One Man's Meat.

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TeeDee

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Nov 6, 2008
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I think everyone agrees meat tastes good. Being veggie is a hard path as you are leaving something you like for an ethical reason.

I totally respect that. I once had a lunch date with a lovely vegetarian lady whom was a taxidermist by trade but would eat meat if it was proven to be roadkill. Made me think a bot to get my head around it.
 
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Mar 6, 2020
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Hemel Hempstead
I totally respect that. I once had a lunch date with a lovely vegetarian lady whom...
Reminds me of the old quote: "show me a vegetarian man and i will show you a man who wants to sleep with a vegetarian woman".

It is good to think about this though. Just had a bit of a tiff with the other half about the risk of malnutrition if i gave up dairy.
 
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TeeDee

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So do people feel/think there is a reason that we no longer see it as widely acceptable to consume Equine Flesh than we used to in the past??



History is not my strong point but I believe Britain and France had ties and some amount of shared history shaping both cultures - just wondering if there are any reasons we dumped Horse Flesh from our Diet.

I know the French eat it - do the Spanish? Germany? etc.
 

TeeDee

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Reminds me of the old quote: "show me a vegetarian man and i will show you a man who wants to sleep with a vegetarian woman".

It is good to think about this though. Just had a bit of a tiff with the other half about the risk of malnutrition if i gave up dairy.

Nope , you'll have to explain that one to me as I'm not getting it.

I do think Veganism can lead to malnutrition. Just an Omnivores gut feeling with some understanding of human physiology.
 
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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Is a horse a Pet or a Food Product?

That’s a complicated question. I could probably eat horse IF! (And it’s a big IF) If it wasn’t one of my own horses or one I knew. That said, I still personally know a few people who have a horse (or other equine—-mule or donkey) that’s actually used to fat, with. I can remember when my uncle logged with a team of horses (so a third category in addition to meat or pet) I don’t know of anywhere that deliberately raises horses just to be a food product. I do know that ip until about 15 years ago the practice here was when a horse got too old to be properly cared for (unless the owner was wealthy) they’d be sold at auction (usually by the pound) and trucked to slaughter houses. Unfortunately a couple of major truck crashes brought it to public attention and the great urban masses objected and the practice was banned. Equally unfortunately that has had the reverse effect from what was intended (the obvious intent being to relieve the cruelty aspect) So now, rather than being quickly killed ata slaughterhouse they’re often simply abandoned to die slowly of old age and starvation :(

One last point. If you kill it for food then I believe you should try to use as much of it as possible. It's the first nation approach I think with buffalo. It's about respecting your food source the animal.

That’s not entirely true regarding the First Nations. Until European settlers introduced firearms the most common method of hunting game such as buffalo was to stampede the herd over a cliff. A practice that persisted even after said introduction of firearms for at least another century or two. With many hundreds or thousands killed in a single jump a great deal of the animals were wasted.
 
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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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So do people feel/think there is a reason that we no longer see it as widely acceptable to consume Equine Flesh than we used to in the past??

History is not my strong point but I believe Britain and France had ties and some amount of shared history shaping both cultures - just wondering if there are any reasons we dumped Horse Flesh from our Diet.

I know the French eat it - do the Spanish? Germany? etc.

I may easily be wrong but I think part of the reason it’s more or less faded from out diet is related to my comment in my last post: namely that I don’t think anybody ever deliberately raised horses as a food source. Rather they were eaten when they’d become to old or otherwise unable to perform the tasks they were raised for (I.e. either a draft animal or a steed) That would meant that they were older, more muscular, and hence tougher/chewier than animals deliberately raised for meat. If my hypothesis is true then horse meat would have just naturally faded from consumption as more tender and desirable meat became more affordable?
 

TeeDee

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That’s a complicated question. I could probably eat horse IF! (And it’s a big IF) If it wasn’t one of my own horses or one I knew.

I think many western people share a certain reluctance to 'know' more about their food - be that Horse , Pork, Beef , Chicken - whatever. I was raised on a small holding and from a young age was expected to pluck or dispatch animals and understood their role within the small holding. I think most people prefer a distancing from knowing their Food meat history preferring just a plastic enclosed package of flesh.

But surely part of welfare and consumers making thoughtful purchases is showing some interest into the provenance of not just the Animals place of origin but also how it as raised.
 

Broch

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Jan 18, 2009
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www.mont-hmg.co.uk
I may easily be wrong but I think part of the reason it’s more or less faded from out diet is related to my comment in my last post: namely that I don’t think anybody ever deliberately raised horses as a food source. Rather they were eaten when they’d become to old or otherwise unable to perform the tasks they were raised for (I.e. either a draft animal or a steed) That would meant that they were older, more muscular, and hence tougher/chewier than animals deliberately raised for meat. If my hypothesis is true then horse meat would have just naturally faded from consumption as more tender and desirable meat became more affordable?

You probably have a point there - horses, mules and donkeys were valuable for riding and as beasts of burden and so would only be eaten not to waste the meat once they could no longer do that. Modern tastes require more tender meat than that these days so it's no longer practiced. I suspect social pressure also plays a part. So, why does France and Belgium eat it? Why is it different there?
 
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Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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Santaman is right. First Nations did waste a lot of bison meat. Pretty hard to turn off a stampede.
What you have come to know is that the animal is multipurpose, if and when you care to use all the parts.
Bashing open the skull for brains for tanning hides, crushing big bones for marrow to eat and so on.

Locally, the meat, the head and the hides are used but what happens to the rest (entrails, etc) I don't know.
I can buy hearts for roasting so at least those are saved and frozen.
I guess that I could ask for other parts like kidneys, if I wanted them.

Horses were hunted by paleo peoples.
Seems to me that a horse would have lots of useful parts if you cared to use them.
There's a irregular western social stigma around eating them.
Personally, they taste as bad as llama.
 

santaman2000

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You probably have a point there - horses, mules and donkeys were valuable for riding and as beasts of burden and so would only be eaten not to waste the meat once they could no longer do that. Modern tastes require more tender meat than that these days so it's no longer practiced. I suspect social pressure also plays a part. So, why does France and Belgium eat it? Why is it different there?
Again, I could easily be wrong, but I also believe that the French reputation for complicated and elaborate recipes and fastidious practices when cooking was established because they were using less desirable base meats (tougher, chewier, etc. —— such as hens too old to lay eggs, oxen or horses too old to continue working, etc.) At least at the level of the common citizen. That in turn led to those elaborate recipes and method to make those meats palatable. I also believe the Belgian cuisine/palate is similar to the French? An idea that’s similarly held regarding what we consider “Soul Food” over here: the slaves were given the less desirable cuts and, human creativity being what it is, they created a cuisine that enriched our culture and continues to do so today.
 

Tengu

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Jan 10, 2006
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The French love it and they have good taste in foods.

We have too many Nags the sole reason for existance is to keep the vet/livery/farrier in work.
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,186
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Cumbria
Horses are supposed to be over bred in the UK as in there's too many. A lot of horses sold cheaply at auctions probably end up in the meat industry. A horse owning friend told me that, a former horse obsessive. However you have to know the horse's history particularly medical. There's a medicine called Bute (not sure it's spelt right). It's used on horses legs when they have issues there. It builds up but it's toxic for humans and would make the meat unfit for human consumption even if used once.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Florida
I think many western people share a certain reluctance to 'know' more about their food - be that Horse , Pork, Beef , Chicken - whatever. I was raised on a small holding and from a young age was expected to pluck or dispatch animals and understood their role within the small holding. I think most people prefer a distancing from knowing their Food meat history preferring just a plastic enclosed package of flesh.

But surely part of welfare and consumers making thoughtful purchases is showing some interest into the provenance of not just the Animals place of origin but also how it as raised.
I don’t mind so much with the animals we raised deliberately for meat. On the other hand animals like horses were something I rode to herd the others (or simply for the joy of riding) or plowed with. In other words they kinda became my partner. That’s a little different from a nameless cow or goat among the herd.; at least it was to me.
 
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bobnewboy

Native
Jul 2, 2014
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West Somerset
I personally think Horsemeat is a Good tasting meat - on par with Steak.
Me too. I’ve eaten it on motorcycle tours in France a few times where it is (or was) commonly served in places which seemed to serve it instead of beef steak. Perhaps the French have better horses to choose meat from, but it was pretty difficult to get a poor steak of either origin.

I’ve also tried crocodile, camel, ostrich and kangaroo In Oz. Croc was pretty poor, camel was ho-hum but ok, and both ostrich and kangaroo were really pretty good. I’m unlikely to get any of those again but it was good to try them. In Sweden I’ve had elk and reindeer - both excellent and worth trying if you get the chance.
 
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punkrockcaveman

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Jan 28, 2017
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I work with an old boy who is a vegetarian. He genuinely doesn't like the taste of meat. Sounds weird I know, but he's an absolute gent and I believe him.

As we are talking about diets and nutrition, I was watching zachary fowler on youtube over the past weeks, mainly his 30 day survival challenges. He mentions ketogenic diet. Which I think is something to do with high fat and protein, low carbs. Like 60% fat! Has something to do with the body metabolising fats for energy rather than storing it.
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
Fat metabolism is much more complicated.
It all begins as little 2-carbon molecules that get strung together into chains (aka fatty acids).
The most common source of these is excess carbohydrate that we eat.

We cannot store fats directly. They will be chopped up into the 2-carbon pieces again.
Then reassembled according to our human genetic recipes.

Proteins are cut up into the component amino acids and absorbed.
Some used for our own growth and repairs.
Others have the amino part cut off and the rest is now a carbohydrate.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Florida
Alligator meat is awesome! It’s most commonly made into a sausage here. Emu was very good (difficult to tell it apart from ground beef) I’ll probably miss quite a few on my list but among the meats I like and eat regularly:
Fish (dozens of different species’
Shellfish (crabs, shrimp, oysters, clams, lobster, crawfish, mussels)
Beef (including the liver and chitterlings)
Goat
Lamb (I want to try adult mutton one day)
Chicken
Quail
Duck
Goose (when I can afford it)
Deer
Buffalo
Squirrel
Rabbit
Pork (including the liver and more rarely the brains)

Meat I eat more rarely because of cost or availability issues:
Elk
Caribou
Emu
Alligator sausage
 

TeeDee

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Nov 6, 2008
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I work with an old boy who is a vegetarian. He genuinely doesn't like the taste of meat. Sounds weird I know, but he's an absolute gent and I believe him.

As we are talking about diets and nutrition, I was watching zachary fowler on youtube over the past weeks, mainly his 30 day survival challenges. He mentions ketogenic diet. Which I think is something to do with high fat and protein, low carbs. Like 60% fat! Has something to do with the body metabolising fats for energy rather than storing it.

Anyone can go into a process of Ketosis in the absence of Carbs being present and available.

If you think of the body as in terms of a machine - it mostly prefers Carbs as a sort of Refined Petrol - its clean explosive fuel.

Creating and burning Ketones ( the process of ketosis produces ketones ) is akin to the body learning to burn unrefined Diesel fuel - it takes a while to get into the state to enable that to be done.

If one does go into ( and remain ) in a Ketogenic manner than the body has no need to ' hold fat ' as it gets as you say 60% or more of it calorific requirements from Fats.

Carbs tend to trigger an Insulin response which is mostly why we end up storing Fat.
 
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