A Horse Of A Different Color

I'm sure by now most of you have heard about the big horse meat scandal sweeping " the continent". It makes you wonder how long this has been going on and just what's in that Whopper you ate last week.

And just why aren't horses eaten anyway?

Our illustrious President Obama recently lifted a ban on FDA inspections of horse meat. This would now make butchering horses legal in the good ol' U.S. of A.

In fact in many Asian and European countries horse is widely accepted as a food source. The top 8 horse meat producing countries butchered 4.7 million pounds last year. I'm not talking third world nations here, although certainly developing nations like Mexico, Mongolia and Kazakhastan make the list, so do Brazil, Canada, Poland, Italy, France and Spain.

I personally, have tasted lots of weird stuff but not horse (at least not to my knowledge). I am told, however, that it is slightly sweet, like a cross between beef and venison. The meat is lean and nutritious. It has a shorter cooking time than beef or pork and is very tender. Early in the Paleolithic age horse was a staple for hunters and gatherers. It prevented famine during the French Revolution. Napoleon used wounded war horses to feed his army. So why not now?

Generally horse is not available in English speaking countries because horses are catorgorized  in the pet department. They plow our fields and take us on rides and seem to bond with humans. Ranchers don't produce horse because the are leaner and have higher metabolisms than most livestock . This translates to more feed per pound.

In fact way back in 732AD Pope Gregory III banned butchering of horses to prevent Germanic pagans from their ritual sacrifices to Odin. So this 'beef' has been going on for some time.

Personally, I say horsefeathers, if it tastes good and is nutritious, then common horse sense says eat it. Tell the poor starving kid in Ethiopia to have a steak. I'm sure he won't mind.