I don't mind eating it, have done before and would again except for the fact that it doesn't like me. It isn't quite 'don't eat red meat' because I can eat some cuts/dishes very happily, although I suspect I may eventually give up most red meat.
Yes, in Belgium and France. It's often to be found in the Sunday and Monday markets when we are down in Midi-Pyrenees.
It's not illegal to prepare or sell horse in the UK, nor to import it from Europe, but it has been very rare (for 'but horses are pets' reasons, and the general decline of horse numbers, rather than health or safety concerns) since the end of WWII. Gordon Ramsay said we should revive it a few years ago but I don't think anything much came of that. (The surge in rabbit consumption might be an indication that we're ready to revisit horse, but I doubt it.)
NB was a horsey kind of child, and much prefer them to, say, dogs. Just not in the least bit sentimental about meat.
This morning (following the news on the radio), the boyfriend reminded me that he once had horse sushi in Japan. Horse sushi sounds like the weirdest thing ever (not that I wouldn't try it!)
I once ordered a horse steak in Tokyo and was most disappointed when they didn't have any in stock. I suspect it was actually a bad translation - if I remember rightly the kanji for horse and cow are quite similar.
Oh drat - I *may* have eaten horse meat in France as a teenager, but my notoriously dodgy memory can't be sure. If so I certainly didn't dislike it, and I'd be 100% willing to eat it (again) in future as I'm pretty sure I *would* like it even if I haven't actually had it.
I have no objection in principle to it being in burgers, so long as they're well labelled.
I have no objection in principle to it being in burgers, so long as they're well labelled.
Indeed! I wasn't going to use the poll results to conclude that it didn't matter if beefburgers were made of horse :) Also, more than worrying about whether I want to eat horse, I just find it slightly alarming that the food manufacturing process is such that the wrong stuff can sneak in without anyone noticing.
Most news reports have commented that in the UK people "won't" eat horse (and I think my perception confirms that). So... I suspect what we can most safely conclude is that people who read this LJ are not representative of the UK at large!
I was under the impression that it was illegal to eat discarded riding horses or pet horses as they will have had a lot of routine medication, so horsemeat comes from specifically farmed or culled semi-wild horses. I've not researched this thoroughly myself though. Though last time I was in France I saw a horsemeat shop - the meat is sold separately from a normal butcher as the regulations are strict in keeping the meat safe and not sourced in any way from a medicated ridden horse. I ate horse sporadically as a child, but the last time was a delicious horse 'n sauce in Belgium. Very tasty.
This made me laugh, so I read it out to ChrisC. He suggests that, if cooking horse for someone who probably wouldn't want to eat it, you serve it with marscapone...
I'm not entirely certain, but I spent a lot of teenage holidays in France, remember it being around in supermarkets and such, and was generally of a keen-to-try-different-foods inclination, so I'm bound to have had some at some point.
In fact, I was all prepared to buy some horse meat from Kezie (who supplied our Christmas reindeer) when the husband told me he doesn't think he'd like horse, as he doesn't like zebra. Which sent me into a bit of a tailspin, I mean, how could I have not known he didn't like zebra? But it turns out not to be a major dislike, just all being equal he'd prefer something else. Like reindeer.
I was chatting to someone at the weekend who (formerly) had a South African housemate who used to smuggle bushmeat back into the UK. Which is how she knows that she doesn't really like ostrich, or zebra (or several other improbable animals I've now forgotten).
But in general, for people in the UK I'd say knowing you dislike zebra is quite unusual :)
As long as it was happy horse I'd at least be willing to try it; though to be honest I think my sheer guilt at eating something from a species I spent years riding and bonding with would rather get in the way of the flavour.
Well... it looks like thus far you are the only person expressing anything remotely like what the BBC calls "the British revulsion at eating horsemeat". So, er, congratulations, of the people here present, you are most like a normal person ;)
As a Vegetarian I am mostly bemused by this whole thing. I would understand if people were upset about the whole being mislead / lied to thing - "It was described as beef but was actually horse", but mostly people seem to be upset by the whole "OMG I may have accidentally eaten horse" thing. Why are people so willing to eat cows but not horses? Is that not just bovineist? Or are most meat-eaters hypocrites? Meh!
Well, indeed! Certainly the accepted wisdom seems to be that people in Britain won't eat horse because of the cute fwuffy pony-wonies, and that's what the news keeps banging on about. Responders here seem to divide more-or-less into "I don't eat meat" and "Eating horse is fine", so we're all obviously much more enlightened :)
Sadly, I think a lot of meat-eaters are hypocrites in various ways. I've known a number of people who eat meat but don't want their dinner to look too much like an animal. Or who want to eat meat, but don't want to know about the welfare of the animals, or how they're slaughtered, and so on because that's icky. Plus there's the way places like Korea are held up as "unelightened" or "cruel" because they eat dog... (From various things I've read, they acually can be quite cruel, but that's an animal welfare issue not a dog-specific thing.)
I eat meat, but think that comes with a bunch of obligations which require me to acknowledge that the slaughter of animals (some of whom may have been cute and fluffy) was involved in the creation of my nice lasagne.
I think you are right in that most people just don't think about what they are eating and how it got to their plate. A number of people I know clearly have thought about this and are now of the "I will eat meat, but only if I feel the animal I am eating has been treated well". Two of my siblings have become pescetarians for similar reasons ( I guess fish just aren't cute enough to worry about!).
I'm not nearly as rigorous as some people I know, but I do try to avoid eating the sort of "cheap" meat dishes that imply that welfare probably wasn't a priority :(
I'm sure lots of people have different reasons for becoming pescetarians, but I do find it quite an unexpected choice. Fish definitely went for a poor evolutionary strategy when they decided not to be furry and lovable! A steak means one dead cow, and loads of people can eat from it. A bowl of prawns requires loads of deaths just to feed one person! So it never seems quite so obvious to me why lots of people think of fish/seafood as a sort of proto-vegetarian option. I think it's possible to buy some pretty un-ethically farmed prawns, too, if you're not careful...
Mm, I know a few people now who follow that principle (with greater or lesser rigour). There ought to be a word for it – can I suggest "fluffytarian"? Meaning "will eat animals as long as they had a nice life prior to the point of slaughter".
Indeed. I'd be concerned that if horse-meat crept into a beefburger, somewhere along the line there has been some dodginess in sourcing, and that could mean dodgy abattoir practice. Therefore, the meat has not necessarily been subjected to stringent checks to make sure it is safe for human consumption.
The Dad tells me saveloys (an odd, reddish cooked sausage thing) often contain donkey. Me, I prefer buffalo burgers anyway, they don't shrink when cooked.
You certainly can get donkey salami - Ang and Bern brought some back from somewhere continental a while back. Mostly so Bern could wander round yelling "donkey sausage" at people, I think :)
I've had horse more than once in Mongolian restaurants - Vienna and Copenhagen, I think. Not sure whether I've ever been to a Mongolian restaurant in the UK so can't compare.
I think I've only ever been to Mongolian Wok (in Oxford, but I think it was a chain). Which was pretty disappointing in all directions, and probably highly inauthentic. It didn't serve horse.
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I've never seen horse on menus/for sale in the UK, but I'm not sure whether a butcher could sell it even if there were a market.
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It's not illegal to prepare or sell horse in the UK, nor to import it from Europe, but it has been very rare (for 'but horses are pets' reasons, and the general decline of horse numbers, rather than health or safety concerns) since the end of WWII. Gordon Ramsay said we should revive it a few years ago but I don't think anything much came of that. (The surge in rabbit consumption might be an indication that we're ready to revisit horse, but I doubt it.)
NB was a horsey kind of child, and much prefer them to, say, dogs. Just not in the least bit sentimental about meat.
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Hare-raising, in fact.
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But they didn't, so one kudo to you.
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I have done a certain amount of eating in France and Belgium, but obviously not in the right places.
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I have no objection in principle to it being in burgers, so long as they're well labelled.
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Indeed! I wasn't going to use the poll results to conclude that it didn't matter if beefburgers were made of horse :) Also, more than worrying about whether I want to eat horse, I just find it slightly alarming that the food manufacturing process is such that the wrong stuff can sneak in without anyone noticing.
Most news reports have commented that in the UK people "won't" eat horse (and I think my perception confirms that). So... I suspect what we can most safely conclude is that people who read this LJ are not representative of the UK at large!
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I ate horse sporadically as a child, but the last time was a delicious horse 'n sauce in Belgium. Very tasty.
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But in general, for people in the UK I'd say knowing you dislike zebra is quite unusual :)
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I would understand if people were upset about the whole being mislead / lied to thing - "It was described as beef but was actually horse", but mostly people seem to be upset by the whole "OMG I may have accidentally eaten horse" thing.
Why are people so willing to eat cows but not horses?
Is that not just bovineist? Or are most meat-eaters hypocrites?
Meh!
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Sadly, I think a lot of meat-eaters are hypocrites in various ways. I've known a number of people who eat meat but don't want their dinner to look too much like an animal. Or who want to eat meat, but don't want to know about the welfare of the animals, or how they're slaughtered, and so on because that's icky. Plus there's the way places like Korea are held up as "unelightened" or "cruel" because they eat dog... (From various things I've read, they acually can be quite cruel, but that's an animal welfare issue not a dog-specific thing.)
I eat meat, but think that comes with a bunch of obligations which require me to acknowledge that the slaughter of animals (some of whom may have been cute and fluffy) was involved in the creation of my nice lasagne.
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A number of people I know clearly have thought about this and are now of the "I will eat meat, but only if I feel the animal I am eating has been treated well". Two of my siblings have become pescetarians for similar reasons ( I guess fish just aren't cute enough to worry about!).
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I'm sure lots of people have different reasons for becoming pescetarians, but I do find it quite an unexpected choice. Fish definitely went for a poor evolutionary strategy when they decided not to be furry and lovable! A steak means one dead cow, and loads of people can eat from it. A bowl of prawns requires loads of deaths just to feed one person! So it never seems quite so obvious to me why lots of people think of fish/seafood as a sort of proto-vegetarian option. I think it's possible to buy some pretty un-ethically farmed prawns, too, if you're not careful...
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Not sure I've ever tried a buffalo burger (though I'd have no objection to doing so...).
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