarind, cinnamon, cardamom and hot chiles are added.

Tandoori chicken is one of the most popular dishes in India. It is made with chicken meat marinated in yogurt and seasoned with tandoori masal, nutmeg, and cumin and placed on skewers. The dish is cooked in a tandoor a traditional clay oven making the meat succulent with a smokey flavor.

China

Twice-cooked pork is a Sichuan specialty. It is made with a fatty pork leg or belly with the skin intact. The pork is simmered in a pot and cooled in the fridge for the meat and fat to firm up. Then the meat is sliced and stir-fried with vegetables like cabbage, bell peppers, leeks, and mushrooms.

General Tso’s chicken is a Chinese-American sweet and spicy dish with its creation by Chinese and Taiwanese chefs. The dish is made with diced chicken first deep-fried then stir-fried with ginger, garlic, scallions, and hot chili peppers. A sauce is prepared with sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and rice wine.

Japan

Chicken katsu is a traditional Japanese dish. It is prepared by dredging tender chicken breasts in flour, eggs, and panko breadcrumbs. Then the cutlets are fried in hot oil until golden and crunchy. It is traditionally cut into smaller pieces and eaten with chopsticks. It is served with steamed white rice and katsu sauce a combination of a tangy and sweet and thick Worcestershire-like concoction from apple puree.

Katsudon is a rice dish served in a bowl topped with simmered ingredients. It is a combination of a deep-fried and breaded pork cutlet simmered with vegetables and a seasoned sauce bound with eggs.

Oyakodon is a dish meaning father and child since both chicken and egg are used in the dish. It consists of a bowl of white rice topped with chicken, eggs, and chopped scallions. The eggs are poured over the rice and the cooked rice solidifies the eggs.

North America

The US

Standing rib roast is a popular item on holiday tables. Standing rib roast is the sixth to twelfth rib section of the rib primal from a cow. The name was given because the roast can be roasted in a standing position. The meat is seasoned with salt and pepper and coated in a marinade. Then roasted to medium rare and carved into slices.

Chop suey is a well-known Chinese-American dish originating in the US in the mid-1800s with Chinese immigrants. The dish is made with stir-fried vegetables and shredded chicken, pork, or beef can be added. It is served over steamed rice.

Chicken fried steak is an interesting dish since it is not prepared with chicken. Batter-fried steaks like round steak, tenderloin, or rib-eye are fried to a golden brown and served with mashed potatoes and drizzled with cream gravy.

Pot roast is a dish usually prepared with a tougher cut of beef that has been seared in a pan and then simmered in stock or its own juices. In the New England states it is referred to as Yankee pot roast and prepared with vegetables like carrots, onions, and potatoes simmered with the braised beef.

North Carolina

Pulled pork is an American barbeque technique when pork is cooked slowly over low heat until the meat is tender and can be pulled apart into smaller pieces. In North Carolina shoulder cuts of pork are used and dressed with vinegar, pepper, and tomato sauce.

Tennessee

Hot chicken is a signature dish of Nashville, Tennessee. It consists of chicken parts fried in cayenne pepper paste until they are a rusty red color. The chicken is served with white bread and sliced pickles or coleslaw on the side.

Texas

Mexico

Birra is a traditional slow-cooked goat stew originating in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The goat meat is slowly cooked with roasted chili peppers, garlic, cumin, bay leaves, and thyme.

Cochinita pibil is a pork dish originating in Yucatan. The pork is marinated in annatto paste, bitter orange juice, and garlic. Then it is slow-baked and shredded and served on tortillas or tacos.