My partner being vegetarian I inadvertently reduced my consumption of meat to only rare ocassions for plenty of other options and I am doing fairly well. I have nothing against meats or meat eaters as I was one myself, but I have the realization that meat eating was excessive with meat or other meat products eaten on a daily basis, I really think that is not very healthy.
Eating horsemeat in France
191–200 of 229 posts
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Horses are integral to the history and culture of Iceland to the point of having an exclusive breed of horses with their own unique gait yet you can still eat horse here.
That's indeed surprising , in a similar vein as if we made eating dogs a normal thing. Some cultures have (China).
Horses used to me much integral to American and European culture and history and they used to be eaten much more.
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say a dog being a carnivore puts it in a different category. The same reason I wouldn't want to eat a wolf or a big cat.
This is actually a really good point. Dogs will eat really disgusting food, perusing the trash or eating poop at times.. I wouldn’t eat a raccoon for the same reason. Horses and cattle eat grass, they’re vegan
The bigger issue is that toxins concentrate in carnivores in a way that they do not in herbivores.
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Horses are integral to the history and culture of Iceland to the point of having an exclusive breed of horses with their own unique gait yet you can still eat horse here.
That's indeed surprising , in a similar vein as if we made eating dogs a normal thing. Some cultures have (China).
Only from a different cultural context, there isn’t an objective idea about what’s correct here. The idea that horses should be privileged because they are historically important is itself interesting. Particularly in terms of how historically they were widely eaten. I also think there is a bit of retconning going on where our views of the animals now are assumed of our ancestors. For example I’m British and horses are generally not eaten but this it’d be ahistorical for me to claim that this was true even in the relatively recent past.
Also the idea that cowboys are uniquely horse based when vast swathes of the world was also using horses ubiquitously at the same time!
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Indeed, calling it just "riding" is one of many odd horsepeople shibboleths. This is actually my other huge nerd topic. Other ones include that nobody calls them stables, it's "the barn," there is a difference between a rider, an owner, horsewoman, horseman (horseman is a reverently reserved term of respect, and horsewoman is also a term of respect, both take a few decades of riding to earn, when a horsewoman is a ho…
I'm not a horseperson, I'd still say 'riding'. Didn't know about 'barns' though, not in that context anyway: I used to/would like to think I still play ice hockey; some call the rinks (or rather the buildings housing them) 'barns' too.
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#196Eating 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…
Eating horse meat in the United Kingdom was seemingly quite common in the United Kingdom prior to 2013 but nobody knew about it[0], when common products were found to contain horse meat and the public reaction turned into a huge story / scandal and most people in the UK would have the same ewww reaction. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal
Oh, that same scandal went through all of Europe.
But the "ewww"-effect came mostly from the mislabeling part.
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#197Eating 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.
It's still available in one of the largest supermarket chains (willys)
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I think it's because some animals are raised for their meat, and some not, and they're different animals in different parts of the world. Similarly, some animals are hunted or foraged for food and others aren't. I think that kind of ...crystallises? into eating taboos. So for example, where I'm from, in Greece, it's traditional (particularly in the islands of Crete and Corfu) for people to go out and gather snails af…
Not the case for me at least. In Belgium we can still find horsemeat, I think, though it's hard.
In fact, one of our national draft breeds, the "Ardennais", has been saved because we were eating them after WWII.
No, it's really me absolutely unable to eat friends.
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#199In Chile there's charqui, dried salted horsemeat. It's very flaky, and the mouth-feel of ripping chunks of the super-salty dry meat is very satisfying. It's quite different than american beef jerky, which is tougher, much darker and "juicier", and often has flavor added. The enjoyment of Chilean charqui is similar to anchovies: if you haven't acquired the delicious taste (it smells a bit like fish-food flakes), you will find it repulsive.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q564722#/media/File:Charqui.jp...
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0287/1256/6887/products/Ch...
https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_757969-MLC42816606727_...
Re: Eating horsemeat in France
#200> A bit like goat curry, all you really taste is the spices. Agree that cheval, flavor-wise, isn't remarkable; it's good, it's a baseline. But goat? If you think all you experience is the seasoning, your sense of taste might be diminished.
I suspect that it depends on the age of the goat and the amount of fat (if goat is similar to mutton). Older and more fat => more 'distinguished' taste.