The first recorded instance of steak being eaten comes from the 6th century BC, when Xenophon, a Greek soldier, wrote about eating beef while on campaign. In his work, Anabasis, he describes the Persian practice of cooking meat on skewers over an open fire. It’s likely that steak has been around since humans began to domesticate cattle, which is thought to have happened around 10,000 BC. The word “steak” comes from the Old Norse word steikja, which means “to roast on a spit or stake.”