Steak and other meat products can now be frozen and exported, but before the invention of commercial refrigeration, transporting meat over long distances was impossible. Communities had to rely on what was locally available, which, in turn, determined the forms and tradition of meat consumption. Hunter-gathering peoples cut steaks from local indigenous animals. For example, Sami cuisine relies partly on the meat of the reindeer; the Inuit diet uses locally caught sea-mammal meat from whales; Indigenous Australians ate kangaroo, while indigenous North American food included bison steak. In the Middle East, meat recipes from medieval times onwards simply state "meat" without specifying the kind or the cut and "apart from an occasional gazelle, kid or camel", only lamb and mutton were eaten because cattle were seldom bred.[40]
In contemporary Argentina, where consumption of steak is very high,[10] steak is a significant part of the national cuisine and the barbecue asado has the status of a national dish. In Austria, the national dish is Wiener Schnitzel, which is a type of steak made from veal. Advice on butchery and recipes for American black bear steak and chops is provided by US governments