Eating horses?

[5Foot5]

DH and I are watching QI on Dave and there has been a discussion about eating horse meat. We were both a bit surprised that it is still seen as slightly distasteful by many people.

I have knowingly eaten horse twice - once in France at a barbeque and once in a hotel in Iceland where we ate foal for a starter and it was sweet and succulent and lovely.

So AIBU for thinking we are a bit squeamish in this country and there is really nothing wrong with it and for asking would you/ have you?

It's a bit chewy, but then beef can be chewy if you eat certain cuts. I would eat horse if I could 100% gaurentee it was raised for food. I own horses, pigs, cows, chickens, sheep and goats. I will eat most meat but rarely do I eat meat if I don't know where it was raised and under what conditions it lived and died.
I think most animals humans eat are herbivores or in the case of pigs and chickens, omnivores. Most people don't eat or want to eat carnivores. which is why cat and dog meat is odd. But then people eat alligator, shark and crocodile, so perhaps it's just cultural.

Omfg, no!!! As a vegetarian I can't imagine eating any innocent animal, but with horses as pets, this absolutely horrifies me! But yes, I guess we shouldn't be surprised about what people will do these days.

Btw, at a friend's house recently I saw they had the cheapest, crappest ham in their fridge, I asked if she minded eating an animal that's been killed for it, she said she felt a bit guilty for eating it, and I asked if they know how animals are killed. "Oh I don't like to think about it", came the reply. Says it all, really.

I'm vegetarian so wouldn't anyway.

I don't think it's about most people in the UK not eating it because they are squeamish. It's a cultural difference - we don't eat dogs either (though it is acceptable in some countries).
Personally, I like that we don't tend eat the animals that keep as pets.
I know someone will mention rabbit, but it's still a fairly uncommon dish in the UK. I rarely see it on restaurant menus and I don't know of anyone who cooks it at home.

Sorry about poor typing - not got my glasses on 🤓

www.dartmoorhillpony.com/ is interesting.

I currently live in Belgium where horse meat is sold, but I don't buy it.

point of information
Why do people talk about "innocent" animals? Few animals have anything like a developed consciousness that would justify making a distinction between agency and instinct. What would 'guilty' animal conduct look like? A fox kills more chickens than it can eat. Does it become edible as a consequence?

with each other perhaps - have you ever petted a cow or tried to handle one? NOt worth the bother I can assure you

Lots and lots. Loved my poddy calves. When one grew up she came up onto the verandah when she was in labour so she could get some help and comfort from my mum.

The stairs back down to the grass were tricky fuckers, though.

Basically, you're anthropomorphising by ascribing human characteristics and virtue (nobility) to the one that will do what you've trained it to do.

I've eaten it in France thought it was beef couldn't tell difference, stupid picture on the buffet looked like a cow! We're quite disassociated from where our food comes from, there was a brilliant program on BBC 3 called kill it, cook it, eat it and it was an eye opener as it reminded me where the meat in the plastic package came from.

I have a pet rabbit so couldn't bring myself to eat rabbit, I think I depends on your relationship with an animal if you think it's wrong or not.

It's a cultural difference - we don't eat dogs either (though it is acceptable in some countries).

Well that's more that we generally tend not to eat animals that are carnivores themselves, although there are exceptions

I would say that a) squeamishness about eating certain animals/animal parts and b) more sentimentality towards animals must be two big reasons why horse is consumed less in the UK.

I have only my own observations to go on, but it is certainly seems to me that the average French person eats and enjoys a wider range of meat and seafood products than the average Brit. At my supermarket you can buy big buckets of pig trotters and snouts, huge whole cow tongues, fresh tripe, whole rabbits, kidneys from various animals, veal, horse, not to mention oysters, mussels, squid, crab etc etc. While the trotters and snout are probably for more of a niche market, I think still the majority of French people would eat and enjoy veal, horse, mussels, oysters, kidneys, rabbit etc in addition to the regular beef, chicken, pork, lamb that are the staples of UK cuisine. And food is more classless here too.

It also seems to me that the average French person is less sentimental about animals (even pets, often, I think) and cares less about animals' quality of life, except insofar as it pertains to whether it affects the taste of the end product.

Foie gras, for example. Over the years I have asked dozens of French people if they feel guilty about eating foie gras given the way it is produced. The response is practically universal. Their face will momentarily cloud over as they acknowledge it isn't very nice. But then a smile will appear as they come to the final and overriding conclusion 'but it tastes so good!' End of story

I'm a long time lurker, never posted before but thought I'd share this radio programme "would you eat an alien?" which I found really interesting. Animals are not all the same and there are some good reasons to maybe eat some and not others, e.g. their sense of self, their relationships with each other and with us. I think you can listen online here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s2w7b/episodes/player

" But then a smile will appear as they come to the final and overriding conclusion 'but it tastes so good! "

sorry but it only confirms my opinion that French people are just nasty...:)

I haven't knowingly eaten it and don't particularly wish to change that. But if people want to eat horsemeat, who cares? It's no different to eating pork, chicken, potatoes or oranges - it's all edible and is there for us to enjoy if we want to.

Yes, Spanish tapas, foal is quite nice.

But then I have shot, gutted, cooked and eaten quite a few rabbits; raised a pig, took it to the local abattoir and watched it being killed, processed and cut up into freezer sized pieces; took some veal calves in with a friend, farmer, and took half home for the freezer.

I have been vegetarian, more as a defense mechanism, my DM was an appalling cook. But I like eating meat, don't buy it cheaply, avoid most factory farmed meat (as far as I can do, knowingly) and don't judge anyone else who does! I don't know there reasoning or their finances and am not prepared to sound like a pretentious dick to make myself feel superior.

I suspect I'd eat any non carnivorous animal, but no more insects, they were weirdly unpleasant!

I know someone will mention rabbit, but it's still a fairly uncommon dish in the UK. I rarely see it on restaurant menus and I don't know of anyone who cooks it at home.

I'll mention it. I cook it at home a lot because my butcher sells it, and regularly order it in restaurants - you will find it in many Spanish or French restaurants.

I agree it's not readily available in supermarkets though it used to be - about 25 years ago Sainsbury's would sell frozen rabbit meat which was good for casseroles. I guess they don't any more because people don't want to eat it.

I don't understand people who say it's like chicken. It looks, feels and tastes different. Not horrible. Just different.

BTW I usually order chicken if I see it on a menu. I love nicely roast or braised chicken but not many places - obviously apart from a carvery or Nandos or KFC - do it, possibly because people think it's boring.

Chicken can be the food of the gods. I roasted one for me, my husband and my mum one Christmas and felt a bit Scrooge-like. But it was exactly the right size for dinner. We'd have been eating turkey for days - or more likely, thrown it away.

Mum used to eat horse meat in the UK during the war. I can't say I've seen it in the UK myself but lots of places sell rabbit.

I don't get the whole meat-eat hierarchy. Eat dumb chickens but not fluffy bunnies?

I'm veggie now but have eaten horse and it's bleugh. Beef is nicer. Rabbit is lovely. Pork is yukky but bacon nice. Chicken nice, duck not so. Crabs, lobsters ok; fish, prawns, shellfish - eeeeoollowwwww bleugh. Never tried goat.

limitedperiodonly had rabbit for lunch.

We raise them along with chickens as food. It's also popular in supermarkets and restaurants here. As is hare, horse and wild boar.

Amalfimamma I love rabbit but always in a casserole. I usually order it in a restaurant if I see it roasted because I dry it out at home.

My mum and her dad raised rabbits and chickens in their postage-stamp London yard for food in the war. He could dispatch the chickens but had to get a friend to do the rabbits because he liked them. They had a duck who was a magnificent and noisy guard against thieves who wanted to steal their livestock.

limitedperiodonly

It does tend to dry out I usually soak it in white wine overnight then put it in a roasting tin (pieces are better) with the wine, some diced potatoes, couple of black olives extravergine olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary cover it in tin foil and roast for an hour at 150°C. I them take off the foil, roast for 15 minutes at 220 just to colour it and the potatoes.

We did have a goose who was like your parents duck but I took a fancy to it last Christmas and that was the end of him 😮😂

at your goose

He deserved it. He was a goady fucker 😃😂

Geese are like that. When I met my husband, we had a romantic weekend in Normandy. At dinner in the garden a goose took me by surprise by rushing up and squarking at me aggressively and flapping his wings. I was so shocked I bashed him on the head with my fork - flat, I didn't spear him with it - and he ran off squarking. The waitress came over and I thought she was going to tell me off but she said: 'Sorry Madam. He bullies guests for food. We will eat him in the autumn.'

limitedperiodonly
😃 that was a good answer . Geese and turkeys deserve to be eaten just because of their goadiness IMO

No problem eating horse (wouldn't eat my own horses, but they've been signed out of the food chain anyway).

It's the welfare of animals that concerns me. I've been with several horses as they were PTS and they all had 'good' deaths. The thought of animals travelling for hours and being treated cruelly at the point of death does upset me.

I find this thread really interesting.

I haven't eaten it and I wouldn't either. However I'm vegan, and have not eaten any meat since I was around 5 or 6.

Find it strange when meat eaters say they wouldn't or couldn't eat horse, or dogs etc when they happily eat pigs sheep and cows, as well as chickens and fish.

I have more respect for the people who say they would eat everything and slaughter it too strangely. If everyone who ate meat accepted what it was and how it ends up on your plate.... Well, I don't think there would be many meat eaters left tbh.

I don't see any difference between a pig or a dog, a horse or a cow. So I don't understand eating some, but not all, or none at all. This is of course my view, I accept most don't share it.