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The three festivals (Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot) were times when everybody was commanded to assemble in Jerusalem. They were celebrated with festive meals, including some of the meat that had been offered on the altar. (These offerings are listed throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.) The rabbis of the talmud understood that Shabbat should also include a meat meal. My impression is that, otherwise, meat was not incredibly common.

According to Isaac Abarbanel (15th century), boiling meat in milk was a pagan practice particularly associated with harvests. From this translation (thanks @msh210):



I do not know Abarbanel's sources for the historical information on which he draws.

If Abarbanel is correct, then this prohibition would follow logically from a discussion of holidays, paricularly Sukkot (the fall harvest festival). The passage in Ex 34 is near a discussion of all the holidays and Shabbat, perhaps (my speculation here) as a reminder that this is a general prohibition and not Sukkot-specific.


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If anybody thinks I should source the claims in my first paragraph please let me know. I'm not sure whether they can be taken as given or not. –  Gone Quiet Apr 30 '13 at 17:21
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According to Jacob Milgrom:



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