[Benjamin]

Obviously the scandal has been that the horse meat has been found in foods that should be beef, but is there anything wrong with eating horse meat if you know what it is and would you?

Just read an article about some trendy French restaurants putting horse back on their menus.

Recent headlines about horsemeat have led Europe's consumers to give some "beef" products a wide berth - but horse has long been enjoyed in some European countries. In Paris, fashionable chefs have actually been putting it back on their menus. So will more diners now be jumping for the horse tartare?

Would you willingly give your children horsemeat hamburgers for their tea?

The answer to that in most of the English-speaking world, even before the latest mislabelling tailspin, would have been an emphatic nay. To which the horses would no doubt respond with a grateful one of their own.

In France, the response would be more guarded. French horse-meat consumption has been in decline for decades, and today accounts for just 0.4% of all meat eaten.
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“Start Quote

My mission is to tell the world that you can sit on your meat and eat it too”

Jean-Guillaume Dufour Restaurateur

But there are still 750 horse-butchers operating in the country, 17% of the population claim to have eaten horse at some time or another, and around 11,000 farmers continue to raise horses for the meat trade.

Professionals say they believe the worst of the decline is over. For the last two years horse-eating has been - excuse the pun - stable.

"We have had to endure a lot of attacks," says Yves Berger, president of the National Association of Meat-Producers Interbev. "Every year our opponents mount major publicity campaigns to tell people not to eat horse."

"But what we have noticed is the effect of these campaigns is diminishing. More and more, we see that people want to keep an open mind about eating horse - which is as it should be."
Horse meat consumption in France

Coinciding with - and possibly contributing to - this stabilisation of the market is a new gastro-trend among Paris foodies.

A handful of chefs have started putting horse on their menus. Go to Les Tontons, for example, opposite the former Paris horse abattoir in the 15th arrondissement, and you can be served a succulent horse tartare (raw horse with egg and seasoning).

"Of course, it is perfectly apt because the original steak tartare was horse. The Mongol tribesmen ate their own horses and tenderised the steak under their saddles," says owner Jean-Guillaume Dufour.

Actually there is no historical evidence for this, but who wants to spoil a good story?

"My mission is to tell the world that you can sit on your meat and eat it too," he enthuses.

"Yes I know horses are pretty and friendly and so on. But cows would be, too, if we let them."

Other hip restaurants - such as Le Taxi Jaune, Le Verre Vole and Septime - serve horse carpaccio, horse hamburgers with quail's eggs, or straightforward horse steaks.
Horse meat cuts

One chef, Bertrand Grebaut, caused a minor sensation at a recent culinary event when he carved and cooked a horse's heart - live on a big screen - in front of an audience of fellow cooks and food-writers.

"There's definitely something going on - a kind of buzz," says Dorian Nieto, food blogger, horse-meat aficionado, and author of La boucherie chevaline etait ouverte le lundi (The horse-butcher was open on Mondays), a celebration of horse-eating.
Horsemeat consumption in EU

"A number of restaurateurs have told me they are checking out where to buy top-quality horsemeat. It's all about a return to old values, a kind of nostalgia. And yes it is all rather trendy and Parisian. But there's a frisson, no question about it."

Given how strongly identified France is with the practice of horse-eating, the history of l'hippophagie is actually quite short.

In the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) it is said that - by necessity rather than desire - French soldiers developed a certain taste for cheval.

But it was only in 1866 that horse-eating was permitted by law. Thanks to an alliance of nutritionists, social reformers and, funnily enough, animal welfare supporters, the practice was actively promoted.

The 1870-71 siege of Paris by invading Prussians was a turning-point. Many people tasted horse for the first time, as thousands of the animals were slaughtered. It turned out they quite liked it.
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Nutritional facts
A butcher preparing meat

Horsemeat contains essential amino acids and polyunsaturated fats that help to reduce cholesterol.

Compared with other types of meat, it contains greater quantities of trace elements: calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, copper, magnesium, silicon, zinc and nickel.

It is rich in group B, A, PP and E vitamins.

Source: UNECE

In the decades that followed l'hippophagie became increasingly popular, with a peak in 1911. Around this time, horses began to be imported because the French market was unable to supply enough.

Horse consumption was essentially a habit of the urban working and middle classes. Country people and the rich who had closer contact with the animals were more liable to feel qualms.

And overwhelmingly horse-eating was based in two regions - the north and around Paris.

After World War II the decline set in, and it became precipitate from the 1980s. Today, it is noticeable that most clients at boucheries chevalines are in their 60s or older, suggesting that young people find the practice difficult to stomach.

However butchers like Fabien Ouazan, who has a stall on the Cours de Vincennes market in Paris - are convinced the qualities of horsemeat will ensure its survival.

"With horsemeat, you know what you get," he says. "Other animals get fed all kinds of rubbish, but horses eat only oats, barley and hay.

"It shows in the meat. So a lot of people who are concerned about health and the quality of meat, are turning to the horse."
Horsemeat production



Another argument for eating horse is suggested by Otis Lebert, chef at Le Taxi Jaune.

"A lot of horse breeds are disappearing. We no longer have any use for draught horses, for example, or the ponies that went down the mines," he says.

"So either we let these breeds die out. Or we preserve them, by eating them."

According to Yves Berger of Interbev, large parts of the French countryside are maintained by small-scale farmers breeding draught horses for the meat market.

"Without these horses, the fields would go back to forest," he says.

France produces roughly what it consumes in the way of horsemeat (18,000 tonnes a year).

But, in fact, most of the meat that is reared in France is not eaten there, but exported to Italy - the Italians (who actually eat more than twice as much horsemeat as the French) like young horses.

Meanwhile the French - who prefer older, redder horse-meat - import most of what they eat from the US and Canada, where it is not eaten by humans but is sometimes fed to pets.

At Fabien Ouazan's stall, the enthusiasm of the customers is catching. Evidently, none has the slightest queasiness about their choice of nutrition.

"I have been eating horse since I was a child," says one lady. "It is very tender, no fat, and full of minerals.

"Why should I care that it is a horse? We eat chickens, we eat cuddly rabbits and baby lambs. What's the difference?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21324523

[Josy]

No but it's the fact that the horse meat contained bute thats why there was so much fuss about it I think.

[Benjamin]

Oh, I understand that. But in general is there anything wrong with eating horse meat and would you?

[Josy]

Hmmm I don't think I would it would just seem strange to me.

[Kizzy]

I have had horse in france didn't care for it, tasted like tinny pork.

[Jake.]

I just find it strange and wrong.. people say 'meat is meat', well if that's the case would you fry a cat?

[Smithy]

I honestly do not see the big deal (I can see why people get pissed as them passing off beef for horse (as you would if someone said fish was chicken)) but eating horse doesn't really bother me

[Withano]

13 looks good

[MTVN]

Nah I don't see a problem with it, just because it's considered a strange meat to eat in this country doesn't mean that other cultures see it the same way. If I was eating in a country where it was an acceptable form of meat and on the menu then I might give it a try, when in Rome and all that

[Roy Mars III]

Nothing wrong with it

[Ramsay]

Cuz it'll turn you into one !!!1111!!!1

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Karl

Cuz it'll turn you into one !!!1111!!!1

But then you'd be hung like a horse.

[Ammi]

..I don't eat meat, so obviously no..but if I did..(and the rest of my family do..)..I don't think I would object to eating horsemeat so much as being lied to about what I was eating and thinking that if that was the case, then what else is in the products that I don't know about and whether it's harmful...food in general is expensive and some people have to think very carefully about their budget, so people have a right to know what they put into their bodies and make their own decisions about that...

[lostalex]

it looks delicious.

There's nothing wrong with eating horse meat aslong as you are told that it's horse meat.

just like there's nothing wrong with eating cat meat, but if i order from a chinese place and think i'm getting beef, and it's actually cat, that is wrong.

Aslong as it's properly labeled and there is no deception, there's nothing wrong with eating any kind of meat.

20 years ago people in western countries thought eating raw fish was weird/gross. now sushi is just normal.

[Me. I Am Salman]

So you'd be fine to eat anything as long as it resembles meat? No wonder vegetarians find meat eaters sickening

[Lee.]

I don't have a problem with eating horse, but I don't like not actually knowing what I'm eating. If there's horse in our food chain, what else is there that we don't know about?

Because of the **** they pump cows full of, I only eat organic beef and drink organic milk, but it does make me question how organic it actually is?

[arista]

Originally Posted by Ben

Oh, I understand that. But in general is there anything wrong with eating horse meat and would you?

Yes I want to see Horse Burgers
with no Bute in them.



They are not like Dogs


So Eating Horse Steak
in France is Fine




Capt Remy
come back - this thread needs you

I've eaten horsemeat a few times, and there is nothing wrong with. It's nowhere near the most offensive thing they serve in France as anyone who's ever ordered tete de veaux will tell you.

[Me. I Am Salman]

Originally Posted by JH95

I just find it strange and wrong.. people say 'meat is meat', well if that's the case would you fry a cat?

Yeah this, and if someone cooked you a human liver you better eat that too

None of this emotional attachment BS, finding the idea of eating horse disgusting because you're not accustomed to it is related to emotions too

Honestly the way some people are treating this scandal is pathetic.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Salman!

So you'd be fine to eat anything as long as it resembles meat? No wonder vegetarians find meat eaters sickening

I'm not following you. Vegetarians find us sickening because we eat animals, what does it matter to them which animals we are eating? According to them eating any animal is wrong, right?

But it's funny how they stil eat things that are meant to look like or taste like meat. If they were so offended by eating meat, why do they eat so many products that are meant to replicate or mimic the taste of meat?

[lostalex]

I wonder why vegetarians eat things that look like and taste like meat. They buy "vegetarian sausages". Why are you buying and eating things that are trying to look like and taste like meat if you find meat so offensive??

Originally Posted by lostalex

The most offensive thing they serve in France is the attitude.

French people are awesome. Sorry. They are, if their government does something they don't like, they take to the streets, they set up blockades, and fight it head on.

America has a Glenn Beck rally, and we're even worse, we don't even do that. We just moan to our friends about stuff.

French people are better than all of us.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Jesus.H.Christ

French people are awesome. Sorry. They are, if their government does something they don't like, they take to the streets, they set up blockades, and fight it head on.

America has a Glenn Beck rally, and we're even worse, we don't even do that. We just moan to our friends about stuff.

French people are better than all of us.

really? have you seen the rise of the French National Front? Marie Le Penn is a facist bitch. If you think that is good, well i'm not allowed to say what i think about that. They tried to sue Madonna. so ****** them. There is a very loud and popular racist uprising in France right now.

France is part of southern Europe now, imho.

[LemonJam]

Originally Posted by lostalex

I wonder why vegetarians eat things that look like and taste like meat. They buy "vegetarian sausages". Why are you buying and eating things that are trying to look like and taste like meat if you find meat so offensive??

Perhaps because, y'know, it doesn't kill an animal in the process.

[Munchkins]

Well no theres nothing "wrong" with eating it, it's just a matter of moral conscience. Considering i have rode horses before etc, my auntie has one i wouldn't feel comfortable eating a domesticated pet i am used to, same as i wouldn't feel comfortable with a dog/cat/rabbit