Hungry Enough To Eat A Horse? Do It.

One awesome thing about the Internet is that we can research things that are held as commonly known facts in order to open our minds and objectively review consensus reality. We all know about the horse meat scandal that happened worldwide earlier this year and instead of blindly following the disgust and uproar that it has caused, I have decided to research the subject. I believe that we shouldn't take anything for granted and EVERYTHING should be questioned.

I recently found this infographic and it got the cogs turning.

So why don't we eat it?

Well actually a large portion of the world's population do. In China it is dried and made into biltong (jerky to you non-South Africans) and dried sausage. Japan serves thinly-sliced raw horse as a sort of sushi called Basahi. In France (its capital is also considered the world's food capital) they often prepare horse meat into steaks called Viande le Cheval. Belgium, Kazakhstan,Russia, Mexico, Mongolia, Argentina, and Sardinia ALL consider Horse meat an integral part of their diet.

So why don't WE eat it? I think it comes down to what my ex boyfriend calls "the pet factor" and what a friend of mine explained to me as the 'matter out of place' theory.

This theory simply says: In life we put things into categories and people don't like to combine these categories. For instance, horses have been used for transport, farm work and companionship for most of recorded history (obviously not in the countries I wrote about earlier) and this makes it hard for us to regard them as food. This could also be for health reasons as it is our natural instinct to avoid eating things that don't fit into the 'food' category in our head which is why it could feel unnatural. Similarly, although a bit off topic, cats don't generally like to drink water from those two in one food and water bowls as it is hardwired into them that water found near their food source/prey is usually contaminated.

 The same friend who educated me on this theory suggested that since we call cows beef and pigs pork, why don't we call horse meat "Heef" to reduce the stigma associated with it? It is a good idea although personally I think that having an alternative name for animals that we eat is ridiculous and just fuels our ignorance about the food we eat.

In a perfect world I would like to hunt my own food because I feel that if we are going to eat meat we should be able to kill it ourselves and watch that animal die while honoring them and giving thanks. We like to pretend that the meat we buy has very little to do with the adorable animals that we gush over on the internet. Supermarkets make this very easy for us by packaging meat like they do so we don't even have to give the life of that animal a second thought.

But back to horses...

I was wondering what horse meat tasted like and after some web surfing I found the following horse meat reviews:

"Horse is a versatile meat that lends itself to a variety of preparations. It has more protein, and less fat than lean beef. It tastes somewhat like a mix between beef and venison. It can be a bit sweeter than other red meats, yet still possesses a dense meat flavor with a hint of gaminess."

- The Huffington post

"It is half the price of beef and undeniably delicious. I went to a steak tasting at Edinburgh's L'Escargot Bleu bistro at the height of the scandal. Chef and patron Fred Berkmillar had packed in 12 Scottish foodies, cooks, and meat suppliers and gave us rump steaks to try. One was the best 30-day-aged Orkney beef, the other Comtois horse, farmed in the Dordogne.

You could have confused the horse with beef, but its steak — juicy, tender, just slightly gamey — won the fry-off by 12 votes to none."

-Alex Renton from The Guardian

"Horse meat is a bit sweet in taste. Some think it is a blend between beef (a cow) and venison (deer). People use it similar to the way they use beef, putting it in sandwiches, or serving it in a slab." 

-The International Bussiness Times

All in all it sounds pretty damn delicious!

If you are health conscious you will be pleased to note that horse meat contains 25% less fat, nearly 20% less sodium, double the iron and less cholesterol than high quality beef cuts, and when compared to ground beef 25% less fat, 30% less cholesterol and 27% less sodium. VIVA LA HEEF!

The problem of course was the fact that companies lied about what was in their meat products. If I pay for beef I want beef- by the same token, if I pay for horse I WANT HORSE. Another problem is that the horse meat that was used came from animals that were never intended or raised for eating. Horses raised for racing and companionship are pumped full of medication and chemicals that stay in their meat. If it was accepted in our society it would be properly regulated and that would not be a problem.

Availability of meat is subject to supply and demand and due to horse meat taboo here in South Africa and in places such as England and America. It is unlikely that we will see horse meat being sold in shops (unless it is disguised as ham).

The biggest problem I have with this uproar and categorical rejection of horse meat as an acceptable food source is that people want to push their illogical morality us and tell us that eating horse meat is disgusting and taboo.