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> For example, cow meat when cooked becomes beef.

So too does bull, heifer, and steer meat.

I have heard the same story, but perhaps beef actually came to be used because there was no generally accepted way to refer to the singular of cattle? "Cow meat" would have only referred to meat from cattle kept to produce milk; which also would have been the least likely meat source.

Eventually we got cattle beast as the singular form of cattle, but it appears it emerged in the lexicon after beef was already in use.