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Eating horsemeat in France

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Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#61

Post by layer8 »

Sharlin wrote: post #52
12ian34 wrote: post #31

When I lived in NL, I took a trip to Maastricht which is a beautiful place right in the South and tried a popular local dish - Zoervleis[0] which is traditionally horse meat. It was delicious. It always amuses me that when I tell this story, it's often met with disgust - even by meat-eaters! "But, how could you eat horse! They're so nice!". Yeah... you eat beef, have you ever met a cow up close? They're also lovely c…

The psychology of eating animals is definitely a great example of how people compartmentalize and simply avoid thinking about the details too much in order to evade cognitive dissonance. Which is also why so many respond with hostility when prompted to do so. (Disclaimer: I'm an omnivore.)

As an omnivore, at some point avoiding the dissonance became a zen of embracing the dissonance.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#62

Post by bennyp101 »

xattt wrote: post #38
12ian34 wrote: post #31

When I lived in NL, I took a trip to Maastricht which is a beautiful place right in the South and tried a popular local dish - Zoervleis[0] which is traditionally horse meat. It was delicious. It always amuses me that when I tell this story, it's often met with disgust - even by meat-eaters! "But, how could you eat horse! They're so nice!". Yeah... you eat beef, have you ever met a cow up close? They're also lovely c…

You also get this reaction if you declare having eaten what I would call secondary meats (rabbit, duck, lamb).

It’s quite common to eat rabbit, pidgin, pheasant in the UK, and duck and lamb are standard dishes

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#63

Post by happyopossum »

hvs wrote: post #50
jhrmnn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Is this US-specific?

Not the OP, but I'm in the US and.. it's complicated. I would say, in general, meats like lamb and, especially, veal have fallen out of favor due to the perceived poor conditions and youth of the animals. Rabbit isn't common in the US (it's not generally available in stores) but the "cuteness" factor plays a role here as well. This has changed since the 80's when lamb and veal were more popularly consumed. I'm guessi…

Lamb is completely common - you can buy it at Costco for crying out loud. Heck, I even had some at a FAANG cafeteria the other day.

Lamb’s consumption is not unusual in the US, and is completely unrelated to the veal issue.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#64

Post by dreamcompiler »

12ian34 wrote: post #31

When I lived in NL, I took a trip to Maastricht which is a beautiful place right in the South and tried a popular local dish - Zoervleis[0] which is traditionally horse meat. It was delicious. It always amuses me that when I tell this story, it's often met with disgust - even by meat-eaters! "But, how could you eat horse! They're so nice!". Yeah... you eat beef, have you ever met a cow up close? They're also lovely c…

One can get horse meat in Japan too. (I think they mostly import it from France these days.) I had a nice cheval carpaccio there once, at the insistence of my Japanese hosts. It tasted good, but I have no desire to eat it again.

I don't intend to ever try dog. From what I've heard the meat of carnivores tastes unpleasant, but that might be folklore.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#65

Post by doctor_eval »

aspyct wrote: post #42

It's the first time I see a picture of edible meat and feel repulsed by it. Interesting. Bit of background about me: I really like horses. They're friends to me. I see why people eat them, but that just sounds wrong, just writing it. I... I guess I understand why vegetarians don't like meat, now.

I’m not here to judge anyone for eating meat, despite being vegetarian, but I agree with the other comments here, if you eat cows or pigs or sheep or chickens then why not cockatoos or horses or dogs (or feral cats, which are consumed in some parts of Australia)?

I don’t eat any of these creatures, but nevertheless, I just don’t get why certain animals seem to be culturally off limits for those who do eat meat. Is it just because cows, pigs and sheep are not animals you get to pat very often?

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#66

Post by tpmx »

null_object wrote: post #43
bipson wrote: post #10

Eating horse meat was very common in central Europe before the big wars. In WWI and WWII even more so, horses were declared essential for the war in axis countries, and eating them became illegal. In Italy horse meat picked right up again after WWII, but in Austria and Germany people forgot about the reasons it seems and it stayed unacceptable/frowned upon. You can find (excellent) horse meat products in western Aust…

In Sweden horsemeat used to be sold commonly in supermarkets everywhere as thinly sliced sandwich charcuterie. Interestingly it’s called “hamburger-meat”. The last 10 or so years I’ve noticed it’s gradually disappeared from Stockholm stores.

If you have a craving: Many of the various kinds of salamis from Kotivara (Finnish) have horse meat in them, including the very nice pepperoni one:

https://www.kotivara.se/vara-salamis/salamis/pepperonisalami...

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#67

Post by oergiR »

OJFord wrote: post #19
bambax wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in my family rides horses and eats horse meat; we don't see any problem with that -- at least we didn't. I haven't had horse for a long time, but when I was a child we had tartare de cheval every Saturday for lunch (and we went to ride horses the following day). In French riding horses is "monter à cheval" but many people (who usually don't ride) improperly say "faire du cheval". The appropriate answer when…

Similar quirk that irks me in English is 'horseback riding': it's just 'riding' - or 'riding on horseback', 'horse riding' - the whole thing's coming! 'horseback riding' to me sounds like it's supposed to be a humourous phrase along the lines of 'driving a desk' (a sort of blue-collar self-deprecation for having moved up from driving whatever vehicle) - like you're still in training and haven't been given a live hors…

In English everywhere except the US, it’s “horse riding”; “horseback riding” is US English.

Definitely humorous: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5wSw3IWRJa0

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#68

Post by dreamcompiler »

jhrmnn wrote: post #45
xattt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also get this reaction if you declare having eaten what I would call secondary meats (rabbit, duck, lamb).

Interesting! Is this US-specific?

Rabbit is readily available in the rural US if you hunt and skin it yourself. I could eat forever just on the population in my yard. But alas...tularemia is a thing.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#69

Post by jules »

12ian34 wrote: post #31

When I lived in NL, I took a trip to Maastricht which is a beautiful place right in the South and tried a popular local dish - Zoervleis[0] which is traditionally horse meat. It was delicious. It always amuses me that when I tell this story, it's often met with disgust - even by meat-eaters! "But, how could you eat horse! They're so nice!". Yeah... you eat beef, have you ever met a cow up close? They're also lovely c…

If I'm not mistaken, the preparation of the dish (meat boiled in vinegar for several hours, then sweetened up with gingerbread and reduced apple juice) was traditionally intended to tenderise the tough meat of old farm horses that had been used for ploughing the land. Almost all restaurants prepare the dish with beef nowadays.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#70

Post by myshpa »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #64
12ian34 wrote: post #31

When I lived in NL, I took a trip to Maastricht which is a beautiful place right in the South and tried a popular local dish - Zoervleis[0] which is traditionally horse meat. It was delicious. It always amuses me that when I tell this story, it's often met with disgust - even by meat-eaters! "But, how could you eat horse! They're so nice!". Yeah... you eat beef, have you ever met a cow up close? They're also lovely c…

One can get horse meat in Japan too. (I think they mostly import it from France these days.) I had a nice cheval carpaccio there once, at the insistence of my Japanese hosts. It tasted good, but I have no desire to eat it again. I don't intend to ever try dog. From what I've heard the meat of carnivores tastes unpleasant, but that might be folklore.

> I've heard the meat of carnivores tastes unpleasant

People eating salmons and other predatory fish would disagree. Horse meat is really good, and dogs probably taste like chicken anyway ...

But no meat beats well-prepared tofu & seitan ;p

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