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Eating horsemeat in France

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Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#201

Post by peoplefromibiza »

klez wrote: post #104
madduci wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy, at least in South, horse meat is still being consumed today.

At least in Venice we still eat, for example, frayed dry horse meat ("sfilacci di cavallo"), which is more difficult to find in Rome, where I now live. Last Christmas I bought by mistake a horse sopressa[0] thinking it was pork and bought it down to Rome. My in-laws were surprised to say the least :) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopressa

as a Roman can confirm.

I don't eat horse meat myself but my girlfriend loves it and it's really hard to find it in Rome.

Traditional cuisine here is mostly about ovine meat, lamb mostly ("abbacchio")

There's a typical roman food "coppiete" that was traditionally made with dried horse meat (similar to beef jerky) but nowadays the pork meat version is much more popular.

Don't know why exactly.

Strangely enough horse meat is a favorite for many of my roman friends, even though it's not easy to get it.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#202

Post by aliraheem »

mcv wrote: post #173

That horse meat "scandal" also hit Netherland, which surprised me. Well, selling horse meat as beef is obviously misleading, but a lot of people seemed to be upset about the very notion of eating horse meat, which is the part that surprised me. I still remember that when I was a kid, my parents would often buy smoked horse meat. It seems to be less common these days. I guess some people aren't familiar with it and th…

> I guess some people aren't familiar with it and therefore see it as weird or unnatural?

I think this is part of it, but there seems to be an amplifying effect where the social context - people being upset about mislabelled food leads to people feeling stronger about their otherwise small objection.

It's almost like because of the social pressure people know they are angry but not too sure why, and they end up ascribing all that angry to whatever reason they can think of.

Had they been introduced to the idea of eating horse meat at a jovial bistro in the Swiss countryside they would be primed to enjoy it.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#203

Post by iancmceachern »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #164

Like most farm animals, horses don't normally die of old age and are instead either slaughtered or put to sleep by a veterinarian. If you think about it, cremating or burying a big animal like that is costly. So, a lot of horses end up being processed in a meat factory instead. The resulting meat is used for all sorts of things all over the world. Horse slaughter is actually banned in the US. However, a lot of horses…

It's certainly not very green to waste that energy and nutrients by just throwing away that much usable meat that took a lot of energy and nutrients, c02 to grow.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#204

Post by wincy »

moron4hire wrote: post #30
GiorgioG wrote: post #12

Long ago I tried horse meat salami in France. It wasn’t terrible, but I prefer pork, or rather that’s what I was/am used to. Americans are surprised to hear when I talk about eating rabbit (again in France when I was a kid.) Those cute furry animals are delicious :)

Rabbit is eaten in the states, but it's kind of like venison: it's just not something you'll usually find in any store or restaurant, unless those places are specifically going out of their way to cater to either hunters or an "old world European" aesthetic. I can regularly get rabbit at either cheap redneck holes in the sticks or expensive German restaurants in the city. People outside of the cities, and ethnic encl…

There’s a Japanese restaurant near my house that serves cow tongue, which I’ve found very interesting and order a la cart when I eat there.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#205

Post by wincy »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #77
moron4hire wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rabbit is eaten in the states, but it's kind of like venison: it's just not something you'll usually find in any store or restaurant, unless those places are specifically going out of their way to cater to either hunters or an "old world European" aesthetic. I can regularly get rabbit at either cheap redneck holes in the sticks or expensive German restaurants in the city. People outside of the cities, and ethnic encl…

Goat is delicious and readily available in US states with a large Latinx population. Cabrito tacos are a delicacy.

Whole Halal goats and lamb are also sold in the frozen section at any Costco that has a large Muslim population around. Granted you then have to figure out how to cook the entire goat. I’m guessing they probably skewer it and roast it outdoors for parties?

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#206

Post by ciguy »

em-bee wrote: post #190
ciguy wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dog tastes nothing like chicken it's a much darker meat. I had it in China and it wasn't exactly unpleasant but definitely what we in the USA would describe as gamey. Basically pungent and heavy on flavor. The preparation I had was in Sichuan so they added tons of red chilies as well so it was very spicy. I wouldn't eat it again, once was enough.

the primary problem with dogs is that you don't know where they come from. there is no guarantee that dogs are raised in a healthy way specifically to be eaten, like sheep or chicken, but there is a high risk that the dogs are caught on the street, and have been feeding on whatever trash they found. and you don't know what kind of diseases they had either. basically, i would treat dogs like rats, unless the restauran…

In many areas they actually torture and abuse the dogs while butchering them also because they think the adrenaline makes the meat less tough. If I knew back then what I know now I would probably have declined when it was offered.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#207

Post by dagurp »

MrDresden wrote: post #60

Icelander here. Horse foal meat is some of the more expensive meat you can have at the finer restaurants in the country. At every butcher shops you can find foal meat, and most if not all supermarkets carry horse meat in some way (frozen, salted, smoked or as a sausage etc). The finer foal cuts are really some of the best meat I have ever tasted. Highly recommend.

It's pretty cheap if you buy it in stores

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#208

Post by bitwize »

pronlover723 wrote: post #137
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…

Horse meat is not unusual in Japan. https://tabelog.com/rstLst/?vs=1&sa=&sk=%25E9%25A6%25AC%25E8...

American McGee's studio, Spicy Horse, is named after a menu item he saw in Shanghai.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#209

Post by moron4hire »

wincy wrote: post #204
moron4hire wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rabbit is eaten in the states, but it's kind of like venison: it's just not something you'll usually find in any store or restaurant, unless those places are specifically going out of their way to cater to either hunters or an "old world European" aesthetic. I can regularly get rabbit at either cheap redneck holes in the sticks or expensive German restaurants in the city. People outside of the cities, and ethnic encl…

There’s a Japanese restaurant near my house that serves cow tongue, which I’ve found very interesting and order a la cart when I eat there.

I grew up in Pennsylvania-Dutch country. Beef tongue sandwiches were apparently a thing. But I moved before I became an adventurous eater.

Re: Eating horsemeat in France

#210

Post by Barrin92 »

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.)

having grown up around farm animals I never really felt either dissonance or the need to compartmentalize.

You can have a relationship with animals and raise them but they are also food. You can ride horses and eat them, to me that isn't contradictory because killing for sustenance isn't an evil act, and if the animals are raised well and kept in good conditions and live happy lives there's no issue.

I think the psychological issues are mostly about anthropomorphizing animals and not having personal experience with the food chain, killing animals for sustenance or quite frankly death which most people now have a completely pathological relationship to.

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