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Eating horsemeat in France
- GiorgioG 4y agoLong 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 :)
- moron4hire 4y agoRabbit 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 enclaves within cities, eat a lot of different types of meat. I've had goat, bear, possum, and even alligator. I've known people to eat squirrel, but I personally never considered it worth the effort. There are also lots of different parts of the animal that you'll only find regionally. Various organ meats. Cow and pig intestines. Pigs feet. Pig snout. Pig cheek flesh. Bull testicles (called "Rocky Mountain Oysters" where I was from, though we were nowhere near the Rocky Mountains). Sections of beef brain (excellent battered and deep fried).
- DonaldFisk 4y ago> Sections of beef brain (excellent battered and deep fried). I'll take your word for it but I'm not tempted. After BSE and the outbreak of variant CJD which resulted, I wouldn't consider it worth the risk. I've wondered what brain tastes like, though. It's used in a few of Apicius's recipes. I substituted corned beef from BSE free Argentina when I cooked those.
- abawany 4y agoI was forced to try it a few times as a kid and I can assure you it was disgusting, with a soft spongy texture and an unnatural taste that no amount of spices could hide.
- dreamcompiler 4y agoGoat is delicious and readily available in US states with a large Latinx population. Cabrito tacos are a delicacy.
- wincy 4y agoWhole 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?
- dreamcompiler 4y agoMy country relatives would build a giant barbecue grill (probably starting from an old propane tank or something similar) and throw the whole goat on. They were not Muslim; just rednecks.
- wincy 4y agoThere’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.
- moron4hire 4y agoI grew up in Pennsylvania-Dutch country. Beef tongue sandwiches were apparently a thing. But I moved before I became an adventurous eater.
- jaclaz 4y agoThat is also one of the typical ingredients of "bollito misto" (mixed boiled) in Italy: https://memoriediangelina.com/2014/01/19/il-gran-bollito-misto-mixed-boiled-meats/ https://memoriediangelina.com/2014/01/19/il-gran-bollito-mis... but you can also have it "by itself".
- Voeid 4y ago
- jeromenerf 4y agoPeople usually eat decommissioned horses, if their papers allowed for it. Most are raised by enthusiasts, for sport. Horses bred and raised for their meat are no longer rare. What used to be endangered races (cobs, cold bloods), can now be maintained thanks to a rather unexpected business opportunity. French don’t eat them though, they are sold to Japan, to be eaten very fat, as delicatessen.
- yvdriess 4y agoSimilarly, the Ardennes draft horse genetic stock survived because of an (unsuccessful attempt at) an horse-meat breeding industry. It's usually not economical to breed a horse just for meat, which in my eyes makes it a relatively ethical form of meat.
- giantg2 4y agoIf I were single I'd try it. My wife would not be happy if I ate horse (she's an equestrian). One thing the article didn't mention is whether the horses are raised for meat or if they are simply old horses that are no longer useful. I'd imagine a young horse would be more tender. Also, I wonder if the butchers sell meat from a stallion or if it has a different flavor.
- angio 4y agoThey're horses raised for meat. When a horse is registered the owner needs to declare if it will be raised for meat consumption or not, that has implications about the type of medicines that the horse can take.
- bambax 4y agoEveryone 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 someone asks "est-ce que tu fais du cheval?" is: "je monte à cheval; ce sont les bouchers qui font du cheval". (I ride horses; only butchers "do" horses).
- OJFord 4y agoSimilar 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 horse yet or something.
- bambax 4y ago> it's just 'riding' You can ride other things beside horses: bikes, motorcycles, scooters...
- jimmytidey 4y agoFantastic title
- tnolet 4y agoI’m in the Netherlands and there is a horse butcher (paardenslagerij) around the corner of my house. Has been there since the seventies. The sausage is quite good, but much fatter than I’d expected. It’s also quite expensive which can make sense because scarcity, but not make sense since the demand must be fairly low. Based on total anecdata, I see mostly pensioners going here. And me.
- tsimionescu 4y ago> It’s also quite expensive which can make sense because scarcity, but not make sense since the demand must be fairly low. If demand is highly inelastic - as would be expected for something like culinary preferences - then price actually has to increase when demand is low: if you can sell to 3 people at 20$ or 5 people at 10$, you're losing money by decreasing your price.
- nanis 4y ago> If demand is highly inelastic - as would be expected for something like culinary preferences Demand curves, regardless of elasticity, are always downward sloping: Higher prices lead to fewer units demanded. Your statement implies control over prices: Firms with market power do not operate along the inelastic portion of a demand curve. This is a logical implication of profit maximization. Before one can understand that, one must internalize the fact that as a seller, you cannot choose the price and the quantity sold independently. If you pick a price, you can sell the quantity demanded at that price. If it is too high, can't sell any. If you pick quantity, you can only sell all at a price people are willing to pay. Assume a firm has market power (can pick price) and is operating along the inelastic portion of the demand curve. If it charges a higher price, it loses some sales, but total revenue increases (that's what demand being inelastic means -- quantity sold falls, but percentagewise not as much as you increased the price, therefore, revenue, price x quantity increases). In addition, because cost is increasing in quantity (offering more for sale costs you more) and now you are producing less, costs go down. Therefore, profit, which is revenue minus cost, must increase. Therefore, if you were operating along the inelastic portion of the demand curve, you could not have been maximizing profits. Therefore, firms with market power (can pick price) can only operate along the elastic portion of the demand curve. If you are claiming demand for horse meat is a vertical straight line (which is not a thing outside of being a limiting case in econ 101), then lower demand means demand curves closer to x axis origin, i.e., price is determined simply by the supply curve. With a given supply curve (which are always positively sloped due to the fact that cost is increasing in output), lower demand means lower equilibrium price, > then price actually has to increase when demand is low. Demand falling cannot cause higher prices (keeping everything else constant).
- bipson 4y agoEating 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 Austria, but the market is tiny, the reaction you get is typically "Eeehwww!". It is an excellent, very iron rich, lean meat. But since my wife loves horses, I haven't eaten any for many years.
- looperhacks 4y agoGerman here, horse meat isn't very hard to find. It's not commonly sold in stores, but it's everything but unacceptable.
- Archelaos 4y agoI can confirm that. You can get it from specialised butchers, often at weekly markets.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago> the reaction you get is typically "Eeehwww! i understand when people react that way to eating dog or smth, but horses and cows are same family of animald
- nkozyra 4y ago> but horses and cows are same family of animal How do you mean? They're not, taxonomically.
- bombcar 4y agoThe family of "big and eats grass" I guess.
- jameshart 4y ago‘Family’ doesn’t really have a defined meaning in modern taxonomy. Horses and cows are part of the same clade, ‘ungulata’ - hooved mammals. It’s not a Linnaean taxonomic ally ‘ranked’ clade though, like an ‘order’ or a ‘genus’ - but those terms aren’t really that formally valid, so using ‘family’ informally to mean ‘clade with some reasonable level of shared characteristics’ seems fair. But to also be fair, if you want to classify horses and cows as edible based on their shared common ancestry, you’re also arguing for eating giraffes, tapirs, rhinos, hippos, whales and dolphins.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nanis 4y agoHorses are companion animals.
- BrandoElFollito 4y agoWhen I was a kid at school (France, late 70's), eating horse meat was something heard of. Not the kind of may you could eat everyday but you would see some at the butcher's (au least in the western suburbs of Paris). I never had some at the school canteen (I think). Fast forward 40 years, same city. There is no horse meat anywhere. Eating some is unheard of. I just asked my teenage children: they never heard of it (and we're surprised that it was something you eat). Of course this is just one data point, but I guess this is the general state today for middle class people in that region.
- jjgreen 4y agoThere's still a boucherie chevaline on Rue Daguerre I believe
- ClumsyPilot 4y agodiets have become much less varied: back home people eat chicken hearts and stomacks, they are mostly muscle and actually taste nice. All i see for sale in UK is liver which tastes very different to 'normal' meat, not a fan Also it's now difficult to find rabbit and goose - they used to be normal, if not everyday, food
- MrDresden 4y agoEvery slaughter season (late september-october) the stores are flooded with buckets of blood, hearts, liver and other offal. Usually fill my freezer with the stuff and it lasts me a fairly long time.
- Glawen 4y agoDepends on the region. You can buy here in every shop rosbif Alsacien which is horse meat.
- BrandoElFollito 4y agoYes, this is very true - that's why I mentioned my region expecting that lov=cal traditions may be diverse. Out of curiosity - is rosbif Alsacien something that you would usually buy?(putting aside the price - I am just looking for statistical preferences in taste and provenance)
- sph 4y agoWe eat horsemeat in Italy as well, though not very commonly. I did a few times, eh, nothing to write home about. Also donkey meat ragu once, that was pretty good. AFAIK rabbit meat is not viewed very well across the pond either, like in the US. Correct me if I'm wrong.
- nkozyra 4y ago> rabbit meat is not viewed very well across the pond either, like in the US It's not very common but I'm not shocked if I hear someone say they ate it, as I would be hearing someone ate horse. Rabbit will occasionally be sold at normal grocers but generally in short supply. I remember it being more common when I was a kid and I associate it with older people. Same with lamb, which is also increasingly rare stateside. I remember my mom's delicacy was lamb chops. Goat is usually readily available where Caribbean or Indian populations are high. My local grocer usually has goat.
- bombcar 4y agoRabbits fed the same kind of market that chickens do, but chickens have been engineered to produce absolutely massive amounts of meat for cheap, and rabbits haven't kept up.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y agoProbably a good reason to eat rabbit rather than chicken...
- Avlin67 4y agowe have lot of kebabs and « chicken whatever » fats foods in france because of utterly cheap so called meat comming from egg industry (usually poland or germany)I had to learn my wife what proper meet is about and get a discussion with the butcher. Now she gets high quality at cheap price…
- hgazx 4y agoRabbit is popular in paella.
- jeffrallen 4y agoYum. Horse is in every Swiss supermarket. At least in the French part.
- aix1 4y agoVery common in Zürich also.
- smackay 4y agoFor a species that has given so much and has been pivotal in the development of humanity, it's time we repaid the debt and granted them freedom in perpetuity.
- gerikson 4y agoHorse meat is not unknown in Sweden but it's uncommon. I remember being surprised during the horsemeat lasagne scandal that horse is a taboo food in the UK and Ireland.
- Ekaros 4y agoSame in Finland. Occasionally can be seen, but it is no way stable outside certain sausages. I think it comes mostly to that they aren't really farmed and if they are given certain medicines they can't be used as food anymore.
- xdennis 4y agoTo remind people in case they didn't know (because there was a huge backlash against Romanians at the time and newspapers never correct themselves after investigations) the meat was labeled as "horse meat" when it left Romania. It was a Dutch company which relabeled it as "beef".
- pierot 4y agoWe ate horse steak in the 80-90’s at Home, in Belgium. Almost every butcher still sells it nowadays. “100gr van ‘t perdje” (100 gram of horse ham)
- lokedhs 4y agoAbout the names of these products, horse meat is traditionally called "hamburgerkött" in Swedish. It literally translates to "hamburger meat" (related to the city of Hamburg, and not the dish hamburger).
- 12ian34 4y agoWhen 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 creatures! I see this as double-standards - similar to how most meat-eaters also seem so disgusted by the idea of eating dogs in certain parts of Asia. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoervleis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoervleis
- xattt 4y agoYou also get this reaction if you declare having eaten what I would call secondary meats (rabbit, duck, lamb).
- jhrmnn 4y agoInteresting! Is this US-specific?
- dreamcompiler 4y agoRabbit 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.
- 0n0n0m0uz 4y agoI actually contracted tularemia while rafting and camping along the Colorado river in Utah. The campsites attracted alot of critters, especially desert jackrabbits. I got bit by a flea or horsefly that was infected from the rabbit and about 3 days later I had a 105 fever and literally couldn't get out of bed for 3 days. Sickest I have ever been in my entire life.
- interestica 4y agoAlso 'rabbit starvation' is a thing... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning
- omega3 4y agoCouple of years ago I’ve tried a horse steak. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it tasted just like game or a lean beef steak. I doubt that most people would be able to tell the difference. It was also more expensive and harder to get than beef.
- sbf501 4y agoI find elk and deer venison to be indistinguishable, and uninteresting. If I was starving I'd eat it, but my palette prefers fatty cow.
- aspyct 4y agoIt'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.
- doctor_eval 4y agoI’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?
- aspyct 4y agoYeah, I think that's why.
- stevenhuang 4y agoI imagine it can feel strange to eat what you form an emotional bond with.
- aspyct 4y agoYup, pretty much, yeah...
- bombcar 4y agoI mean cows are made of meat and horses are made of .... bone I guess? It's mainly perceptual. I don't begrudge people wanting to eat random animals, but I'm not going to go out of my way to get or try it.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y agoI 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 after the rain to cook them and eat them. Famously, the French also eat snails. But offer snails to an Englishman? Yeeeew! Snails! And let's not forget that entire millions of people don't eat specific kinds of meat because it's forbidden by their religions: faithful jewish and muslim folks don't eat pig meat, Hindus don't eat cow meat (unless the cow must be put down because it broke a leg, if I understand correctly) and so on. And then there's matters of personal preference. In Greece, organ meats are considered a delicacy, but I have at least two friends who will not touch them and will probably puke if they smell them cooking.
- rob_c 4y agoThere's more than just horse out there too: https://www.exoticmeatco.co.uk/ https://www.exoticmeatco.co.uk/
- FuriouslyAdrift 4y agoHorse basashi is popular in a few cities of Japan. Kumamoto is especially known for horse dishes.
- MrDresden 4y agoIcelander 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.
- NelsonMinar 4y agoThe perfect main course after the whale appetizer!
- MrDresden 4y agoWhile grazing animals can be slaughtered in a much quicker and "humane" fashion, whaling is a gruesome practice that can take a long time. I am absolutely against whaling.
- pigtailgirl 4y ago-- most intense lamb I've ever tried was in Iceland - had lamb many many times in Scotland and it was gamey - but the lamb in Iceland was next level - in fact it was so intense that I tried it at another restaurant the next day just to see if it was the place I'd eaten - nope - just as strong - I wondered why - if you happened to know --
- MayeulC 4y agoMale mutton tends to have a stronger taste, especially when older, where it can get too strong. It might depend on the age at which the lamb was slaughtered, as there is more meat as they grow older. (My parents raise a few sheep).
- meheleventyone 4y agoAll the sheep in Iceland are let out in the spring and spend their entire time living wild before being rounded up in autumn (which is a really big event). So they spend a lot more time eating quality food and mountain herbs. Makes all the difference. Lamb here really is amazing.
- RajuVarghese 4y agoIt is quite common here in Switzerland. Cafeterias serve it as well as regular restaurants but, admittedly, it is not as common as beef, pork, chicken or lamb. Surprisingly, it is illegal in Texas and other parts of the US though it may not be enforced. Texas even bans transportation of horse meat through the state.
- systemvoltage 4y ago> Surprisingly, it is illegal in Texas Why is it suprising? Horses are an integral part of history and culture of Texas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy
- 5e92cb50239222b 4y agoIt's an integral part of my country's history (much more so than that of Texas IMHO). Same in our neighbor Mongolia. Horse meat isn't illegal here, and never was. I ate it a couple of times and nobody raised an eyebrow.
- meheleventyone 4y agoHorses 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.
- systemvoltage 4y agoThat's indeed surprising, in a similar vein as if we made eating dogs a normal thing. Some cultures have (China).
- CogitoCogito 4y agoHorses used to me much integral to American and European culture and history and they used to be eaten much more.
- meheleventyone 4y ago
- kosolam 4y agoDon’t read it, complete waste of time.
- jmpman 4y agoI need to move to France.
- nathanvanfleet 4y agoWhen I lived in Montreal I was surprised to find horse meat in a handful of regular supermarkets. It was cheaper than beef and it was pretty lean, 20 year-old student me appreciated both of those things. I found it pretty gamey and more flavorful than beef. I did a bit of research and found out that Montreal had some of the largest horse slaughterhouses in the world. Apparently there are plenty of places in the world like Texas or Saudi Arabia with a lot of horses, and laws against slaughtering them for meat. However if you're breeding a lot of horses you're going to end up with non-performing animals or too many horses for the space you have. So what can they do? They ship the live (healthy and not sick) animals to Montreal. They're slaughtered there and then shipped to places where they eat said meat. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me get a tour, which was probably for the better anyway.
- aliswe 4y agoIt is said (we learnt in school) that in sweden, to increase the spread of Christianity, the clerics made horsemeat religiously prohibited. If true, I think this contributed to why eating horse is essentially unthinkable in Sweden...
- jillesvangurp 4y agoLike 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 there are simply exported across the border to Canada or Mexico where they are slaughtered anyway. Why pay to have the animal disposed off when you can get some money for the meat?
- iancmceachern 4y agoIt'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.
- kurupt213 4y agoSeems like a waste not to use horsemeat. They are kept as livestock
- ibejoeb 4y ago> 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.
- the-smug-one 4y agoI 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.
- mcv 4y agoThat 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 therefore see it as weird or unnatural? Then again, my wife is horrified by the idea of rabbit meat.
- k__ 4y agoDon't get this either. We have a horse butcher here in the city whoms unique selling point is just that, selling horse meat. Nobody cares, really.
- aliraheem 4y ago> 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.
- tartoran 4y agoMy 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.
- khazhoux 4y agoIn 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.jpg https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q564722#/media/File:Charqui.jp... https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0287/1256/6887/products/Charqui_1080x.jpg?v=1654134047 https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0287/1256/6887/products/Ch... https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_757969-MLC42816606727_072020-F.jpg https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_757969-MLC42816606727_...
- mbg721 4y agoMaybe I'm unusual, but when I hear about horse-meat eating, I don't think "Gross, I'm eating a pet" as much as I think "Gross, I'm eating a car".