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?

TwentyCups I suppose if I was starving I'd eat my cat but killing him would hurt and I don't think I could do it. But I've never been desperately hungry. He's looking at me with love after being given some Chinese crispy duck leftovers from lunch btw,

If I died alone, I wouldn't blame him for eating me until rescue came. The washer in the kitchen tap needs replacing but I might leave it so he can get some water.

Yes, a couple of times & really enjoyed the lean richness. Also had donkey as a spiced salami - ok, but a bit dry, shark (though that may have been BS by the restaurant & been swordfish) emu, ostrich, kangaroo, crocodile, yak goat, venison, wild boar and lots of different types of game. Love snails and frogs legs as well.

Would like to try guinea pig and snake. Not too sure about cat or dog, but would give them a go if offered. Quite like the idea of the Romany recipe of squirrel baked in clay.

oops, forgot hare. One of the best when jugged.

Hare is better than rabbit (hare pot pie is scrumptious). Rabbit has too many fiddly bones.

I've lived in China. If it's edible, I'll generally eat it, but try to avoid eating carnivores as I think I read there is some sore of health risk that can arise.

Thought kangaroo was a bit rubbish though.

Not sure I've had horse, but was in France a lot as a child, so probably.

I wouldn't only as my lovely horse was bought at market pre going off to the meat trade.

I don't think I have eaten it.

I would though, but in a country more able to prepare it nicely I think. I suspect and English cook would ruin it.

I have also petted cows, including beef cattle destined for my xmas dinner. I love them. Much nicer than horses IMO

I've had squirrel in a gastropub. It wasnt good: hardly any meat, a lot of bones, you could barely cut any meat from it with your knife and fork, had to go straight to gnawing. Not a very distinctive taste either.

I've eaten it, they used to sell packs of horse mince next to the beef mince in my local supermarket (I live abroad) so decided to give it a go and made burgers out of it. Wasn't too keen on the flavour but maybe that was my cooking rather than the meat itself. I do really enjoy a meetwurst that has a mixture of meats in it including horse (and reindeer - reindeer is fucking lush in any form though).

I'll eat any meat really when given the opportunity, just to try it. Have had kangaroo (too chewy), donkey (very nice), various game meats like reindeer, elk, rabbit. I like watching Madventures because they try all the weirdest food they can find in different countries, like bat, and snake blood.

I ate some in Denmark once. And I've had Zebra which was bloody delicious.

Forgot - eel (smoked is brilliant - jelly version not so much), river worm - nice, sea cucumber - BOAK, reindeer (great for breakfast with scrambled eggs) parrot (probably macaw).

Please don't eat whale meat. You are supporting an industry desperate to expand and that has an interesting interpretation of the rules that permit it.

Plus whales do tend to accumulate nasties in their blubber. You think the mercury in sharks was bad, that has nothing on whale.

Also, sharks. Unless it's dogfish, please don't. Unless sustainability etc means absolutely nothing to you.

Horse meat in the uk to me equals bute. No thanks.

What is river worm?

River worm was something I had in Vietnam - they dredge river beds & blast off the mud, leaving a type of small worm that is then boiled, dried & eaten mixed with rice and spring onions.

Cows are not as "nice" as horses because they are less domesticated than horses. So usually you can't pet them or give them food from your hand. But you can't do that with a wild or undomesticated horse either. You can, if you wanted, domesticate a cow exactly the same as a horse. I know someone who rides a zebu bull into town three days a week. He's called Bruno, the bull, not the rider. He grazes with the horses outside the market and during the annual horse riding show, Bruno is included, there's little difference. His rider just used the same methods to train the bull as he does with his horses, which thankfully no longer involves whips and "breaking" methods, but a couple of years building up trust and approaching and slowly domesticating everyday.
Cows are usually less skittish but that depends on the breed and temperement of the animals.

I can't believe people eat parrot, especially a macaw, as that's a severely endangered species, I bloody hope it wasn't a macaw. Catching or domesticating a macaw where I live can land you heavy fines or even jail, killing it and eating it they'd probably throw away the key. .

Guinea pigs have been mentioned but not eaten yet.

I can tell you there is not much meat on them, but they have the advantage of tending to remain the space you put them in (this works with a room but not a cage). This is useful to your Peruvian peasant who, when an unexpected guest arrives, can bash one on the head, spatchcock it and serve it. Fingerlickin' good!

No, it would give me the trots.

Maybe with a bit of mascarpone to hide the taste...

Not as a mane course though.

Brilliant YvaineStormhold

These conversations always remind me of an article in a Sunday supplement I read years ago, one of those "day in the life of a normal person" articles. It was a vet, and he had been taken out to dinner. He ordered rabbit and when it arrived it was a cat. He said he didn't complain because it was rude up his hosts and he felt sure the restaurant had been taken in by their suppliers, which is not uncommon as rabbit/ cat looks very similar skinned and most rabbit in the UK comes from
china so hard to trace.

In light of the horsemeat scandal though, barely surprising....

Isn't pet food made of horsemeat? So if so, I've fed it to my cat many times.

matchingbluesocks my mum said you never bought rabbit during the war without its head on because its skinned body looks so similar to a cat. But you can see the difference in the teeth.

She had a horror of being palmed off with horse from the same era. Food adulteration was a big worry. On holiday in France I had to keep saying: 'Mum, they're okay with eating horse here. They would just tell you.'

She was horrified when she found out that prawns are grey and woodlouse-like in their raw state, not pink. She would still eat them but wouldn't look at them until they were ready.

Yvaine